Fifty-four Tunisian pilgrims are refusing to leave Tunis airport and are demanding to be allowed to travel to Mecca after they were stopped with fake Gambian passports, members of the group said Friday.

Saudi Arabia allocates quotas to countries to limit the number of people making the annual Muslim pilgrimage, and there is a long waiting list in Tunisia, where such scams are relatively common.

The global number of infections with the deadly MERS virus has risen to 136, after hard-hit Saudi Arabia confirmed six new cases, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Glenn Thomas, spokesman for the U.N. health agency, said it had been informed by Saudi authorities that the virus had been detected in three men and three women in the capital Riyadh.

Saudi authorities detained prominent rights activist Waleed Abulkhair on Wednesday for setting up an "unauthorized" gathering hall where he held meetings with reformists in the absolute monarchy, his wife said.

Abulkhair, was taken into custody for setting up "an unauthorized diwaniah," or gathering place, and "due to his relations with the reformists and for hosting them in our diwaniah," Samar Badawi told Agence France Presse.

A Saudi man, whose brother was killed when a religious police patrol crashed into their car during a hot pursuit last week, died Tuesday of his injuries, his family said.

Saud al-Qaws died from wounds sustained in the chase, just hours after the funeral of his brother Nasser who was killed on the spot in the September 24 incident, a third brother, Saad, told Agence France Presse.

Hopes for a breakthrough in the 30-year estrangement between the U.S. and Iran had an impact on President Michel Suleiman's Gulf tour that was gradually postponed, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

According to As Safir newspaper, Saudi Arabia postponed Suleiman's visit to Riyadh over the international and regional developments.

Saudi Ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri said on Monday that President Michel Suleiman postponed his visit to Saudi Arabia after consultations between the Saudi and Lebanese Authorities.

“The postponement of the visit came in light of consultation between the Saudi and Lebanese Authorities,” Asiri said in a statement.

Saudi authorities beheaded a citizen in Riyadh on Monday after he was convicted of murder, the interior ministry said.

The man, Mazyad al-Obeidi, shot dead a Saudi national following an argument, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Saudi Arabia's aging King Abdullah, whose reduced public appearances have sparked health scares, held an audience in the Red Sea resort of Jeddah Sunday, the official SPA news agency reported.

The 90-year-old monarch met princes and religious scholars at the al-Salam royal palace six days after the kingdom celebrated its national day, an event he did not attend.

President Michel Suleiman has postponed a visit he planned to make to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks with top officials, his office announced.

The statement did not set a new date for the visit.

President Michel Suleiman stated that Hizbullah does not accept the use of chemical weapons, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday.

He therefore told the daily: “Syria's chemical weapons have not been smuggled to Lebanon and there is no evidence of their presence in the country.”