Having posted that news report above, now I can say that I am familiar with all those places in south Bombay which have been attacked. I used to visit a few of them off and on as part of my work and one of them, Leopold Cafe, just to have some beer.
Tonight, as the incidents unfolded at around 10 pm, I was at my home which is in north-west Bombay, 35 kms away from the affected spots in south Bombay.
I have uploaded a rough map guide of the affected area on my blog. Its at http://natant.blogspot.com/2008/11/life-in-general-terrorists-attack.html

This report says casualties are higher:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Terrorists_strike_Mumbai_80_dead_250_hurt/articleshow/3761410.cms

......
The terror strike which began at 10:33 PM at Chhatrapathi Shivaji Terminus(CST), formerly known as the Victoria Terminus(VT), claimed 10 lives in the premises of the station alone, police said.

Three persons were killed in a bomb explosion in a taxi on Mazegaon dockyard road and an equal number were gunned down at Taj Hotel. The victims in the hotel were its employees.

The lobby of the Oberoi hotel was on fire and the hotel evacuated, eyewitnesses said.

Maharashtra DGP A N Roy said tonight's attack in "at least seven places" is a "terror strike."

Sharma said 30 persons were injured in the CST incident. Commandoes were rushed to the CST which wore a deserted look and train services suspended.

The NSG commandos were on standby and national disaster response force unit is being rushed to Mumbai, the Ministry of Home Affairs officials said.

Some people were injured in the firing in Oberoi hotel, and taken to a nearby hospital in police vans and ambulance. Firing was also reported in Taj hotel.

Firing was reported at Colaba, Nariman Point and near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminal, formerly Victoria Terminus and it was still continuing.

Firing was also reported at Cama Hospital in south Mumbai, police said, adding that a blast was reported in a taxi under a flyover in suburban Vile Parle. A bomb went off in a taxi in Mazegaon dockyard road.

SRPF personnel then entered the iconic BMC building -- just opposite CST -- to take aim at the assailants, BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak said. "We fear some of the assailants are still inside the station and we want to catch them if they come out," a police official said.

Vikhroli police station senior inspector Habib Ansari was on his way to work from his Colaba home when he saw two armed men, with sophisticated weaponry, trying to run into bylanes near the Gateway of India.

"I rushed back to Colaba and all policemen, including GRP and RPF personnel, were called up," he added.

Bhisham Mansukhani, a journalist, was attending a wedding reception at the Taj's Crystal Room. "I was inside the bar when glass shards almost hit my eye," he said. "More than 200 people were escorted inside Chambers, a business centre inside the hotel," he added.

As many in Bombay, rest of India and rest of world, take stock of the real casualties figure and the potential real details of terrorists' entry/operations/motives & lack/disregard of intelligence agencies' alerts (http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/20081129200811291119513862f1fe0c1/I-want-to-live, http://www.mid-day.com/news/2008/nov/281108-News-Mumbai-RPSF-deployed-CST-Station-7-11-blasts-Terror-attacks.htm , http://www.indianexpress.com/news/lashkar-came-via-sea-from-karachi-used-gujarat-boat-to-reach-mumbai/391642/3), a few random thoughts and 1/2 personal experiences that I want to share:

1. I have been to Taj, Oberoi and Leopold many times across many years, the first two for attending work-related seminars/conferences and the last for a glass of beer. About 7 weeks ago, when I went to Taj (i was going after a gap of about 3 months), and as I went to the secondary entrance that faces the sea directly (and not the primary one that faces the Gateway side) I saw it was closed and completely barricaded. So I made my way to the primary entrance and there was struck by an unprecedented security check with 2/3/4 gun-toting security men standing at the entrance. My shoulder bag was checked thoroughly. I had a bit of argument with the security guard telling them that while it is fine for them to check bags of mine and visitors why were they not opening the bags of the guests who were checking in to stay at the hotel. Seeing my verbal conversation with the security guard a black-coated Taj manager who was standing there near the entrance walked up to me and sternly asked me what was wrong. I told him, but by then I had seen that check-in guests' bags were going through a metal detector itself (that though begs the question of how plastic explosives can be detected as has been bought out by this week's terrorist attacks where plastic explosives were taken in).
The point I am making above is that intelligence agencies' alerts had already reached the managements of most of the biggest hotels in Bombay. A TV news channel, Headlines Today, is in fact just now (as I write this at 3 pm) reporting that it has a 'top secret' letter by Indian intelligence agencies to the Bombay police that in their interrogations with captured terrorists in Uttar Pradesh and other places in north India they have been told that Pakistan's ISI and even Pakistan's Navy is involved in training terrorists to launch an unprecedented, well-organised offensive through the sea route from Karachi to Bombay.
This letter is apparently dated December 2006, but the unprecedented security checks I mention above started only about 2/3/4 months back. Nevertheless, there were clear threat perceptions. But the Taj Hotel management (and also the Oberoi Hotel management) did not take adequate measures to protect every corner of the hotel. As I quoted a Colaba-residing friend of mine the terrorists gained entry in the Taj from a shop at the backside and the shop opened outside on the street as well had a door that opened inside the hotel. Why didn't the Taj management keep gun-toting security men continuously (for 24 hours and not just during peak-time daytime hours) at all ground-floor corners and sides of their hotel/s from the inside and the outside? Instead of blaming the government, Ratan Tata should have taken his hotel's management to task for not taking seriously the threat perceptions emanating intensely from the intelligence agencies. Night-time security checks also seems to have been lax compared to day-time security checks.

2. The TV news channels (and not so much the print media although many of them too) have focussed 99% of their news coverage on three places--Taj, Oberoi and Nariman House--and have not culled/scoped out the happenings at VT station, Leopold Cafe and Cama Hospital. There is much to be reported and analysed from these other places as well. VT station, for instance, saw over 50-60 casualties and Leopold saw over 25.

3. Even at this time of tragedy, the inefficiencies and corrupt bureaucracy of state/private administration continue to trouble the relatives of the victims and the missing. Also, the Colaba Police Station that is opposite Cafe Leopold, had the most pathetically inept response when the firings were going on at Leopold and they could easily hear. They were deliberately slow in reaching that place (even though it was less than 20-30 metres away) and in fact like cowards closed the gate of their police station. Residents in Colaba, who know about them, of course say they did not expect any better from the Colaba police station which could perhaps rank among the top 5 corrupt and brutal police stations in Bombay and in the top 10-20 in India. Had Colaba police station officers counter-attacked the terrorists at or near Leopold Cafe itself those guys could have never reached Taj Hotel. But their police officers are so steeped in corruption they have lost all ability for any concrete action involving using their guns to take on the real goons or in this case the terrorists.

4. Pakistan's ISI is perhaps the worst official agency in the world that cleverly aids terrorists' activities and has been doing so for many years. For India to put pressure on Pakistan's current democratic pressure is being foolish. The ISI in Pakistan, closely affiliated to the Pakistani military, is a law unto itself and has to be tackled directly bypassing whoever is the Pakistani government. For this, in fact, India should shed its cowardliness and take on the United States of America that in the past and even now (discreetly though) has looked the other way if not actively coordinated with the ISI.And if the US can attack Taliban inside Afghanistan, and if Israel can carry out operations inside its neigbouring countries including Palestine, and if Russia can carry out operations inside Georgia, then India can too carry out operations in the mountains of Pakistan where these terrorist groups receive their training.
Many of general Pakistani citizens do not like their country's ISI and extremist elements. By blaming Pakistan as a country where its citizens do not have enough democratic rights is according to me not wise at all.

5. It also needs to be told that the owners (two of them -- Faizad and one more) of Leopold Cafe are racist against locals, Bombayites and Indians and give extra-special treatment to the foreigners. I say this from personal experience, and therefore avoid going there to the extent possible. I don't blame the waiters but I think the waiters are specially trained by the two owners to be like this.

6. What has happened is 'private' terror, that is, private groups (though backed by overseas official agencies like the ISI) have carried it out fighting state forces in India/Bombay. But we ought to remember the ugly consequences of other forms of terror that feeds into the private terror groups. And one of them is 'state' terror. India is not at all clean on this. The state-sponsored genocide in Gujarat in February-March 2002 and continued boycott/harassment/denial-of-rights of the Muslims in Gujarat stands out as one of the worst forms of state-sponsored terror anywhere in the world. Then, the US-UK-Australia invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and continued forced occupation of Iraq is even a worse kind of state terror than Gujarat was because the entire country of Iraq and all its citizens have been hurt badly by the American-British forces.

McGrande also posted on this, with more articles in comments

My heart goes to the near and dear ones of those who have died in these ugly attacks and to those who have got seriously injured.
Few questions come to my mind, in the case of the 2 hotels. If the gunmen have killed people inside, that is in the hotel lobby, then how come they were able to take guns and perhaps also grenades inside in the first place? The stringent security checks should have prevented that. Or, is it that the gunmen started firing from outside, overpowered or killed some security guards and forcibly entered the hotels' lobbies? Answers will come in next 1-2 days in the local media here, hopefully.

Multiple attacks in Mumbai, 80 dead, hostages taken
26 Nov 2008 20:27:53 GMT
Source: Reuters
(Adds reports of police chief killed)

By Phil Smith

MUMBAI, Nov 26 (Reuters) - At least 80 people were killed in attacks apparently aimed at tourists in India's financial capital Mumbai on Wednesday night and television channels said Westerners were being held hostage at two five-star hotels.

At least 250 people were wounded, police said. Indian television channels reported the chief of Mumbai's police anti-terrorist squad, Hemant Karkare, was among those killed.

Attackers targeted the Cafe Leopold, perhaps the most famous restaurant and hang-out for tourists in Mumbai, as well as hospitals and railway stations.

"I guess they were after foreigners, because they were asking for British or American passports," said Rakesh Patel, a British witness who lives in Hong Kong and was staying at the Taj hotel on business. "They had bombs."

"They came from the restaurant and took us up the stairs," he told the NDTV news channel, smoke stains all over his face. "Young boys, maybe 20 years old, 25 years old. They had two guns."

India has suffered a wave of bomb attacks in recent years. Most have been blamed on Islamist militants, although police have also arrested suspected Hindu extremists thought to be behind some of the attacks.

Police said targets included the luxury Taj and Oberoi hotels, with television stations showing the lobby of both hotels on fire and people being evacuated from the Oberoi with their hands on their heads.

Fresh explosions were heard in the early hours of Thursday.

"An encounter is going on at the two hotels, the situation is grave," Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister told CNN-IBN TV. "Our men are on the job."

Maharashtra state police chief A.N. Roy said attackers had fired automatic weapons indiscriminately, and used grenades, adding that they were still holed up in some buildings.

"These are terrorist strikes in at least seven places," he told the NDTV news channel.

"Unknown terrorists have gone with automatic weapons and opened fire indiscriminately. At a few places they even used grenades."

Some of the injured were evacuated from the Taj on the hotel's golden luggage carts, while waiters in black and white formal wear and chefs were seen leaving the Oberoi.

"The lobby of the Taj hotel is on fire," a police spokesman said. "We are trying to find out how many people are inside the hotel."

more

What could this mean? It could hold some significance.

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1709226

ATF chief, encounter specialist killed

Mumbai: Three top police officials, including Mumbai Police Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare, were among the nine police officers killed as security forces took on terrorists in Mumbai in the early hours of Thursday, authorities said.
Additional Police Commissioner Ashok Kamte, Mumbai Police 'encounter specialist' Vijay Salaskar were also killed in separate gun battles following a series of attacks in India's financial capital, the officials said.
Karkare was heading investigations into several recent cases of terrorist attacks here. There were six other police officials among the dozens killed in the coordinated terror attacks late Wednesday night.
Indo-Asian News Service

Mumbai Mirror, a daily newspaper affiliated to the Times of India, is carrying a real-time snippets updates on this page:
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/15/2008112620081126225737871602ddf01/Mumbai-under-seige-Maharashtra-under-red-alert

info on who are the terrorists... whether local or foreign, Hindu or Muslim or Bhuddist, religious, nationalist, etc...

I worry for my friends in the area, both Indian and other

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

over here --> http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/1117.html

edit to add: Warning! graphic ~ tina

CNA
Posted: 27 November 2008 0523 hrs

MUMBAI, India: A group calling itself the 'Deccan Mujahedeen' claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attacks in India's commercial hub Mumbai that killed more than 60 people, the Press Trust of India said.

The outfit sent emails to various media outlets saying it carried out the attacks across the city, the news agency said.

Another little-known Islamic group, the Islamic Security Force-Indian Mujahedeen, had claimed responsibility for serial blasts last month in India's northeast state of Assam that claimed nearly 80 lives.

Six weeks earlier, the capital New Delhi had been hit by a series of bombs in crowded markets that left more than 20 dead.

Those blasts were claimed by a group calling itself the Indian Mujahedeen. - AFP/de

report

Can Agonist moderators please replace the newsreport content given at the top-most with a latest one?

Times of India is now flashing this updated report on its site:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Terrorists_strike_Mumbai_16_dead_many_hurt/articleshow/3761410.cms

Mumbai: In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns ncluding AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city's most high-profile targets -- the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard -- killing at least 80 and sending more than 900 to hospital, according to latest reports
....Two terrorists were reported holed up inside the Oberoi Hotel. Fresh firing has been reported at Oberoi and Army has entered the hotel to flush out the terrorists.
...Well after midnight, sources said two of the terrorists were shot and wounded at Girgaum in south Mumbai. The two were driving in a commandeered silver-coloured Skoda car. Earlier, these men had sprayed bullets from a police Bolero, outside the Metro Adlabs multiplex.

The attacks occurred at the busiest places. Besides hotels and hospitals, terrorists struck at railway stations, Crawford Market, Wadi Bunder and on the Western Express Highway near the airport. Several of these places are within a one-km radius of the commissioner of police's office.

"This is definitely a terrorist strike. Seven places have been attacked with automatic weapons and grenades. Terrorists are still holed up in three locations Taj and Oberoi hotels and GT Hospital. Encounters are on at all three places," said Maharashtra DGP A N Roy.

St George's Hospital and G T Hospital were said to have received 75 bodies and more than 250 injured people, additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev said. Bombay Hospital got two bodies and 30 injured people were admitted there; Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle, got three dismembered bodies.

Three of the deaths occurred inside the Taj and one G T Hospital attendant died in a shootout inside the hospital. There were reports of people cowering under tables and chairs at both the Taj as well as G T Hospital.

Metro Junction resident Manoj Goel said: "My brother, Manish, died in the firing at Colaba's Hamaal Galli." Cops fired back at the men -- probably from one of the Lashkar groups, dressed in black and with backpacks and SRPF, Crime Branch, ATS and teams of military commandos were summoned to the spot. Train services at CST were suspended and all roads leading to and from south Mumbai were blockaded.

as I know a couple who were supposed to be staying in Mumbai, but of course I don't know where.

There's nothing to do but repeat- "the odds are in my favor they're not involved", and wait.

I've had to do that in London and of course NYC.

It's always dicey but inevitable to fear for friends- every victim is an innocent.

_{Yes, I can come up with a post-election signature, just... not... yet...}

Am signing off now. I (deliberately) have no TV at home & so caught all news only on the internet. I will pray that Bombayites and other Indians do not indulge in callous, ugly reactions to the tragic events of the last few hours. The minorities in Bombay ought not to suffer from any violent ugly reaction from extremist Hindu groups. I pray.