JUDY WOODRUFF: The terror attacks in Mumbai, India, stretched into a third day. The death toll at 10 sites around the city once known as Bombay climbed past 150 today and included Americans.
Hostage standoffs raged at two sites: the Taj Mahal Hotel and a Jewish center. There, a New York rabbi and his wife were among the dead.
Fighting at another hotel, the Oberoi, appeared to be over. We have two reports from Independent Television News. Lindsey Hilsum is at the Oberoi Hotel, but first this report from Bill Neely.
BILL NEELY: After the massacre at Mumbai, the counterattack. It began from the air at first light, masked commandos landing on the roof of a Jewish center, terrorists inside.
The troops didn't know whether half a dozen hostages were alive or dead. Within minutes, they struck.
They blew a hole in a wall, then began a long gun battle. They hoped to rescue a rabbi, his wife and children. One child had escaped, but soon the commandos found the bodies of the family, all five hostages dead. It would be hours before they trapped the terrorists who did it.
A mile away, troops are on the ground. It's another battle. They're attacking gunmen in the Taj Hotel, who've already killed dozens of guests, staff and hostages.
Gunfire and grenade explosions echo through the streets. Just along the seafront, the Oberoi Hotel is a scene of horror. Behind these windows, dozens dead, 20 on one floor alone.
But it's the site of rescue and relief, too. Almost a hundred guests were let out, trapped for two days, one British survivor telling us the lobby area was carnage, blood and bodies everywhere.
A tiny baby was brought out, but this man was not his father. The faces of other guests who knew finally they had survived told little of their terror.
It was masked commandos who announced the siege was over. They killed the final two terrorists, who, like the others, had shot at anyone who moved.
COMMANDO: When we first exchanged fire, we could have got those terrorists, but for there were so much of the hotel guests there outside. The bodies were lying strewn here and there. There was all blood all over. And trying to avoid the casualty of those civilians, we had to be that much more careful in our fighting.
BILL NEELY: But it wasn't over at the Taj. Troops moving in, shots fired back, bodies strewn around the hotel. Commandos and a police sniper raised above a fire engine had several rooms and a gunman in their sights. No one was taking chances.
That's the eighth explosion here in the last few minutes in quick succession. We've seen glass falling to the street, gun shots, as well. This may well be the beginning of the end here. The siege at the other hotel is certainly over.
LINDSEY HILSUM: By mid-day, the commando had secured the Oberoi and Trident hotels and were bringing out survivors, local and foreign, most of whom had been barricaded in their rooms awaiting rescue.
EYEWITNESS: We were all hearing shots. We were all hearing blasts, but we really couldn't see anything because we were so high.
LINDSEY HILSUM: Can you just tell me if you're all right?
EYEWITNESS: You could assume that. I think I'm all right.
LINDSEY HILSUM: Most were loaded into buses, safe at last. Relatives gathered waiting for news, including the family of Madhu Capur, who had been having dinner in the restaurant with her husband, Ashok. They got separated in the melee.
MADHU CAPUR: Well, I thought he was with me, but suddenly, when I got out of the door and looked back, he wasn't there. And so I don't know what the terrorists did with them, because he was behind us. So I have no idea.
LINDSEY HILSUM: And the terrorists who you saw, what were they dressed in? What did they...
MADHU CAPUR: There was only one. He was a young looking chap. He looked like a Kashmiri, very fair. And he had headgear. He had covered his mouth. And I don't know what he was wearing, because I really didn't notice all that. But he had a gun around his waist. And it looked like a machine gun. And he shot somebody there on the staircase. That was it.
LINDSEY HILSUM: Her sister-in-law, Bindhu, seemed optimistic.
BINDHU CAPUR: Some people are coming out. But it's slow, but we don't mind. We heard he's safe, so we just...
LINDSEY HILSUM: You have heard that he's safe?
BINDHU CAPUR: We've heard that he's safe. He's on the safe list, so we're just waiting -- yes.
LINDSEY HILSUM: But as the day wore on, the mood grew somber. Many relatives have been waiting now for 48 hours, and the strains beginning to show. People are coming out in dribs and drabs, in ones and twos. Most of them seem absolutely fine.
But there are reports of bodies inside the Oberoi, so people fear the worst.
By mid-afternoon, Bindhu was in tears. Still no sign of Ashok. And the police had asked the family for a photograph for identification.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Among those killed in the attacks were a father and daughter from Virginia. Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed at a cafe. They were in India as part of a meditation program.
An American rabbi, Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivka, ran Mumbai's Chabad House, an ultra-orthodox Jewish center. In New York, the Chabad leader spoke to reporters.
RABBI YEHUDA KRINSKY, Chabad Lubavitch Movement: This news is fresh, and the wound is raw. Words are inadequate to express our outrage and deep pain at the tragic act of cold-blooded murder of innocent men, women and children, fueled by countless hatred.
JUDY WOODRUFF: A U.S. State Department spokesman warned Americans still in Mumbai their lives remain at risk.
The government of Pakistan today denied charges that it was involved in the attacks and sent its spy chief to help in the investigation.
And in Britain, the government investigated reports that some of the attackers were British citizens with ties to Pakistan. But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said today there was no evidence yet to support that. We'll have much more on the terror attacks in India right after this news summary.
In Thailand, a standoff between protesters and police at airports persisted for a fourth day. Anti-government protesters dug in at two airports in Bangkok, as a police presence outside grew.
But Thailand's prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat, pledged to end the siege peacefully, even as he demoted the national police chief over a disagreement. The protesters want the entire government to resign before they stand down.
In Iraq today, a suicide bomber killed 12 people at a Shiite mosque just as Friday prayers were beginning. The attack happened in the town of Musayyib, just south of Baghdad. The mosque is run by followers of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
Here in the U.S., shoppers were on a mission today: to find holiday bargains. Known as Black Friday, today marks the official start of the holiday shopping season. Many stores extended their hours, some opening at the stroke of midnight. Prices were slashed to boost already weak sales in the slumping economy.
At one store on Long Island in New York, a 5 a.m. surge of shoppers trampled a Wal-Mart worker to death. We'll have more on the retail industry later in the program.
On Wall Street today, the markets were open, but for a shortened day of trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 102 points to close at 8,829. The Nasdaq rose 3 points to close at more than 1,535. For the week, the Dow gained nearly 10 percent; the Nasdaq rose almost 11 percent.
