JOHN GIBBINS / Union-Tribune Shoppers woke before sunrise to line up outside Best Buy in Mission Valley, hoping to take advantage of Black Friday deals.

At 4:45 a.m. yesterday, Kate Rose was standing near the end of a line that stretched hundreds of people long, snaking around the parking lot of the Mission Valley Best Buy and onto the sidewalk. Her brother, Cullen Rose, squinted at the front doors that would open minutes later and made a quick calculation. For these Black Friday shoppers, it was about the distance between Earth and the moon.

MUMBAI, India – Indian commandos took control of the Taj Mahal hotel, the last nest of terrorist resistance, this morning, the third day of a siege that has shaken India, raised tensions with neighboring Pakistan and prompted searing questions about the failure of the authorities to anticipate the attack or to react swiftly as it unfolded.

• Pakistani militant group focus of U.S. intelligence

WASHINGTON – James L. Jones, a retired four-star general, was among a mostly Republican crowd watching a presidential debate in October when Barack Obama casually mentioned that he got a lot of his advice on foreign policy from Jones. “Explain yourself!” some of the Republicans demanded, as Jones later recalled it.

When Detective Jaime Limón gets recognized on the streets, it usually turns out to be a guy he has arrested at one point or another during his 17 years with the San Diego Police Department. His latest encounters with the public, however, have left him a little bewildered – and flattered.