Bhagalpur, Mar 29 : Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday claimed that her party was the only alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose policies are influenced by big houses and brokers.

"The BSP is the only alternative to the Congress and the BJP," Mayawati told a rally here.

The BSP supremo blamed the Congress and the BJP for ruining country during their stints in power.

Hluboka Castle, Czech Republic  - Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller on Saturday had to abandon a meeting in the Czech Republic with fellow European Union ministers after suffering from exhaustion and being rushed to hospital.

"He was not feeling well in the morning," Zuzana Opletalova, a spokeswoman for the Czech Foreign Ministry, told German Press Agency dpa.

Subsequent check-ups at the Ceske Budejovice County Hospital showed that the 66-year-old minister had "nothing serious," Opletalova said.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel repeated Saturday her call for improved regulation of the financial markets, just days ahead of the Group of 20 (G20) summit of leading economies in London.

Speaking at a political gathering of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) the chancellor blamed "market excesses" for the current crisis.

"The world is standing at a crossroad," Merkel said, adding, "we can't afford such crises every ten years."

Islamabad  - Pakistani troops on Saturday destroyed several Taliban hideouts in a restive tribal region and killed at least 26 militants, a day after a suicide bombing at a mosque left 53 people dead, including 15 security personnel, intelligence official said.

More than a dozen militants were also injured when gunship helicopters and artillery targeted insurgents' positions in the Yaka Ghonda area of Mohmand tribal district.

New Delhi: Former Indian skipper Mohammed Azharuddin is all set to add another feather to its cap.

For the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections, the Congress party has decided to field Azharuddin for the Moradabad seat in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Currently, the seat is being occupied by Shafiqur Rahman Barq of the Samajwadi Party.

With this, the Congress party has named its candidates for 53 of the 80 seats in UP.

Copenhagen - Danish television reported Saturday that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed reservations about the choice of Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next NATO secretary general, indirectly contradicting remarks a day earlier by Turkey's president.

In a telephone interview with television network NTV in Copenhagen, Erdogan said there was "considerable irritation in the Islamic countries" over Rasmussen's actions during the early-2006 controversy over the Prophet Mohammed cartoons in Denmark.