World Briefs

LONDON – The United States has told Pakistan it expects nothing short of complete cooperation in investigations into the terrorist rampage in nuclear rival India. Pakistan's response will be a test of the will of the new civilian government, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.

"What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads," Rice said. "I don't want to jump to any conclusions myself on this, but I do think that this is a time for complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation and that's what we expect." At President George W. Bush's direction, Rice is cutting short a European trip to visit India later this week. Attacks spanning three days killed more than 170 people in the Indian commercial capital Mumbai, including six Americans.

BANGKOK, Thailand – Protesters trying to force the prime minister's resignation brought in thousands of reinforcements to occupy Bangkok's two besieged airports Monday, extending the political paralysis that has stranded 300,000 travelers.

Since the protesters seized the airport last Tuesday, all commercial flights have been suspended in and out of Bangkok. The protests, which come at the height of the tourist season, also halted vital postal air services and the arrival of everything from specialized medicines to raw fish for Bangkok's Japanese restaurants.

The tactic apparently has been viewed as a success: The People's Alliance for Democracy shifted focus and told its members occupying the prime minister's office compound for the last three months to leave and join their compatriots at the airport, after a call more joined in.

NEW YORK – The Thanksgiving shopping weekend doesn't appear to have been the disaster some had feared, but tempered buying and unprecedented deep discounts likely resulted in soft sales. Now, online retailers are ramping up heavy-duty deals to turn skittish shoppers into "Cyber Monday" spenders.

"Cyber Monday," a term coined by the trade group National Retail Federation in 2005 to describe the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, is the unofficial kickoff for the busy online retail season.

The nation's merchants are struggling to entice financially strapped shoppers for the rest of the holiday shopping season, expected to be the weakest in decades. Online sales are expected to be fairly flat after years of strong growth.

"The consumer clearly is showing us that there is a holiday to be had, but the consumer wants bigger deals. And they are not panicking," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, a market research group.