London, April 26
The Indian government was in touch with former Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina when she was in London after the Awami League leader was banned from returning home by the caretaker military-backed government.

Hasina for early elections As she prepared to return home, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has demanded early elections which her Awami League party will fight to establish a secular democracy, rejecting "any kind of extremism". The 60-year-old daughter of Bangladesh's founder leader Sheikh Mujibur Rehman attributed yesterday's decision of the military-backed caretaker government to lift the ban on her entry to the " tremendous national and international pressure". She had been prevented from boarding a British Airways flight from London to Dhaka on Sunday last at the instance of the Bangladesh government. — PTI

Hasina said this shortly after the ban was lifted yesterday within four days after she was stopped from boarding a flight to Dhaka from London.

"India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke to me and the Indian High Commissioner Kamalesh Sharma met me here," Hasina, chief of the Awami League, told PTI in an interview here. She did not give further details.

Hasina said her party always valued "friendly relations with India and other neighbours."

“It is during my regime we signed a 30-year treaty with India for sharing of the Ganges river waters. When we came to power there were 64,000 refugees in India and during my regime we brought back all the refugees." The Awami League chief gave credit to "media and international pressure" for the lifting of the ban.

"It is the pressure of the people at home and the role of media at home and abroad that forced them(caretaker government). There was tremendous national and international pressure and because of the pressure they had to withdraw (the ban)," she said.

Hasina also said it was her will-power and determination to return to her motherland which prevailed upon the caretaker government to reverse its decision. "They thought I will wilt under pressure but they were mistaken," said Hasina, who had faced a grenade attack on her life and became deaf in her right ear.

Washington, April 26
Setting the stage for a major showdown with the White House, the House of Representatives has passed a Democrats-backed war spending bill, which sets a timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and the Senate is expected to follow suit.

Brushing aside a threat by President George W Bush to veto the bill, the House late last night passed it by a 218-208 vote, which was preceded by mounting rhetoric and even exchange of insults by Democrats and Republicans.

The Senate is also expected to pass the $ 124 billion war spending bill along party lines despite the pleas of the top American military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, who gave closed door presentations of the ongoing operations in Baghdad to lawmakers until late last evening.

The Democrats, who dominate the Congress, hope to send the legislation to the White House on Monday — exactly four years after President Bush declared that major combat operations had ended in Iraq. — PTI

Athens (Greece), April 26
Karolos Papoulias, the President of Greece, said today India and Greece would work jointly towards battling the “scourge” of human trafficking. Asked at a joint press briefing for the Indian and Greek media whether the issue came up during his talks with visiting Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Papoulias said the two sides would speak on the issue later in the day. He added that “the two countries would make a joint effort to fight against this scourge again humanity”.

“Talks on this will proceed on this as well. Any form of human trafficking is a disgrace to society,” said the Greek President. Papoulias’ statement on human trafficking assumes significance in the wake of law enforcement officials in India busting a human trafficking scam that has already led to the arrest of Babubhai Katara, an MP from the BJP, and a nation-wide probe into the suspected involvement of other MPs and Legislative Assembly members.

Kalam said India and Greece would work towards increasing bilateral trade to $ one billion by 2010. He said India was working towards economic development and would spend over $ 300 billion on infrastructure development within the decade.