Mumbai hotels prepare for partial reopening

The Oberoi Group said it would reopen rooms in the Trident portion of its hotel Sunday, nearly a month after 10 accused Islamic militants stormed into several Mumbai landmarks on Nov. 26. The Taj Mahal Group said the tower wing of its Taj Mahal Palace and Tower will reopen Sunday evening.

Militants from the banned Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba are accused of staging the attacks that kicked off a three-day siege, paralyzing much of the country's commercial capital. Nine of the alleged gunmen were killed, and one is in police custody.

The attacks bared glaring gaps in India's security and intelligence apparatus and have heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, with New Delhi calling on Islamabad to take stronger action against the suspected masterminds of the attack.

Pakistan, which has cracked down on a charity connected to Lashkar-e-Taiba, says India first must share evidence proving the group's complicity.

In Washington, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Command praised India for its "very calm, measured response" in the wake of the attacks.

Adm. Timothy Keating said U.S. officials would offer ways to help India investigate the attacks.

"We are working through the initial parts of a package that ... we would offer to India to help them understand some of the lessons learned that we very painfully learned in the wake of our 11 September attacks--in information sharing, collaboration and cooperation," he told reporters Friday.

Iran's deputy foreign minister urged the two nuclear-armed neighbors, which have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, to talk.

"We should not fall victim to provocation. It requires a cool-headed approach," Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh said Friday after meeting in New Delhi with Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Akhoundzadeh called for an international investigation into the terrorist act.

In New York, a United Nations official said Pakistan is working toward implementing U.N. sanctions against Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the charity affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba that the Security Council considers a terrorist group.

"It is very difficult for a state to implement that completely, but yes, in a way, the Pakistani government is working to ensure fruitful compliance," Richard Barrett, coordinator of the U.N. committee that monitors sanctions, told the Indian TV channel CNN-IBN.