Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat has said it was important for Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement to stick to their dialogue to resolve several issues.

“What's important is for the dialogue between al-Mustaqbal and Hizbullah to continue,” said Jumblat in remarks published in As Safir daily on Monday.

Saudi Arabian blogger Raef Badawi avoided further flogging on Friday, Amnesty International said, marking the fifth straight week that his 1,000-lash sentence has not been carried out.

The case of Badawi, 31, has sparked worldwide outrage and criticism from the United Nations, United States, the European Union, Canada and others.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji will travel to Saudi Arabia next week to attend a meeting for military leaders from more than 20 partner nations in a U.S.-led coalition to degrade and destroy Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Friday, the meeting is a follow up for the first one that was held in Washington last year.

Two Saudi women's rights activists, one of whom tried to defy a ban on female driving, have been freed after more than two months in jail, a campaigner said on Friday.

"Yes, Loujain is free," said the campaigner who spoke with Loujain Hathloul after she left prison.

Saudi customs agents have foiled an attempt to smuggle in almost 3,000 live "ornamental" birds from Bahrain, official media reported on Thursday.

"They were found hidden in three vehicles entering the kingdom" via the King Fahd Causeway from the island nation, the Saudi Press Agency said.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday beheaded a convicted Pakistani drug smuggler, bringing to 29 the number of executions in the first six weeks of the year.

Babir Hussein Mohammed Ishaq was found guilty of transporting heroin which he had ingested, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday beheaded a Yemeni drug trafficker, the interior ministry announced, raising to 28 the number of executions in the kingdom this year.

Nayef al-Briki was found guilty of "receiving a large amount" of hashish and attempting to sell it, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri stressed on Wednesday that the Saudi embassy in Beirut increased its measures to avert any possible security threats.

“We have taken all the necessary precautions and the Lebanese state, according to norms, is responsible for the security of the embassy,” Asiri said in comments published in the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

Saudi Arabia beheaded a convicted Syrian drug smuggler on Tuesday, bringing to 27 the number of executions in the kingdom this year.

Authorities carried out the sentence against Abdullah Mohammed al-Ahmad al-Anzi for trafficking amphetamine pills, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Standard and Poor's has lowered the outlook for the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia to negative and downgraded its Gulf partners Oman and Bahrain on sliding oil prices. 

But despite the large budget deficit planned by Riyadh for this year, the agency maintained its sovereign credit ratings for the kingdom, as well as neighboring Abu Dhabi and Qatar, citing their "very strong fiscal positions."