Former U.S. envoy asks Bush not to meet Mahathir:Washington's

Former U.S. envoy asks Bush not to meet Mahathir:Washington's
ambassador to Malaysia at the height of the Anwar crisis implored
President George W. Bush on Wednesday to withdraw his invitation
to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to visit the White House next
month. Former ambassador John Mallot's three-year stint in
Malaysia covered the period when Mahathir sacked his Deputy Prime
Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who was then jailed. --Reuters

Dutch army chief resigns over Srebrenica report:Dutch army chief
Gen. Ad van Baal resigned on Wednesday, a day after the
government quit following a report critical of the failure of
Dutch peacekeepers to stop the 1995 massacre in the Bosnian town
of Srebrenica. --AFP

U.S. making same mistakes as Soviets did: The United States is
making the same mistakes in Afghanistan as the Soviet Union
during its disastrous decade-long occupation of the war-torn
country, a senior Russian envoy warned on Wednesday. Russian Duma
member Dmitry Rogozin told a press conference in Pakistan that by
maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan the United States
would only create further instability rather than secure peace.
--AFP

Egypt suspends agricultural ties with Israel:Scientific, research
and guidance cooperation between Egypt and Israel in the field of
agriculture has stopped completely immediately after the
cabinet's decision to halt all contacts with Israel except those
that serve the Palestinian cause," Egyptian Agriculture Minister
and Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Waly told the Egyptian
Parliament. --AP

Pakistan accuses India of abducting, torturing diplomat:The
Pakistani Foreign Ministry said Ali Abbas, an official of the
High Commission of Pakistan, was abducted in New Delhi by at
least 12 Indian intelligence officers on Tuesday. Indian External
Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said Abbas was in
Indian custody on a spying charge and said there had been "no
maltreatment." --AP

Mubarak cancels meeting with Powell: President Hosni Mubarak
canceled a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
hours before the U.S. envoy arrived on Wednesday to wrap up a
Mideast peacemaking tour Arabs have called a failure. Officials
in the Egyptian president's did not say why the meeting,
announced a day earlier, was canceled. Many were likely to see it
as a snub. --AP