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Indian Forces Wrap Up Operations in Mumbai; Holiday Shoppers

Aired November 29, 2008 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of the NEWSROOM starts right now.
Well, it looks like it's all over in Mumbai, but who is behind the attacks, the terror, the 183 dead. They're still trying to find out right now.

Terror and the transition. President-elect Barack Obama says he's monitoring developments in India. Is that all he should be doing?

And just look at this crowd, right there, of holiday shoppers ignoring the economy and pulling out the plastic. Was it enough to put the black into black Friday.

Hello again everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield and you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. The siege in Mumbai appears over, but the death toll is daunting. At least 183 people dead and more than 300 hurt. A few hours ago, Indian commandos set off a series of explosions in the Taj Mahal Hotel. That was a move to diffuse any explosives that the terrorists may have set. The commandos are going room to room to make sure no gunmen or victims are still in the hotel. And at least five Americans were killed in the attacks, including a father and a daughter from Virginia. 58-year-old Alan Scherr and 13-year-old Naomi were on a trip with their spiritual meditation group. They were gunned down while dining at the Oberoi Hotel.

Well, Mumbai rather - was the once very luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel is now the site of bombed out, blackened rooms and shattered glass. This is where the siege had apparently come to an end after Indian commandos killed three more terrorists. CNN's Andrew Stevens brings us the final hours of the standoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hours after Indian special forces shot dead the last remaining terrorists in their holdout at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, first pictures from inside the battered building. These scenes from the lobby and the surrounding room show the damage, but don't reveal the full extent of the two and a half day siege of one of this country's premier hotels. News of the battle was over emerged early Saturday morning, but security operations continued through the day.

STEVENS (on-camera): As the military moves to detonate hand grenades still inside the hotel and as commandos go room to room, authorities are warning that the death toll could rise. STEVENS (voice-over): The Taj was still burning hours after the final gun battle and parts of the hotel where some of the most intense fighting happened were clearly visible from the outside, shattered and burnt out rooms both in the lower and upper parts of the hotel. Towels still hung from window frames where guests trapped had used them to signal they were still alive. Descriptions of the scenes inside both this hotel and the five-star Oberoi Trident Hotel nearby are now beginning to emerge.

PAUL ARCHER, OBEROI HOTEL SURVIVOR: The bomb went off just outside my window. And after that it was panic. It struck home a little bit more when you walked through the lobby and saw it all smashed up and there's blood everywhere that something really has happened.

JAMIE BENSON, AUSTRALIAN VISITOR: All of the Trident Hotel was just smashed in. There's blood splattered everywhere. The poor security guards, the doorman really (inaudible) all the front of the glass were shattered.

STEVENS: Several foreigners are now known to have died in the attacks, but it was the local population that saw the brunt of this violence. Funerals were held Saturday across the city, including a service for Mumbai's anti-terror chief Hermant Karkare who died on Wednesday night in a shootout in the Metro Cinema targeted by the government. But amid this tragedy, some heartfelt thanks to the military which finally brought this city's nightmare to an end.

Andrew Stevens, CNN, Mumbai.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Meantime, more reaction coming from President Bush as well as President-elect Barack Obama. He has said that he'll try to improve relations between India and Pakistan when he takes office, but what can he do if anything right now. Our Ed Henry is in Chicago with more on this very delicate tightrope.

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good afternoon, Fred. What's interesting is obviously the whole world is watching Barack Obama's words and actions right now as president-elect, but there's not a lot he can do. He's not actually commander in chief, so it is an awkward moment for him. He's trying to stay engaged in the situation on the ground in India without interfering with what President Bush is doing. And so he's been getting a lot of briefings from Bush administration officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

And meanwhile President Bush as you know is also on top of the situation. Today at Camp David in the morning, he convened a secure video conference with his top national security advisers to try to get a handle on the situation and try to figure out what they can do to sort of help the Indian government there on the ground. When he returned to the White House, the President addressed reporters.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We've reviewed the latest developments and we are working to ensure that American citizens in India are safe. Throughout the process, we have kept President-elect Obama informed. The killers who struck this week are brutal and violent, but terror will not have the final word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: You heard President Bush there say they've been keeping the President-elect in the loop and in fact last evening we were told Barack Obama did place a phone call to Indian Prime Minister Singh in order to pass along his condolences for all those who have died and injured but also to make clear in that phone call according to an Obama that he realizes there's only one U.S. president at a time. He doesn't want to interfere with what the U.S. government is doing. While what this whole episode points obviously is the fact that while we've been talking so much about economic security and the international financial crisis, when Barack Obama is sworn in on January 20th of next year, he's going to have a whole host of national security challenges as well, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Ed Henry in Chicago. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Meantime, the investigation is intensifying in Mumbai, but was there a warning prior to the attack? The owner of the Taj Mahal Hotel spoke to CNN Fareed Zakaria this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: You had been warned that there was some danger of some kind of attack, you had elaborate security measures and it appears that the terrorists waited until you relaxed them at the Taj Hotel, which again suggests some kind of either inside connection or very careful watching of the situation.

RATAN TATA, TAJ MAHAL HOTEL OWNER: Yes, you know it's ironic that we did have such a warning and we did have some measures to you know, where people couldn't park their cars in the portico where you have to go through a metal detector, but if I look at what we had, which all of us complained about, it could not have stopped what took place.

They did not come through that entrance. They came from somewhere in the back. They planned everything, I believe the first thing they did was they shot the snooper dog and his handler. They went through the kitchen. They know what they were doing and they did not go through the front.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And of course, you can hear more of that interview tomorrow on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

In the meantime, we're going to be joined also by senior international correspondent Nic Robertson, who is there. He too is looking into exactly what Ratan Tata is saying there about the threat posed before those attacks happened. So much of the finger pointing in the Mumbai attack is aimed at Pakistan. Is it warranted?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: India says the Mumbai terrorists may have had linked to groups in Pakistan. Pakistan's president is pledging full cooperation in the investigation. Jim Walsh is an international security expert and a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, joining us now from Boston. Good to see you.

JIM WALSH, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EXPERT: Good to see you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK. So the U.S. and Pakistan are working together and we know that the U.S. and India also have a pretty lucrative financial relationship in the past, but now how are all of these countries, the U.S., Pakistan, India going to work together to get to the bottom of this investigation?

WALSH: Well, it's going to be difficult, but when it's first and foremost a matter of law enforcement and intelligence, the relationships there are pretty good. So I think whether it's the U.S. working separately with India and then separately with Pakistan, and then maybe convening together, that's going to be possible. I think the most important thing though is what or how the Pakistani's are responding. President Zadari has come and have been very forth right in saying he will do whatever is necessary in order to try to help India resolve this.

WHITFIELD: Is that enough? Is that appeasing enough for India when India's already said wait a minute, we feel pretty confident that Pakistan, whether it be some of it residents or the government itself had something to do with these attacks?

WALSH: It's a good question. Let's take both parts of it. First, is it enough? I think it may be enough in terms of policy, but not in terms of politics. This is going to be a very emotional issue for Hindus in India. India has general elections in the spring. Their BJP which is their hard line nationalist party is competing strongly in those elections and there's going to be a tremendous political temptation to use this as a political platform. So politically, it's going to be very difficult to tamp down.

As a matter of policy, I think the President of Pakistan can demonstrate good faith. He's already off to a good start. Remember just because there may be individuals or there may be organizations in Pakistan responsible, that doesn't mean the government is responsible. I doubt the Zadari government is, but for them the question is what about those intelligence services? Are they somehow complacent? Do they look the other way? That's the big question that hangs over this.

WHITFIELD: OK but what about those intelligence services then? How much should Pakistan dedicate to this effort? We know now that the FBI has sent a team. They're on the way to India to help in that kind of forensic investigation as well as the fact there were Americans who were killed here, but how much does the Pakistani government need to invest to assure India that there is this cooperation despite the fact that there has been tension in recent months? Years?

WALSH: Yes. I think the way, well I mean there are different parts of it. Zadari has taken the first step which is to make a public declaration of his commitment and then to send, make Pakistani officials available. But really for the Indian government, where the rubber meets the road here is if there is intel that points to a specific group in Pakistan and that what will be the Pakistani government's response. What will be the response of the intelligence that you'll see? That's when things become important.

WHITFIELD: Wow. All right. Jim Walsh with M.I.T. and also an international security expert. Appreciate your time from Boston today. Thank you.

WALSH: Always good to be with you.

WHITFIELD: Have a great rest of the holiday.

WALSH: You too.

WHITFIELD: Well terror of a very different kind in Mexico. Just across the border from El Paso, Texas, a mob-style shooting last night at an upscale restaurant in Juarez left at least eight people dead. And that's just the latest in a string of violent attacks in the city. Police say a group of men with AK-47s approached men sitting at a table and simply fired about 100 rounds. Police say more than 40 killings have occurred in Juarez since Monday and more than 1300 this year. The jump in violence in Juarez is blamed mostly on a war between drug cartels.

Well the weather will turn a bit treacherous tomorrow in parts of the U.S. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is tracking all the storm systems from the CNN Weather Center. Oh, just in time for folks who are heading home. It's been a quirky day.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. Today, a whole lot better than what tomorrow is going to be. In fact, see all the blue and white behind me? Those are all new advisories and winter storm watches that were just posted. At the top of the hour, we'll have the latest. If you're traveling, this is a forecast you're not going to want to miss.

WHITFIELD: And open up wide. It's time to exercise your face. Yes, you heard me right. A workout designed to ward off wrinkles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: More now on the terror in Mumbai. If you were with us a few moments ago. Maybe less than 10 minutes ago, you were able to hear the comments from the Taj Mahal hotel owner Ratan Tata talked to our Fareed Zakaria and tell him that yes that there had been a threat on the hotel but it's unclear how long ago prior to the attacks that took place over the last three days. Well, CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Mumbai, doing a lot of investigating on his own. And so Nic, give us an idea what kind of measures were put in place by this hotel? And we also know the hotel had relaxed some of its security. Where did these attacks happen in respect to this kind of timeline?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the hotel put in security a couple of months ago. They put a metal detector in front of the hotel. They employed somebody with a sniper dog to try and sniff out explosives and put more security on the front of the hotel. And as we heart from that interview, Mr. Tatan had said that the attackers were familiar with the hotel. They were familiar with the security arrangements and they came in through the back, therefore bypassing or would have bypass any of this electronic searching equipment. However, the hotel had moved it out according to a number of people that stayed there. They moved it out just a couple of days before because they felt and perhaps would be unreasonable to think that they wouldn't have taken this decision actually without talking to the police but they felt they could relax the security measures around the hotel.

But it does appear that there are reasons for increasing their security was based on one of two things. Either on the aftermath of the attack on the J.W. Marriott Islamabad Hotel in Pakistan on the 18th of September or perhaps because of an incident that happened in Pakistan about a week later. Authorities here clamped down and arrested five leading members of Indian Mujahadin group. A group that could be behind this latest round of attacks and perhaps because of these arrests, the police advised hotels to take more security. When they arrested these members of the Indian Mujahadin, they found 15 kilograms of high explosives, more than 30 lbs of high explosive. They found them with about 18 pounds. They found they had a lot of gelatin and detonators. So it appeared they were planning to make a number of bombs and this group themselves had actively been involved in at least four of these massive bomb attacks.

The one in Delhi, the capital, a few months ago that had previously that had killed more than 50 people and in several other cities in the country, similar multiple bomb attacks. And perhaps it was because when they were arrested, these explosives were found that it was realized that there was a high level of threat existing at this time in this area, in the Mumbai area and perhaps that was the reason that the security forces stepped up their security. But whatever, and according to Mr. Tata - whatever the reason, they already stepped down the security, but it wouldn't have mattered he said because the attackers came in by the back door. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow, they came in knowing exactly how to access that building and others seemingly. CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson, thanks so much from Mumbai. Appreciate that update.

We in here in this country, expect some long delays in the air and on the ground. Jacqui Jeras tells you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. In our "Health for Her" segment, facing the reality of wrinkles, some say it can be delayed if you keep your face in shape with yoga. Here's CNN medical correspondent Judy Fortin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY FORTIN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They stand tall and proud, warriors facing an ancient enemy. Battle cry at the ready.

Welcome to happy face yoga. One of the latest weapons in the war against ageing.

GARY SKORSKY, HAPPY FACE YOGA FOUNDER: This is another one that is really going to help de-stress the face. Readjust your smile to make sure you're looking up there. There you go. Don't strain yourself.

FORTIN: A series of facial toning exercises are deployed against crow's feet and wrinkles, laugh lines and deep wrinkles.

SKORSKY: It helps remove the bags under the eyes. It strengthens both the upper and the lower eyelids and it also opens the eye sockets creating bigger brighter eyes. This exercise is great for toning up sagging cheeks and droopy jaws. It strengthens and prevents droopy eyelids.

Cheek pushups.

FORTIN: Done daily these exercises according to Happy Face yoga founder Gary Skorsky can make you look years younger, but you're going to have to work at it.

SKORSKY: Take your hands and you're going to raise those hands past your face. All the muscles following your hands up to the sky. All muscles lifting up. All small possible lift. And release. Lift and release. Remember to breath. Stretch it up to the sun, Judy. Stretch it up. Feel that burn right here.

FORTIN: Or work hard at not cracking up about it. And in the end, even if you can't keep that enemy known as ageing at bay, spending a few hours locked in battle while probably also locked in laughter might make you the bigger winner anyway. Judy Fortin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Jacqui, I see you going along with the motion over there, making kind of faces. Is it working? Are you feeling good.

JERAS: I don't buy it. Come on. No way. It doesn't work. No way. We would have been doing that for years if that was true. Wouldn't you say?

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: That was an effective sell.

JERAS: I say just smile a lot, so if you get wrinkles, it's from your smiling. When you're no longer smiling, at least people know you've been happy. WHITFIELD: I like that. All right.

JERAS: Anyway. Let's talk about the weather, shall we? Anyway, they say more moisture helps the skin, right? They got lots of that across the southeast today. Unfortunately, this is going to turn into some big travel trouble for a lot of people. Today, the roadways are slick, we have some travel delays in the southeast, but this is going to turn into a very big storm and this is going to impact a lot of people for about the eastern 1/3 of the country.

If you are traveling tomorrow, things are really going to be ugly. But delays right now Atlanta, that's it 35 minutes. That's what we've been on average. We have arrival delays and departure delays. So whether you're trying to get in our get out. You're going to have some problems. New Orleans, no delays at the airport, but a real rough go of it around town. The rain has really been heavy at times. The visibility really reduced, under a mile there. And it looks like we may have some (inaudible) in the interstate there. So be careful when you're traveling in there.

I-35 from Kansas City all the way up to Des Moines, you're seeing snow, you're seeing some rain mixing in down in Kansas City. It's snowing from about St. Joe on northward and also across parts of Colorado, particularly in the higher elevations. Heavy snow expected now through Sunday night. You could see over a foot for you. Fresh snow in Vale. Tomorrow, the big game begins here. And really travelers say from the midwest to the northeast will have the greatest concerns. Rain and snow mixing in here. Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Chicago. You're going to see rain and snow changing over to some snowfall. Let's see some accumulations here in the Milwaukee. A good three to five inches as possible especially south of town, new advisories just issued in this last half an hour in the blue. That's where snow amounts probably under six inches and winter storm watches have been issued across the northern Indiana and also into much of Michigan. This could be a major storm, but it's just going to be rain unfortunately for the big cities, so if you were looking for that extra day, you know maybe keep that vacation going to the next week, it's not going to happen in the northeast. Just so you know.

WHITFIELD: Too bad. All right. Jacqui, you got big spending, shopping plans this weekend or at least in the near future?

JERAS: As you know, am a planner. So I'm pretty well prepared already, believe it or not.

WHITFIELD: Oh, good for you.

JERAS: How about you?

WHITFIELD: No we are not going to spend as much. We are committed.

JERAS: Good for you, a lot of people are, working it down as well.

WHITFIELD: Yes. We're just going to enjoy each other's company -

JERAS: Great.

WHITFIELD: But you know what even though that's my little mantra, there are still a lot of folks out there who are planning to spend and spend a lot. Jacqui will explain to you who they are and why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: "On sale," two words shoppers are on the lookout for this holiday weekend, but are post-Thanksgiving discounts enough to get you spending?

Let's check in with CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti. Oh my gosh. She's somewhere in the crowd. See, the shopping malls are thick with shoppers.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Can you find me?

WHITFIELD: I can't. It's like, Where's Waldo? Where's Susan?

CANDIOTTI: That's the fun part.

WHITFIELD: There you are.

CANDIOTTI: Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego, right? I'm just walking with the crowd, trying to be polite.

I see shopping bags, I see shopping bags, I see -- I see babies, I see older folks walking around with walkers. I mean, everybody is out here today.

Of course, with the economy in a downward spiral, what do you do to try and instill consumer confidence? You talk about sales. You talk about zero percent interest. For sales of maybe $2,000, no interest for 18 months. Forty percent off in some cases, that's what retailers are trying to do.

And here we have a family joining us. We have Chrissy (ph), we have Chris (ph), we have Joe, and we have Erin (ph). I'm so proud of myself for remembering all the names.

Do you find yourself, however, cutting back this year?

Absolutely. Yes, I do feel that we are cutting back. But yet, we're spending the money.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And even though the economy is bad, I think that the stores are full of people. And I guess everybody is doing their best. Everybody is spending money. And I guess that's what Christmas is all about.

CANDIOTTI: I have to ask you in terms of the sales, I mean, how conscious are you that you're looking for the best bargain?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I try, but it's hard. I haven't seen anything great as of yet. So -- but we're still buying things. CANDIOTTI: How long have you been at it today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A couple of hours.

CANDIOTTI: But you started yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. So, you know, a little yesterday, a little today.

CANDIOTTI: Can you give us an idea how much you've spent so far and how much more you intend to spend?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably a couple hundred more. Hopefully that's it. But you never know until you're done.

CANDIOTTI: How does that compare to last year?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last year we spent more. More freely.

CANDIOTTI: And why are you spending less?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just tough. Gas is expensive. Food's expensive. Everything's more money, so you've got less money to spend.

CANDIOTTI: All right. But who don't you cut back on?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The kids.

CANDIOTTI: The kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it's all about the kids. Yes.

CANDIOTTI: Well, we wish you good bargain hunting as you look around.

And of course we won't find out what the final figures are for the retailers, how well they did nationwide, until the weekend is over with. And then, of course, you have Cyber Monday. That's when retailers are expecting the most online sales between now and Christmas. So we'll see how everyone did the first part of next week

Back to you.

WHITFIELD: That's pretty amazing. I am just today learning about this Cyber Monday for the first time that really, you know, may mean sometimes 40, 50, 70 percent off on some of these Web site locations.

CANDIOTTI: That's right.

WHITFIELD: So, yes, that makes a big, big impact.

CANDIOTTI: Saving on shipping costs and all that.

WHITFIELD: Wow -- no shipping.

CANDIOTTI: A lot of people like to shop online. I still like to touch and feel. What about you, Fred?

CANDIOTTI: Yes. I like to touch and feel too. You know? I want to see what I'm getting.

All right. Thanks so much, Susan. Appreciate it. Try and get in a little shopping if you can.

Uh-oh, we lost her audio there. Sorry about that.

All right. The credit crunch, well, it's not squeezing everyone, as you can see.

CNN's Ted Rowlands takes us to a southern California shopping center where there is no rescission in sight there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While businesses around the country struggle to stay afloat...

DR. ALETHEA HSU, REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER: This one is close to 7,000 square feet -- barbecue, dim sum.

ROWLANDS: Dr. Alethea Hsu's new shopping center in Irvine, California, is at near full capacity and packed with customers. She says part of the reason that her Jamboree Mall is doing well while other retailers are struggling is because many of her customers are Asian.

HSU: Cultural-wise, you don't spend all your money or you don't borrow too much.

ROWLANDS: While stereotypes like hiding money under a mattress may not be true, experts say many immigrants, including Asians, do tend to save more and borrow less than other Americans. So a bad economy isn't necessarily a bad thing for many immigrants.

Raul Hinojosa, a professor of political economy at UCLA, says Asians aren't they only ones who save, many immigrants do. And they're able to take advantage of the current economy.

PROF. RAUL HINOJOSA, UCLA: They don't have a lot of debt right now, so they're in a very good position to be able to actually flourish in a down market and to be able to be the type of people that can quickly stimulate new types of businesses and new types of spending.

ROWLANDS: The businesses doing well at Dr. Hsu's new mall include an Asian grocery store, a mix of Asian restaurants, and 85 Degrees, a popular bakery chain in Taiwan and Beijing. All attractive places to shop for customers who still have money to spend.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Irvine, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Now to our techno file. Scientists say that they found debris from a meteor that lit up the sky over western Canada. The fireball caused a real stir earlier this morning along the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Anyway, some say it was as bright as the sun. A University of Calgary scientist says that he and a graduate student found several fragments this week. He says there could be thousands more strewn over seven square miles of barren prairie.

Well, today could be the last full day of Endeavour's latest space mission. The shuttle is on its way back to Earth after 12 days at the International Space Station. It is scheduled to land tomorrow, but possible thunderstorms are in the forecast for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. And if the landing has to be delayed, Endeavour has enough supplies to stay in orbit until Tuesday.

Earlier today, the Endeavour astronauts spoke with CNN Space Correspondent Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, SPACE CORRESPONDENT: It's all over but the landing for the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour. They are buttoned up and getting ready for landing. That heat shield appears to be intact just find for landing.

They had a long and difficult mission at the International Space Station, accomplishing some key goals. Sort of an extreme home makeover in space.

Let's go live to the mid deck of Endeavour.

, you know we have to talk about the tool bag. I'm sorry, we've got to go there.

You know, the tool bag, not since Sputnik has there been such interest in something passing over head. There are amateur astronomers who have been trying to get the tool bag. There's a Web tracker right now which keeps track of where the tool bag is at any given moment. And of course a lot of people, more than anything, are curious how there could be $100,000 worth of tools in there.

Can you explain that?

HEIDI STEFANYSHYN-PIPER, ENDEAVOUR ASTRONAUT: Well, a lot of our tools that we use, even though they look very, very simple, they have to go through a rigorous testing process so that we can take them up here. Just simple things that you don't think about on Earth, and all of that testing and certification that we have to do for all of our tools, that adds up. And so that's how relatively simple tools can cost a lot of money.

O'BRIEN: And as far as you know, NASA's not going to take that out of your paycheck, right?

STEFANYSHYN-PIPER: Well, if they do, I guess I'll be working for NASA for a long, long, long time. O'BRIEN: Don Pettit, let's talk a little bit about your novel coffee- making device. A lot of people wouldn't think about this, but in space, you can't make drip coffee. And of course, you know, this is the Starbucks nation here, we all need our drip coffee.

What did you do? You don't happen to have it with you, do you?

DON PETTIT, ENDEAVOUR ASTRONAUT: No, it's packed away in my locker. What I did was make a cup that you can drink fluids out -- coffee, tea, water, soda. I guess re-hydrated drinks. You can drink them out of a cup sort of like you do on Earth.

And we're stuck with sucking things out of a bag up here because of the weightlessness. Sort of like drinking the juice bags you get in the grocery store. And it's kind of nice to be able to sip from a cup.

O'BRIEN: We're going to have to leave it there. We're out of time.

Weather doesn't look so good for landing. A good chance the crew may end up, who knows, at Edwards Air Force Base, or maybe in Florida, or maybe coming down on Monday.

But congratulations to all of you for a good mission. And we wish you a happy landing.

Miles O'Brien, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And here on Earth, from a tragic place, personal stories from Mumbai.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAUTAM PATEL, ESCAPED FROM OBEROI HOTEL: While I was on a conference call, I heard two large noises, and they sounded like thuds from within the room. And that's when we realized that there was something serious happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: What happened and how they survived -- firsthand accounts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Surviving the siege in Mumbai. Tourists and business travelers were trapped inside those two hotels, the Taj and the Oberoi. Hostages held in their rooms by terrorists and fear. Just listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN EHRLICH, ESCAPED FROM THE OBEROI HOTEL: The first bomb went off and I got out of bed and went to the window. And as I got to the window, a huge sort of cloud of gray smoke was coming up from the road. And I knew something was up.

MARK ABELL, ESCAPED FROM OBEROI HOTEL: The hotel shook with an immense blast. About three, four minutes later, there was another large blast. The whole building was shaking. I looked outside and could see crowds running. There was a hail of gunshots. It looked all -- very, very nasty.

PATEL: While I was on a conference call, I heard two large noises, and they sounded like thuds from within the room. And that's when we realized that there was something serious happening. When I heard the two thuds, that's when I looked out to the window on to my left. I could see the Oberoi hotel. There was a restaurant in the Oberoi hotel which was under flames.

DEEPAK DATTA, ESCAPED FROM THE TAJ HOTEL: Heavy machinegun fire in the stairwell right where I was. So it looks like the commandos were basically chasing these guys who were taking people out, because two guys, they ran up. No, two guys ran down from the hostages. So they ran away.

JAMIE BENSON, ESCAPED FROM OBEROI HOTEL: We barricaded ourselves in there, put a bed against it to absorb any blasts coming out. And we just waited there for like 30, 34 hours, or something like that.

PAUL ARCHER, ESCAPED FROM OBEROI HOTEL: After a few hours, it just seemed like it was all surreal, it wasn't really happening. You know? Like, you could hear the bombs outside, but, you know, I put on a DVD. I was clearing out the mini-bar and thinking, this is just going to be over soon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We knew that we couldn't get out through the normal exits. And we also saw a little bit of the fire coming our way. You know, certain ashes and things. And we knew that if we stayed there for long, we would be trapped.

So some people inside the room decided to break the windows and tried to pull down the curtains so that the fire would not come into that side. And we then -- when we finished doing that (INAUDIBLE). And we climbed down from the ladder and the firemen saved us.

BRUCE SCOTT, ESCAPED FROM TAJ HOTEL: We heard some noise outside. We didn't see or hear anybody, we didn't see terrorists. But when I looked through, I saw what looked like police. They were wearing armor and -- body armor. They had weapons.

So I kind of tapped on the door, you know, and made a little, "Hello, I'm in here." I was afraid if I ran out in the hall, they might think I was a bad guy. So we were very careful about that. They came in, they checked our credentials, they looked at our passports, they made sure the room was clean, and they brought us out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow. It's something else to hear those personal accounts.

Meantime, we've been asking you about your thoughts about these attacks in Mumbai and whether what happened there concerns you at all about what could potentially happen here or anywhere else in the world.

Josh Levs has been looking through all of your e-mails.

What are folks saying?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lots of e-mails coming in. You know, and a lot of them very emotional. And a lot of people talking about the extent to which they feel now, just like you were saying, more scared because of what's been going on.

I'll tell you what we've been doing. Basically, you're e-mailing us at weekends@cnn.com. We're grabbing them, throwing them up on the board. So there you go. Let's zoom right in.

I'm going to start off with Sherry.

"Yes, the attacks in India concern me very much. India's one of our strong allies, and Mumbai's a very busy cosmopolitan city. For a series of coordinated attacks to occur there shows how easily it can happen here in the United States. How can we secure every hotel, restaurant and business office?"

That's Sherry.

Let's go down a little bit.

"I am very worried about terrorist attacks on American cities by Pakistani terrorists, especially a nuclear strike."

That's from Atul.

Let's go to this one. "One reason I'm not scared that a similar attack would happen in the U.S. is that more Americans are armed than Islamists. I think terrorists who tried this in the U.S. would end up like Richard Reid as citizens attacked them back."

We've got time for a couple more, I think.

"It's another reason to keep all Americans informed and empowered to help fight against terrorism. May our prayers bring comfort and peace to the mourners, as well as peace to all the world, as the battle of good versus evil continues."

That's from K. Monroe.

Let's end with this one. It brings up immigration. Well, in a sense -- the border.

"We are all focusing on terrorist attacks via sea -- the Atlantic, Pacific corridors or Gulf of Mexico. Since we have such a huge illegal immigration problem, what is being done to secure our country across our southern borders?"

Not necessarily about immigration, but about the border itself. That's from Dan in Denver.

So keep them coming -- weekends@cnn.com.

And Fred, you can see lots of different opinions, plenty of emotion in there. But certainly people not agreeing on whether this means worse things for the United States.

WHITFIELD: Right. And it certainly is eliciting some great conversation because there are some thoughts in there, as well as some great questions, that I'm sure a lot of investigators are poring over some of those things, all in the spirit of prevention.

LEVS: Right. It makes it fresh. You know, what a lot of people were thinking maybe could happen already. Very fresh for a lot of people right now.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Josh Levs, thanks so much for going through all those. Appreciate it.

LEVS: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, the Internet is also keeping Indians around the world connected as this story unfolds in Mumbai.

Sreenath Sreenivasan is cofounder of the South Asian Journalist Association. He is also a new media professor at Columbia University and joins us from New York.

So, Sreenath, obviously a lot of folks got straight to the Internet. E-mails starting going back and forth, especially among Indians here in the U.S. who were reaching out to family members in Mumbai. And you were able to kind of be that fly on the wall for a lot of that conversation.

What were people saying immediately when word got out that this tragedy was taking place?

SREENATH SREENIVASAN, SOUTH ASIAN JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION: Well, we were using technology called blogtalkradio.com to do one of our regular Webcasts to connect to South Asian Journalist Association with people around the world. And we were talking to two Indian-born baseball players, the first ever to be signed by an American baseball team, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

And we're talking live to them when I see on my Gmail Chat that there was an attack in Mumbai. And so I was almost immediately able to go to these two young men who are from India and get their reactions and their thoughts on Mumbai.

And suddenly, we knew that there would be a lot of interest in this. And so we just have been doing the Webcasts right from then, every 12 hours or so, talking and connecting India and people in America with this story.

WHITFIELD: So it sounds like you were fielding a lot of things, too. In addition to informing people about what may have been reported on this end, but perhaps you were also hearing from a lot of people or seeing them write about their personal fears, their concerns about loved ones, and maybe even some placing blame?

SREENIVASAN: Well, that's one of the things that happens in a crisis like this, is that there's so much confusion, and people take every little piece of information that they think has any validity and want to share it with the world. And so what happens if you're a journalist or anyone trying to keep track of the information, is that you start drowning in this. And what you can do is, if you're a little distant, the way we are here in New York, is we were able to synthesize some of it, explain some of it, and put it in context. We don't always do it as well, obviously, as we should, but we were able to do that because the new technology allows us to do that.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And I know that was difficult, too, because there were a lot of conflicting reports coming out of Mumbai, even for American side journalists to try to report on. So, trying to sort through the facts had to be difficult on blogging as well.

SREENIVASAN: Yes, and the thing with the blogs and the Twitter feeds, as well as Facebook, that people were using every means they had at their hands to get information.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SREENIVASAN: And this is really the first international scale event that we've seen like this where people are using -- I mean, we've seen hints of this obviously with the tsunami and other things, even the elections that just passed. But to think that YouTube didn't exist just a few years ago, that Twitter didn't exist...

WHITFIELD: Yes. It is tremendous.

SREENIVASAN: That's part of what made such a difference.

WHITFIELD: Sreenath Sreenivasan, thanks so much, of Columbia University, a new media professor, as well as involved in the South Asian Journalist Association, here stateside.

We appreciate your time from New York.

SREENIVASAN: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Have a great rest of the weekend, too.

All right. Silencing the cries of the hungry. A new treatment that is saving lives in Haiti.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Impact Your World -- saving lives in Haiti. CNN's Jim Clancy looks at a new way to treat malnourishment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The cries of the hungry are heard all too often in Haiti. About one out every 12 children in the poverty-stricken nation will die before the age of 5, many of them by malnutrition.

A few weeks ago, doctors expected this 3-year-old orphan would become the latest casualty in the struggle against starvation. But thanks to a new malnourishment therapy called Medika Mamba, she was brought back from the brink of death.

NICOLE ETIENNE, CHILD CARE WORKER (through translator): The effect was so fact, everyone at the orphanage was shocked. In one week, she went from deathbed to life. It's a miracle product.

CLANCY: A miracle to some, Medika Mamba is actually a blend of peanut butter and a mixture of proteins, vitamins and minerals. Translated, Medika Mamba means peanut butter medicine in the Haitian Creole language.

Nearly all malnourished children treated with it do recover. The charity producing the substance Meds & Food for Kids, buys its peanuts from Haitian farmers, which provides the added benefit of aiding the local economy. Project director Tom Stehl says the group also works with the farmers to improve their agricultural practices.

TOM STEHL, MEDS & FOOD FOR KIDS: I don't know if Medika Mamba is the answer, but this model that we're promoting where we go and buy agricultural products from Haitians and use Haitian products to produce Haitian products is part of the answer.

CLANCY: Stehl says each one of these bags can keep a child alive and well for a week and costs about $6 a piece. Peanuts to some, but a lifesaver for these children.

For Impact Your World, Jim Clancy, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow, that is a tremendous effort.

If you'd like to help hungry children in Haiti, and anywhere else around the world, for that matter, please visit our Impact Your World Web page. You'll find more information on meds and food for kids, as well as other hunger relief organizations. It's at cnn.com/impact.

So it was one of the stars of CNN's campaign coverage. As you watched, did you wonder just how the magic wall works? You'll soon find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Much more of the NEWSROOM straight ahead. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Don Lemon is up next. But first, for those of you who watched CNN's election coverage, you probably saw what we call the magic wall.

Well, CNN's Deborah Feyerick has the story behind this touchable technology on the edge of discovery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was first made famous by CNN's very own John King.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The biggest changes in American politics...

FEYERICK: Or maybe you caught the parody on "Saturday Night Live."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check out Michigan. I can make it bounce.

FEYERICK: We here at CNN call it the Magic Wall. To the man behind the technology, Jeff Han, it's called a Multi-Touch Collaboration Wall.

JEFF HAN, MULTI-TOUCH COLLABORATION WALL: Multi-Touch is a whole new way of working with a computer. You can actually use more than one thing at a time. That means both hands, that means all 10 fingers, it might mean multiple users in front of a screen, also.

FEYERICK: The computing power has been around for years.

HAN: It's that interface, that last final few inches between the person and the computer that we even had (ph).

FEYERICK: But it's not only good for explaining elections or providing fodder for comedy shows, Han says there are some very practical uses, like military intelligence and medical research.

HAN: This is a close up of a blood vessel cross-section.

FEYERICK: And collaborative learning from students to architects, artists, engineers and scientists.

HAN: Never have you been able to make (ph) this many objects with these many degrees of freedom at the same time .

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)