Kuwait's appeals court will review next week a challenge filed by opposition figure Mussalam al-Barrak against serving a five-year jail term for insulting the emir, his lawyer said on Thursday.

"The court set April 22 to review the appeal we have filed," defense attorney Abdulrahman al-Barrak wrote on Twitter.

Kuwait has come through with the $300 million it pledged towards aid for stricken Syrians at a January donor's conference, the emirate and the United Nations said Thursday, urging other nations to follow its lead.

"We are ... matching our words with our deeds," Kuwait ambassador Dharar Abdul-Razzak Razzooqi told reporters in Geneva, detailing how the cash had been split between nine U.N. agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Cyber activists hacked into Kuwait's information ministry website and posted a speech that earned an opposition leader a five-year prison term, the ministry said on Wednesday.

"The ministry's electronic website has been penetrated by hackers," a source at the ministry said in a brief statement carried by the official KUNA news agency.

A huge earthquake that struck Iran's rural southeast region killed one woman and injured more than two dozen other people, media reports Wednesday cited officials as saying.

"A woman was killed by a mountain landslide following the quake," Alireza Shahraki, governor of Khash city, was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying.

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday urged Kuwait to drop charges against people accused of offending the emir, a day after a former MP was handed a jail term for insulting the Gulf state's ruler.

"The Kuwaiti authorities should drop criminal charges against dozens of online activists, journalists, and politicians for legitimately exercising their rights to freedom of expression," HRW said in a statement.

A Kuwaiti court on Monday sentenced main opposition leader and former MP Mussallam al-Barrak to five years in prison after he was convicted of insulting the emir.

"The court has sentenced the defendant Mussallam al-Barrak to five years in prison with immediate effect," said judge Wael al-Atiqi.

Kuwait's cabinet has approved a new media bill stipulating a 10-year jail term for religious offenses and a fine of more than $1 million for criticizing the emir, local media reported on Thursday.

The government of the oil-rich Gulf state, under pressure from Islamist, nationalist and liberal opposition groups, has not released the "combined media law" but local newspapers published leaked details.

Kuwait said on Wednesday it will finance projects worth $1.3 billion (992 million euros) in its Gulf partner Bahrain as part of pledges made two years ago, an official statement said.

The funds will be used to finance part of four development projects over the next few years, including power transmission networks, housing projects and a key road, the state-owned Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development said.

Kuwait parliament on Wednesday passed a bill requiring the government to buy 744 million dinars ($2.6 billion) in private bank loans owed by citizens and reschedule repayment after waiving interest.

Fifty members, including all 13 cabinet ministers present, voted for the bill that according to some MPs would cost state coffers between $1.0 billion and $2.5 billion over a 15-year period.

Kuwait's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill to combat money laundering and funding of terror groups, stipulating jail terms of up to 20 years for violators.

Forty-five members, including all cabinet ministers present, voted for the bill while five MPs abstained. The law becomes effective after it is signed by the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state.