A Saudi man who slapped his wife has earned himself a flogging and jail sentence, in a rare ruling in the Gulf kingdom that imposes stiff restrictions on women, a local newspaper reported Wednesday.

A court in the town of Safwa, in the eastern Qatif district, sentenced the man to 10 days in jail and 30 lashes, al-Sharq daily said.

Saudi Arabia beheaded by sword one of its citizens on Tuesday after a court convicted him of murder, the interior ministry said.

Shuwail al-Amri was found guilty of killing Mohammed al-Amri, an apparent relative, by deliberately running him over with a car after a dispute, the ministry said in a statement published by SPA state news agency.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri expressed concern on Monday that the turmoil in the region could spill over into Lebanon, stressing that his country is keen to preserve stability in the country.

“Saudi Arabia will always stand by Lebanon,” Asiri said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper.

Influential Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi has called on Sunni Muslims to join the rebels fighting the Syrian regime, as he lashed out at Lebanon's Hizbullah for sending its men to fight the mostly-Sunni insurgents in Syria.

Qaradawi, a controversial figure in the West but who has millions of supporters, mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood, also hit out at Iran for backing the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah traveled to Morocco on Friday for an "official visit", state news agency SPA reported, refuting rumors that the octogenarian monarch's health was deteriorating.

The king, who was born in 1924, has spent time in Morocco recovering after operations in recent years.

Iranian-American citizen Manssor Arbabsiar was sentenced Thursday to the maximum 25 years prison by a U.S. judge who said his role in a bizarre plot against the Saudi ambassador to Washington could not be "tolerated."

Arbabsiar, 58, pleaded guilty last October to conspiring with Iranian military elements to hire assassins from the Mexican drug mafia to kill the Saudi envoy.

Bahrain has urged its citizens not to travel to Syria to fight alongside rebels ranged against government forces after a Bahraini youth was killed there in battle, local press reported Thursday.

"Supporting the right of the Syrian people to self defense should be done through the efforts of the international community... in a way that benefits our Syrian brothers," said interior minister Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa, according to press reports.

Gulf Arab states will consider placing Hizbullah, which is openly involved in the Syrian conflict, on its terror list, al-Rai daily quoted highly placed diplomats on Thursday as saying.

Bahrain will ask foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to discuss "placing Hizbullah on the terror list" at a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the newspaper said.

An Australian has been jailed for four-and-a-half years in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related offences, with his lawyer vowing to appeal what he claims was an unfair trial.

Shayden Thorne has been held in a jail outside Riyadh for almost 18 months, reportedly after a laptop, which his family says he borrowed from a mosque, was allegedly found to have terrorist material on it.

Major powers have not agreed on who will take part in an international conference on the Syrian conflict or when it will be held, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

Amid growing doubts that a conference can be organized in June, Ban told reporters "active consultations" were still being held, while U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the U.S. government's "entire foreign policy apparatus" was working to hold the meeting.