North Korea scored their first Asian Cup goal in 23 years on Wednesday but Saudi Arabia dashed hopes of an upset by storming back for a 4-1 win.

A second defeat in Group B left the North Koreans on the brink of elimination while breathing new life into a Saudi campaign that had been flagging after they were stunned 1-0 by China in their opening game at the weekend.

The army denied on Wednesday a report saying that the military received weapons under two grants by Saudi Arabia that are below the standards.

“The report is completely false,” the army command said in a communique.

An Iranian newspaper was told Monday it faces a court hearing over an article which is allegedly offensive to Saudi Arabia's ailing King Abdullah.

The king, who is breathing with the help of a tube due to pneumonia, is in hospital in Riyadh, prompting frenzied debate about the future of the oil-rich Gulf state.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it beheaded a Myanmar female child-killer, bringing to seven the number of death sentences carried out this year in the conservative Muslim kingdom.

After a trial, Layla bint Abdul Mutaleb Bassim was executed for killing her husband's daughter Kalthoum bint Abdul Rahman bin Ghulam Gadir, aged six, the interior ministry said, quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency.

A suicide bomber who carried out an attack on Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq that killed three guards was a national of the kingdom, the interior ministry said Sunday.

Three other assailants who died in the January 5 attack have already been identified as Saudis.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has arrived in OPEC's leading oil producer Saudi Arabia, state media reported on Sunday, after he visited Iran to discuss the impact of plummeting crude prices.

Maduro landed on Saturday in Riyadh where Deputy Crown Prince Moqren bin Abdul Aziz received him, the Saudi Press Agency said.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has officially informed Saudi officials that Lebanon will receive the first batch of French weapons after March, As Safir daily reported Saturday.

The newspaper said that Le Drian gave the information to the Saudi officials during a recent visit to Riyadh.

Three assailants killed during an attack on Saudi border guards on the frontier with Iraq this week were Saudi citizens, the interior ministry said on Friday.

An investigation is still under way to determine the nationality of a fourth assailant, a suicide bomber, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

A Saudi convicted of murder was beheaded by the sword on Wednesday, in the fourth execution so far this month in the conservative Muslim kingdom, the interior ministry announced.

Suwaileh al-Sahimi was executed in the Muslim holy city of Medina, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

A weak global economy is the main reason for "tensions" in world oil markets, Saudi Arabia's crown prince said Tuesday, in a speech on behalf of ailing King Abdullah.

Prince Salman also indirectly touched on the violence ravaging Syria and neighboring Iraq, saying Saudi Arabia remains "an oasis of peace" despite turmoil around it.