Saudi authorities on Wednesday beheaded a Pakistani for smuggling drugs and a national for killing a compatriot, the interior ministry said, bringing the number of executions in the kingdom this year to nine.

Mohammed Asharaf Ramadan was caught attempting to smuggle into the kingdom an amount of heroin that he swallowed, the ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

A Saudi court sentenced a journalist to 12 years in prison Tuesday for "disobeying the ruler" and accusing the kingdom of creating terrorism in televised remarks, state media reported.

The convict, identified by local media as Wajdi al-Ghazzawi, was also accused of "contacting an enemy of Saudi Arabia at the time (in 2009) and receiving a suspicious sum of money from it," the SPA news agency reported.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz met interim Egyptian prime minister Hazem al-Beblawi Tuesday to discuss closer cooperation, with the oil-rich Gulf monarchy being a staunch backer of his military-installed government.

The OPEC kingpin pledged billions of dollars in aid to Egypt's new authorities after the overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July.

The head of Saudi Arabia's religious police admitted the presence of extremists within its ranks, labeling them "advocates of sedition" and vowing to remove them, local media reported Tuesday.

Sheikh Abdullatif al-Sheikh's comments come the day after King Abdullah decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for citizens who travel to fight abroad, as the kingdom struggles to deter young Saudis from becoming jihadists.

Saudi authorities beheaded two citizens on Tuesday after convicting them of two separate murders, the interior ministry said, bringing the number of executions in the kingdom this year to seven.

Abdulellah al-Otaibi was executed in the western city of Taif after he was convicted of stabbing a member of his own tribe to death, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to ally Saudi Arabia in March, following clear signs of disquiet in Riyadh about his Middle Eastern policies and nuclear talks with Iran.

Obama will fly to meet King Abdullah on a trip added onto existing visits to the Netherlands, Brussels and Vatican City, the White House said in a statement on Monday.

King Abdullah Monday decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for belonging to "terrorist groups" and fighting abroad, as it struggles to deter Islamist Saudis from becoming jihadists.

"Taking part in combat outside the kingdom, in any form" will be punished by jail terms of between three and 20 years, said the decree published by state news agency SPA.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji returned on Monday from a visit to Saudi Arabia that tackled the kingdom's military grant to Lebanon.

He said of the recent developments in Lebanon: “The strange incidents are a passing phase that we will overcome.”

Saudi authorities on Monday beheaded a citizen in the eastern city of Qatif after he was convicted of killing a compatriot, the interior ministry said.

Ali al-Faraj shot dead Khaled al-Baden during a dispute, the ministry said in a statement published by the official SPA news agency.

A Saudi man wanted in connection with protests in 2011 among the Shiite Muslim minority in the conservative, Sunni-majority kingdom has handed himself in, police said on Sunday.

Moussa Jaafar Mohammed al-Mabyouq surrendered to police in the mostly Shiite district of Qatif, in Eastern Province, a police spokesman said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.