Saudi Arabia beheaded a Syrian on Tuesday for drug smuggling, the interior ministry announced in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Abdulrahman al-Sweidan was "arrested as he was attempting to smuggle large quantities of narcotic pills into the kingdom," SPA reported.

Saudi Arabia has taken measures to deal with any epidemic that may break out during the annual hajj pilgrimage, a minister said in remarks published Monday, stressing that the spread of a mystery illness from the same family as the deadly SARS virus was "limited."

The kingdom has taken "preventive measures towards pilgrims ... and has made practical and scientific arrangements to deal with any epidemic that might be discovered," Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabeeah was quoted as saying in Al-Hayat daily.

A Saudi charity group will build a container city that can house 10,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey's Kilis province near the border, a Turkish official said Saturday.

The project of the Saudi National Campaign to Support Brothers in Syria is expected to be ready within a month, the official told AFP.

The Saudi Arabian deputy foreign minister said Friday that Security Council inaction on the Syrian civil war gave the Bashar Assad regime "a green light" to attack his own people.

Abdulaziz bin Abdullah told the U.N. General Assembly on Friday that the Assad regime was "in a race against time to accomplish its objectives using the most advanced means of killing and destruction."

A new mysterious respiratory virus that has killed at least one person and left another in critical condition does not appear very contagious, the World Health Organization said Friday.

"From the information available thus far, it appears that the novel coronavirus cannot be easily transmitted from person to person," the WHO said in a statement.

The U.N. health agency said Wednesday it knew of no more cases in the Gulf of a mystery illness from the same virus family as the deadly SARS but was advising Saudi Arabia ahead of the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage.

"WHO is working closely with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as in previous years, to support the country's health measures for all visitors participating in the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca next month," the World Health Organization said in a statement.

President Bashar Assad has hit out at Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, accusing them of arming Syrian rebels but insisting they will not win, according to excerpts from an interview to appear in an Egyptian newspaper on Friday.

"They suddenly saw money in their hands after a long period of poverty and think they can buy history and play a regional role," Assad told al-Ahram al-Arabi, which put excerpts from the interview on its website on Thursday.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has distributed $3.7 billion in aid to countries touched by the Arab Spring, most of it to Egypt and Jordan, a report by the International Monetary Fund showed Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's wealthiest country, has pledged nearly $17.9 billion in support for fellow Arabs since the pro-democracy revolt erupted in Tunisia in January 2010 and spread throughout the region, toppling and shaking authoritarian governments.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday denied allegations that the kingdom has barred citizens of war-hit Syria from performing the annual Muslim pilgrimage while local media said it has refused to increase hajj country quotas.

"The kingdom is currently working on finalizing all measures needed in coordination with the concerned authorities to enable Syrian pilgrims to perform" the pilgrimage, hajj ministry undersecretary Hatem Qadi said.

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani national on Wednesday in the holy city of Medina after convicting him of drug smuggling, the interior ministry said.

Bashir Khamis Ahmad was found guilty of trying to smuggle large quantities of heroin into the kingdom, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.