President Michel Suleiman insisted on Friday on the formation of a cabinet equally divided among the Lebanese foes, saying that he is still waiting Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam's proposal.

“If Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat is capable of establishing a better formula then he should propose it,” diplomatic sources quoted Suleiman as saying in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Saudi authorities are optimistic that October's hajj pilgrimage to the kingdom, one of the world's annual largest gatherings, will pass without outbreaks of the deadly MERS coronavirus, the health minister said Saturday.

The virus, which appeared first in the kingdom last year, has killed 58 people worldwide, 49 of them in Saudi Arabia, according to official Saudi figures and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

U.S. prosecutors have dropped human trafficking charges against a Saudi princess accused of holding a Kenyan housekeeper against her will, officials said Friday.

Meshael Alayban, one of six wives of Saudi Prince Abdulrahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al Saud, had been due to enter a plea in court to the felony charges, filed against her in July.

Two Saudis have died after contracting the MERS coronavirus, the health ministry said on Thursday, bringing the total number of fatalities from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom to 49.

A 75-year-old woman, who had suffered chronic illnesses, died in the western city of Medina, while a man, 83, who also had chronic diseases, died in the capital, the ministry website said.

Saudi Arabia, where cinemas are banned, is to compete for an Oscar for the first time next year with feminist film "Wadjda" directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, a Saudi official announced Sunday.

The movie tells of a young girl's quest to own a bicycle in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom where women are deprived of many rights, among them driving.

Saudi authorities beheaded a Syrian man on Tuesday after he was convicted of trafficking drugs into the ultra-conservative kingdom, the Interior Ministry said.

Waleed Zeineddin was arrested while trafficking a large amount of amphetamine stimulant capsules that are listed as drugs in Saudi Arabia, the ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA.

Saudi Arabia's top cleric Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh on Monday condemned violence against non-Muslims living in Islamic countries and attacks on Muslims on the pretext of apostasy.

"Given the dangerous developments in the Muslim world, I would like to warn against the danger of attacking Muslims and those (non-Muslims) under Muslim protection," he said.

International intervention in Syria must go beyond dismantling the regime's chemical arsenal, Saudi Arabia said Monday, in veiled criticism of a U.S.-Russian deal that prevented Western military strikes against the Damascus.

The Saudi cabinet urged the international community not simply to focus on the issue of chemical weapons in the 30-month-long conflict in Syria in a statement after its weekly cabinet meeting, headed by Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz.

France, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have agreed to strengthen the Syrian opposition in its battle against Bashar Assad's regime, the French presidency said Friday.

After a meeting in Paris, French President Francois Hollande and foreign ministers from the three countries "agreed on the need to strengthen international support for the democratic opposition to allow it to face attacks by the regime," the Elysee said in a statement.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius will visit China to discuss Syria on Sunday, his ministry said, amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to end the crisis in the war-torn country.

On his way back, Fabius will hold talks on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, said Philippe Lalliot, a foreign ministry spokesman.