A founding member of one of the few independent human rights groups in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, a regional rights group said on Wednesday.

Mohammed al-Bajadi was sentenced last Thursday by the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, whose jurisdiction is related to "terrorism", the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) said in a statement.

The General Security detained a suicide bomber at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport on her way to Saudi Arabia, media reports said on Wednesday.

According to As Safir newspaper, Fatima al-Khalida was traveling to Riyadh when the General Security members detained her upon a document circulated by the Lebanese Army.

Sweden announced Tuesday it will not renew a military cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, effectively ending defense ties due to mounting concerns over rights issues.

"It will be broken off," Prime Minister Stefan Loefven said on public radio of a 2005 Saudi-Swedish agreement. 

Saudi Arabia is trying to minimize the impact of plunging oil prices on its economy, King Salman said Tuesday in a wide-ranging address which promised a more diversified economy.

"The low prices witnessed by the oil market are having an effect on the income of the kingdom. However, we are working towards minimizing the impact on development," Salman, 79, said in his first major speech since acceding to the throne on January 23.

Saudi Arabia on Monday vowed "zero tolerance" against the illegal employment of migrants, more than a year after tens of thousands of foreigners were deported in an earlier crackdown.

The labor and interior ministries "confirm that the inspection campaigns aim to track violators of labor and residency," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was sworn in Monday as a member of King Salman's new cabinet, pressing on in a post he has held for four decades.

Saud, first named in 1975 and the world's longest-serving foreign minister, pledged to carry out his duties "with honesty, integrity and sincerity" as he was sworn in at the Yamamah Palace in Riyadh.

A widely-followed "whistle-blower" who tweeted about the Saudi royal family said Monday he has returned to Twitter after a brief suspension by the social media platform of his account.

"I am back with the same account," the user known as @mujtahidd said in an email to Agence France Presse.

The Swedish foreign minister accused Saudi Arabia of blocking her speech at an Arab League meeting Monday due to her stance on human rights in the region, Swedish media reported.

"The explanation we have been given is that Sweden has highlighted the situation for democracy and human rights and that is why they do not want me to speak," Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem told news agency TT in Cairo.

Saudi Arabia on Monday beheaded a Filipino convicted of murdering his boss, bringing to 40 the number of executions this year.

In just over two months, Saudi Arabia has beheaded almost half the number of foreigners and Saudis executed during all of 2014, according to Agence France Presse tallies.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said that the recent successes of the Lebanese army against terrorists are due to the military aid to Lebanon and the support it is getting from across the political spectrum.

“The continued successes of the Lebanese army recently go back to military aid and the huge support that the political parties and citizens are providing it with,” Salam was quoted by An Nahar daily as telling his visitors.