Mumbai

MUMBAI — Three bomb explosions shook the city of Mumbai at the height of the evening rush hour yesterday, killing at least 21 people in what Indian officials called a coordinated terror attack on the country's economic capital. The explosions struck central locations in the city, including the crowded Dadar neighborhood; the Zaveri Bazaar, a well-known jewelry market; and near the Opera House, according to India's Home Ministry, which said 141 people had been injured. The attack was the first in Mumbai since militants from Pakistan mounted large-scale assaults on hotels, a train...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on Pakistan to do more to fight terror originating from within its borders. Clinton said Tuesday during a press conference in India that the United States had shown its commitment to fighting Pakistan-based terror by offering a $10 million bounty for extremist Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Saeed has been accused of orchestrating the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

MUMBAI, India - An Indian court issued arrest warrants yesterday for 22 Pakistani nationals accused of masterminding last year’s deadly Mumbai terrorist attacks, including the founder of an Islamist militant group recently freed by a Pakistani court. An Indian prosecutor demanded that Islamabad extradite all the suspects, though Pakistan has vowed that it will not transfer any Mumbai suspects to longtime rival India, saying instead it will try them in its own courts. The warrants were issued in response to a prosecutor’s motion in the ongoing trial of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only...

I read Pulitzer-winner Katherine Boo's book, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers," first with discomfort, then moral outrage, and later with a sense of despair. Character development. An acute ear for dialogue and idiom. A sense of place. These are the essential ingredients of a good novel. So what's a fiction writer like me supposed to do when Boo employs all these and writes a book of nonfiction so stellar it puts most novels to shame? How can I not envy a work that takes us on harrowing journey into an unfamiliar world of an urban slum and makes us citizens of that world?

MUMBAI — The trial into the 2008 terrorist attacks and the deaths of 166 people during the siege closed yesterday, less than a year after it opened — a speed rare in the Indian judicial system. The special court that heard the case into the assault — for which India blames the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba — said it would issue a verdict May 3. On trial are Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani Indian investigators allege is the only surviving gunman from the rampage in India’s financial hub in November 2008.

Nepal's official media say police have arrested a man suspected of links to the triple bomb blasts in Mumbai this month that killed 20 people. The government-run Gorkhapatra newspaper said Tuesday the man was arrested over the weekend and was being questioned by the anti-terrorist police unit. Both the police and the government refused to comment on the report. The newspaper identified the man as Muhammad Zahir and said he was believed to be in his 40s. The report also said officials have evidence suggesting the suspect spoke on a cellphone and sent text...

MUMBAI, India -- An Indian investigator yesterday accused Pakistan's spy agency of orchestrating the July train bombings that killed at least 207 people in Mumbai -- an accusation that could threaten the shaky peace process between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Pakistan's minister of state for information, Tariq Azim, denied the allegation, calling it "irresponsible" and demanding that India provide evidence of the link. India called a halt to the two years of peace talks with Pakistan after the bombings in Mumbai, also known as Bombay.

India urged Pakistan on Saturday to take strong action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people three years ago. India is waiting for Pakistan to act decisively after providing it with evidence on alleged perpetrators who are living in Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said. Three years ago on Saturday, 10 Pakistan-based gunmen laid siege to India's financial hub, killing 166 people. "No cause can justify the use of terrorism for attainment of goals," Krishna said.

MUMBAI - The first trial in the Mumbai terrorist attacks was abruptly adjourned yesterday, only an hour after police pulled a large cloth off the head of the defendant to reveal the blinking, scruffy-bearded Pakistani whom police say is the only surviving gunman. The presiding judge ordered the much-anticipated proceedings delayed after dismissing the defense lawyer for suspect Mohammed Ajmal Kasab for a conflict of interest. Indian authorities have gone to great lengths to ensure that the trial proceeds swiftly, safely, and fairly, but yesterday's proceedings suggest...

NEW DELHI - Indian officials said yesterday that the bombers who had traumatized Mumbai during the evening rush a day earlier appeared to be trained in handling explosives and had possibly used timers to synchronize the deadly triple blast. But they also said that investigators had not identified any suspects and that they had been hampered by a soaking rainstorm that impeded evidence-gathering. As of late yesterday, no group had claimed responsibility for the three explosions that killed 17 people and wounded 131 in Mumbai, India's commercial...

MUMBAI - Starbucks aims to open 50 outlets in India by year's end, through a 50-50 joint venture with Tata Global Beverages, the companies said yesterday. Tata Starbucks Ltd., as their venture is known, hopes to capitalize on the rising aspirations - and fattening wallets - of many Indians, who are eager to partake of the global latte life. "What we are seeing is an evolution in lifestyles," said R.K. Krishnakumar, vice chairman of Tata Global Beverages. "In some ways the distinctions between the developed world and the developing world are blurring.

> You were the general manager of the Taj Mahal Palace when it was stormed by a Pakistani militant group on November 26, 2008. How were you able to remain composed after hearing gunshots and knowing your wife and two children were trapped in the hotel? Initially, one did not know the magnitude of the attack. I knew that we had a very qualified staff. A lot of them had been with us for more than 25 years. They rose to the occasion and put the lives of the guests before anyone else's.

MUMBAI - Raytheon Co., the world's largest missile maker, is in talks with Tata Motors to mount the Javelin antitank weapon system on an infantry vehicle that India's largest truckmaker may manufacture. "This could be one of India's solutions to covering the full spectrum of combat equipment challenges in the region," said Brad Barnard, senior manager for international business and strategy at Raytheon. Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland Ltd., and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. are expanding their military equipment units after India opened defense production to private players in 2001.

India urged Pakistan on Saturday to take strong action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people three years ago. India is waiting for Pakistan to act decisively after providing it with evidence on alleged perpetrators who are living in Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said. Three years ago on Saturday, 10 Pakistan-based gunmen laid siege to India's financial hub, killing 166 people. "No cause can justify the use of terrorism for attainment of goals," Krishna said.

NEW YORK - Jagjit Singh — a singer of wide popularity in South Asia who helped revive and popularize ghazals, a venerable form of Persian poetry set to music expressing the writer's feelings, especially about love — died Monday in Mumbai. He was 70. The cause was a brain hemorrhage, a spokesman for Lilavati Hospital said. Until Mr. Singh embraced the form, ghazal singing was followed largely by the elite. He helped bring it to a wider audience, including young people steeped in rock and hip-hop.

The Indian coast guard is still working to clean up spilled oil from a merchant ship that sank off Mumbai four days ago. The defense ministry said in a statement Monday that an aerial survey showed the oil slick around the MV RAK had decreased and oil was now spilling at about one ton per hour. The vessel had been transporting coal from Indonesia to the western Indian state of Gujarat and was estimated to be carrying 325 tons of fuel oil and 56 tons of diesel. A separate government statement suggested the oil slick off Mumbai's coast was caused...

MUMBAI - An Indian court that heard a stunning confession from the lone surviving gunman in the Mumbai terror attacks put a gag order on his latest testimony - a message to his handlers in Pakistan and a description of the indoctrination he received before coming to India. The order resulted in a rare information blackout in what has been one of the best documented terror attacks in history, with video footage, cellphone intercepts, photographs, and witness accounts playing across the media for months.

I read Pulitzer-winner Katherine Boo's book, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers," first with discomfort, then moral outrage, and later with a sense of despair. Character development. An acute ear for dialogue and idiom. A sense of place. These are the essential ingredients of a good novel. So what's a fiction writer like me supposed to do when Boo employs all these and writes a book of nonfiction so stellar it puts most novels to shame? How can I not envy a work that takes us on harrowing journey into an unfamiliar world of an urban slum and makes us...

Nepalese authorities say an Indian man arrested in Nepal last weekend has no links to the Mumbai attacks earlier this month that killed 20 people. Police spokesman Navraj Dhakal said Wednesday that Muhammad Zahir was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and he has no links to the bombings. Zahir is an Indian who lives and works in Nepal. Nepal's government-run Gorkhapatra newspaper had reported that Zahir was being questioned about the bombings and that evidence suggested he spoke on a cell phone and sent text messages about the Mumbai blasts.