Terror-hit Mumbai hotels to reopen

A day before the partial openings of two luxury hotels damaged by terrorists in Mumbai last month, an Interpol delegation visited India to offer expanded access to global databases and high-tech investigative tools.

The Taj Mahal Palace's main building is expected to remain closed until next year.

Secretary-General Ronald Noble met Saturday with India's Union Minister of Home Affairs, Palaniappan Chidambaram.

Terrorists using bombs, grenades, gunfire and fire caused the deaths of more than 160 people over three days of sieges throughout the city that is India's commercial capital. They took hostages at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels.

The assaults that began November 26 also targeted a historic train station, a Jewish cultural center and other landmarks.

Home Ministry sources said Interpol has compared details of the nine terrorists who were killed and the one who was captured alive -- such as names, fingerprints, DNA profiles and photographs -- with the agency's global database of fugitives.

To further aid security, state police, immigration, border-control units and other Indian law enforcement groups will be allowed to use databases accessed by the Interpol National Central Bureau in New Delhi, Interpol added.

The agency said it will offer India its state-of-the-art technology to help the country tighten its border-control system, allowing Indian law enforcement authorities to instantly identify anyone attempting to fraudulently enter the country by air, land or sea, Interpol said.