Omanis went to the polls on Saturday for the Gulf sultanate's first ever local elections but the 192 elected councilors will have only advisory powers.

By midday, turnout among the 546,000 voters was "good", the official ONA news agency reported.

British defence giant BAE Systems announced on Friday a £2.5-billion ($4.1-billion, 3.1-billion-euro) deal to supply military aircraft to Oman.

The group said in a statement it would supply 12 Typhoon fighter aircraft and eight Hawk trainer jets, delivering from 2017.

A former Iranian diplomat, who won a British court ruling against his extradition to the U.S. where he is wanted for allegedly smuggling arms, arrived Tuesday in Oman on his way home, an AFP photographer said.

Iran's former ambassador to Jordan Nosratollah Tajik landed in Muscat's Seeb air base on an Omani Air Force plane.

An Iranian woman, jailed by the United States for attempting to export military equipment to Tehran, has been freed and arrived in Oman on Tuesday, the government in Muscat announced.

A foreign ministry spokesman thanked the U.S. government for releasing Shahrazad Mir Gholikhan "on humanitarian grounds and following efforts made by Oman", Oman's state news agency Ona said.

Syria's regime confirmed on Thursday the defection of three diplomats, but downplayed its importance and indirectly accused Qatar of encouraging "national division."

The foreign ministry confirmed the defections of Lamia Hariri, charge d'affaires in Cyprus, her husband Abdel Latif al-Dabbagh, ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, and Mohammed Tahsin al-Fakir, security attache in Oman.

Swiss engineering group ABB said on Tuesday that it has won a contract worth more than $100 million (82.7 million euros) to build a gas condensate plant in Oman.

The order was placed in the second quarter by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), said ABB, which releases its half-year results on Thursday.

Liberal civil society groups in Gulf States called Monday on Saudi and Bahraini leaders to postpone plans to announce a union between them, saying such a step must be preceded by a referendum.

"We urge the Saudi and Bahraini leaderships to review such a step and calculate the reactions of the two peoples," the Gulf Forum for Civil Societies said in a statement signed by its secretary general Anwar al-Rasheed.

Gulf leaders will discuss a proposal for a closer political union among them that could begin with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the Bahraini information minister said on Saturday.

"The idea of a Gulf union will be on the agenda of the summit in Riyadh" on Monday, said Samira Rajab.

British police said Saturday they had released on bail three men arrested at London's Heathrow airport on suspicion of possessing documents intended for "terrorist purposes" overseas.

West Midlands Police said the men, who were arrested as they flew in from Oman late Thursday, had been bailed until June.

British police said Friday they had arrested three men at London's Heathrow airport as they flew in from Oman on suspicion of possessing documents intended for "terrorist purposes" overseas.

West Midlands Police said the men arrested late Thursday, two of them aged 33 and one aged 39, were from the central English city of Birmingham but would not say whether they were British or foreign nationals.