Amman - King Abdullah II of Jordan on Monday rejected Israel's excavations at al-Magharebah Gate in East Jerusalem as an "illegal" step that could affect the Islamic nature of the holy city.

Abdullah made the remarks during a meeting with the visiting UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura, a royal court statement said.

"The monarch asserted the illegality of the Israeli moves at al-Magharebah Gate and urged Israel to abide by the relevant international law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Convention of 1954," according to the statement.

London (dpa) - US tycoon Donald Trump Monday won a long and acrimonious battle over plans to build a luxury golf course, hotel complex and apartments in Scotland, leaving local residents and environmental groups the disappointed losers.

John Swinney, finance secretary in the regional government of Scotland, said approval of the 1-billion-pound (1.6-billion dollar) golf resort would bring "a significant economic and social benefit" to Scotland.

The complex is to include two golf-courses, a luxury hotel with 450 rooms and hundreds of luxury apartments in an area of outstanding natural beauty near Aberdeen, on the north-east coast of Scotland.

Warsaw - The Polish president will attend an upcoming European Union summit alone, TOK FM radio reported, after the prime minister said he would yield his place at the Brussels negotiating table in the latest round of their tense power struggle.

"I will inform the president if he's decided he must go to Brussels, then I will yield," Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently said, adding he would inform President Lech Kaczynski about the government's stance on issues to be discussed at the November 7 meeting.

Rome - More than 120 countries party to the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous substances have agreed to add the pesticide tributyltin to a global trade "watch list," a United Nations agency said Monday.

Tributyltin (TBT) compounds are pesticides used in antifouling paints for ship hulls and are toxic to fish, molluscs and other aquatic organisms. The International Maritime Organization has moved to ban the use of antifouling paints containing TBT compounds.

Baghdad - Iraq's parliament approved a measure Monday that regulates the makeup of provincial councils, spurring complaints from Christian groups, which say the new system leaves them underrepresented.

Lawmaker Mohammed al-Khazaali said that would mean one guaranteed Christian seat on the Basra council, one seat each for Christians and Mandaean Sabians on the Baghdad council and one seat apiece for Christians, Yazidis and Shabaks on the Nineveh council.

Lahore, Nov 3 : Senior Pakistan batsman Mohammad Yousuf has flown to India to join the rebel Indian Cricket League (ICL) despite his selection on Monday in the national team for three one-day internationals.

''He didn''t tell us he was going to India. We heard about it ourselves two hours back. We called up his home and his wife has confirmed he has gone to India to play in the ICL,'' Pakistan Cricket Board operations director Zakir Khan told a news conference on Monday.