Russian President Vladimir Putin met recently with Saudi Arabian foreign minister Saud al-Faisal, a Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday, as both countries appeared to step up dialogue over the war in Syria.

Putin and Saudi Arabia's top diplomat met "one or two weeks ago", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Agence France Presse, refusing to say where the encounter took place or what was discussed.

A Saudi court on Monday sentenced two people to death and jailed a third for 25 years after they were convicted of violence during Shiite protests, state media reported.

Scores of Shiites are on trial in Saudi Arabia after they were detained for involvement in anti-regime protests staged in oil-rich Eastern Province since February 2011.

A Saudi prince lost an early round of a multi-million pound British court battle on Monday against a woman who claims she was married to his late father King Fahd.

Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd argued his father had "state immunity" and that the English High Court had no jurisdiction to hear Janan Harb's claim that the former Saudi ruler owed her millions of pounds.

A Saudi special court jailed 33 people for up to 30 years after finding them guilty of "forming a terror cell" among other charges, state news agency SPA reported Monday.

The 33 are part of a group of 71 people who have been on trial since Sunday for various charges including accusing the kingdom's rulers of "infidelity," said SPA

Saudi Arabia is preparing to launch its first sovereign wealth fund to manage budget surpluses from a rise in crude prices estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars, state media reported Saturday.

The central bank has managed investment of the kingdom's foreign currency reserves until now, much of it in U.S. Treasury bonds.

Justice Minister Ahsraf Rifi said on Saturday that the security stability in Lebanon would only be fruitful if local and foreign efforts were exerted.

In comments published in An Nahar newspaper, Rifi revealed that during a recent visit to Kuwait officials inquired him on the situation in Lebanon in order to take a decision concerning a travel ban to the country.

As Egypt prepares to swear in its fourth leader since 2011, a huge slice of $1.5 billion in U.S. aid remains in deep-freeze amid fears the nation is sliding back into authoritarianism.

Former general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will be crowned as the next president on Sunday after three years of political turmoil since the ousting of long-time iron-fisted leader Hosni Mubarak.

Muslims pilgrims from around the world are pouring into the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, undeterred by the spread of the MERS virus which has killed 284 people in the kingdom.

The mysterious Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is considered a deadlier but less transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, nine percent of whom died.

World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim was in Beirut on Tuesday for talks with Lebanese officials on the country's economic situation and mainly a proposal to fund an electricity project, which was welcomed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

Al-Liwaa newspaper quoted sources as saying that Salam reacted positively to the funding that is expected to have low interests.

The head of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim is scheduled to arrive in Lebanon on Monday on a two-day visit aimed at discussing the case of Syrian refugees in the country, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Kim had expressed his dismay with the international community's support for Lebanon in helping it contain the burden of the refugees, noting that the country and Jordan are bearing the brunt of the displaced, said the daily.