Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah met Monday embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to discuss deadly clashes that killed dozens in Sanaa, the official Saudi news agency said.

The meeting was the first since Saleh went to Saudi Arabia for treatment after being wounded in an attack on his Sanaa compound in June.

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Sudanese man by sword in the western city of Medina on Monday after he was convicted of practicing sorcery, the interior ministry announced.

Abdul Hamid al-Fakki "practiced witchcraft and sorcery," which are illegal under Saudi Arabia's Islamic sharia law, said a ministry statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel has held talks with former Premier Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia, the party announced on Monday.

MP Sami Gemayel also attended the talks on the latest developments, the statement said.

More than 5,000 men will compete in Saudi Arabia's upcoming municipal elections, the election commission said Monday as candidates began campaigning for votes.

The elections, only the second in Saudi Arabia's history, are set for September 29 and are for half the seats in the kingdom's 285 municipal councils. The other half are appointed by the government.

The head of the Phalange Party Amin Gemayel traveled to Saudi Arabia on Saturday, in a first visit of its kind by a Lebanese official since the failure of the Saudi-Syrian initiative that was aimed at ending Lebanon’s political crisis in 2010, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Gemayel, who is accompanied by his son MP Sami Gemayel, was invited to the Kingdom by Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri.

The trial of members of a suspected al-Qaida cell charged with planning attacks against two U.S. military bases in Qatar opened in Riyadh on Saturday.

The cell, dismantled five years ago, comprised 41 members -- including 38 Saudis, a Qatari, an Afghan and a Yemeni -- and was "the most important al-Qaida" operation in Saudi Arabia, the attorney-general said.

Yemeni troops opened fire Thursday on thousands of people demonstrating in Taez for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down, wounding at least 10 people, the protesters said.

The live bullets were fired into the crowd by members of the elite Republican Guard, which is headed by Saleh's son Ahmed, and local security forces in Taez, the country's second city, they said.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns affirmed Washington's commitment to security in the Gulf during a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, a statement said.

Burns "reaffirmed to Saudi leaders the United States' firm and enduring commitment to Gulf security, including our commitment to countering the threat of Iran's nuclear program and Iran's destabilizing activities in the region," said the U.S. statement received by Agence France Presse.

Nine people were killed in two days of clashes between tribal fighters who are opposed to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and an elite military unit loyal to him, a tribal official said Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said violent clashes were ongoing in the town of Arhab, 40 kilometers north of the capital Sanaa, between Republican Guard troops commanded by Saleh's son Ahmed, and fighters from the Bakil tribe, the most influential tribe in the country.

Iran believes Saudi Arabia's security is linked to its own security, an Iranian foreign ministry official said Wednesday, reacting to a Saudi allegation that Tehran was "targeting" the kingdom.

"Iran has always wanted the stability, peace and progress of Saudi Arabia," the Fars news agency quoted the unidentified official as saying.