New Delhi, Nov. 29 : Polling has begun in national capital Delhi amidst tight security for electing representatives to the new assembly.

Elections are being held in 69 of the 70 Assembly seats. Polls in the Rajendra Nagar Assembly constituency has been rescheduled following the death of the BJP candidate, Puran Chand Yogi. It will be held on December 13.

Voters of Delhi will determine the fate of 863 candidates. The highest number of candidates is 25 in the New Delhi constituency and the lowest is three in the Ghonda constituency. Eighty three women are contesting the polls in the national capital, ten of them from the New Delhi constituency.

Sydney  - An Australian businessman freed after 42 hours of cowering in a Mumbai hotel room told Saturday of his liberation and the mixed emotions he felt.

"Being tired and not sleeping, it's hard to gain control of your emotions, and when you speak to family, speak to my wife and my kids, you just fall apart," wine company executive Garrick Harvison told Australia's national broadcaster ABC. "It's nice to be out now and just keep your chin up and stay positive."

Harvison said he counted out rations of peanuts and chocolates from the minibar as guns popped and grenades exploded in the corridors outside.

Washington  - The US State Department late Friday updated to five the death toll of American citizens known to have been killed in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

The US officials have not released any names. Earlier Friday, they confirmed the death of two Americans.

"The consulate in Mumbai will continue to work with the Indian police until all missing American citizens have been accounted for," said Gordon Duguid, acting deputy spokesman for the US State Department, in a statement.

The death toll at all 10 sites targetted by terrorists starting Wednesday evening has been put at 140 to 160 by nongovernmental estimates in India.

Mumbai, Nov. 29 : The lone terrorist nabbed alive by National Security Guard (NSG) commandos has reportedly his Mumbai Police interrogators that he and his 39 colleagues were given the impression that they would come back alive after carrying out their mission of mayhem in India’s commercial capital.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama late Friday declared that India's "great democracy" and the global coalition against terrorism would stand united in the face of massive terrorist attacks in India's commercial capital Mumbai.

"These terrorists who targeted innocent civilians will not defeat India's great democracy, nor shake the will of a global coalition to defeat them," Obama said in a statement.

Mumbai, Nov. 29 (ANI): National Security Guard commandos have begun a what they say is their final and probably biggest counter-terror offensives on Mumbai’s five star Taj Mahal Hotel to flush out the two or three remaining terrorists holed up inside.

Media, particularly television reports said that as the offensive was launched five large explosions were heard from inside the hotel''s heritage building early on Saturday followed by intense gunfire between NSG commandos and the terrorists.