Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani man on Sunday after he was convicted of smuggling drugs into the ultra-conservative Gulf state, the interior ministry said.

Mohammed Zayer Khan Qol was arrested as he was "smuggling a large amount of heroin" into the kingdom, said the statement published by the official SPA news agency.

Scores of Saudi students were transferred from Lebanon to study in the U.S. and other countries after the deteriorating security situation in the country, the Saudi al-Yaum daily reported on Sunday.

The newspaper said that around 45 students, who were studying in Lebanese universities, have traveled to the U.S., the UK and Australia to continue their education there.

Two separate meetings for the Higher Islamic Council were held on Saturday, the first was chaired by Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani in Dar al-Fatwa, while the second was held at al-Amin mosque and headed by his deputy Sheikh Omar Mesqawi, amid the lingering dispute over the extension of the term of the HIC.

The Council is divided between the members led by the Mufti and those headed by Mesqawi.

Militants who launched a brazen daylight assault on the Yemeni defense ministry that killed 56 people were mostly Saudis, investigators said on Saturday.

The finding, in a preliminary report on the inquiry into Thursday's attack, adds credibility to a claim of responsibility by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which was formed from a merger of the jihadist network's Saudi and Yemeni branches.

Jordan was Friday elected to a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council, taking the seat that Saudi Arabia won and then rejected in a protest over Syria's civil war.

Jordan, which will take up the seat on January 1, won 178 votes from among the 193 members of the U.N. General Assembly and was the only candidate put forward for the vacant post.

The United States has no plans to scale back its strong military presence in the Gulf despite a diplomatic opening with Iran, Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel said Friday.

Speaking to sailors on the deck of a U.S. ship at a naval base in Bahrain, Hagel said the American military would maintain its high-profile role in the region during a six-month interim deal with Iran.

President Michel Suleiman received a phone call from a prominent Saudi figure, thanking him on his statements that support Saudi Arabia, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

Baabda Palace sources told the newspaper that Suleiman's “stance wasn't to take sides with any axis in the region but to defend Lebanon's interest.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat criticized on Thursday how some Lebanese officials were quick to accuse Saudi Arabia of being behind the Iranian embassy in Lebanon, saying that they should at least await for the facts to be revealed.

He said in a statement: “It was better to accuse Israel of the crime, similar to the what Iran did, instead of laying blame on Saudi Arabia, keeping in mind that such accusations may lead to more tensions in Lebanon.”

The airport in Nigeria's capital Abuja was temporarily closed Thursday, stranding thousands of passengers, after a Saudi cargo plane overshot a runway on landing and blocked part of the tarmac, officials said.

"No casualty was recorded," said aviation ministry spokesman Joe Obi. "Efforts are underway to move the aircraft away."

Ethiopia has repatriated over 100,000 citizens from Saudi Arabia, Addis Ababa's foreign ministry said Thursday, following a violent crackdown against illegal immigrants in the oil-rich kingdom.

Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said that up to 50,000 more citizens are still expected to come home.