Saudi Arabia announced on Monday a record budget of $228 billion for 2014, slightly up from $218.7 billion budgeted for this year, Al-Ekhbariyah state news channel reported.

The world's largest oil exporter also expected to conclude this year with a budget surplus of 206 billion riyals ($54.9 billion, 40 billion euros), after budgeting for a surplus of around $613 million.

A Shiite citizen of mainly Sunni Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for violence and protesting against Riyadh's 2011 intervention in neighboring Bahrain, media reported Monday.

The defendant, whose name was not given, was found guilty of taking part in protests in Qatif in Eastern Province and calling for the withdrawal of Saudi forces sent to Bahrain.

Diplomats urged on Monday Lebanese foes no to delay the cabinet formation pending a Saudi-Iranian rapprochement, which might not happen anytime soon, depending on the developments in war-torn Syria.

A prominent diplomat said in comments published in As Safir newspaper that Saudi Arabia advises Lebanese arch-foes to “resolve their disputes on their own and not to wait for Tehran and Riyadh to bridge the gap between them,” ahead of the upcoming presidential elections.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said Saturday he was "optimistic" regarding the outlook for the world oil market in 2014, which he expects to remain stable.

"I estimate that stability will continue in terms of supply, demand and prices," Naimi said at the opening of a meeting in Doha of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The Saudi health ministry announced Saturday a new MERS death, raising to 56 the number of people killed by the coronavirus in the country with the most fatalities.

The victim was a 73-year-old Saudi man, who suffered from chronic illnesses, the ministry said on its website.

Nine movies including works by Palestinian, Danish and Hong Kong filmmakers have been shortlisted for best foreign language Oscar, organizers announced Friday.

But films left out included Saudi Arabia's first ever candidate and Pakistan's first entry in five decades, while an Oscar-winning Iranian director also failed to make the cut.

The United Nations' human rights office raised concerns Friday over the treatment of a Saudi activist punished for advocating a constitutional monarchy in the conservative oil-rich kingdom.

"We are deeply concerned about the intimidation and sometimes prosecution of individuals in Saudi Arabia for exercising their right to freedom of expression," said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

A Saudi appeals court has upheld jail and lashes for an Egyptian lawyer whose arrest on drug trafficking charges last year sparked a row with Cairo, a newspaper said Thursday.

The five-year sentence and 300 lashes meted out by a Jeddah court against Ahmed al-Gizawi are now final, Okaz daily said, adding that the execution of the lashing sentence will begin "within a month."

Ethiopia has brought home close to 140,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday, a month after the oil-rich kingdom started deporting undocumented migrants.

Thousands are continuing to arrive daily from Saudi Arabia, where a seven-month amnesty period for migrants expired in November and where Ethiopia says three of its nationals were killed in police clashes as the migrants prepared to leave.

Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri said on Wednesday that the security situation in Lebanon is “deteriorating,” denying that the mission received lately any threats.

“We haven't received any threats in particular but we are taking all the necessary security measures,” Asiri said in comments published in the Saudi al-Watan daily on the sidelines of the third general meeting of Saudi ambassadors and heads of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's missions abroad.