A new mysterious respiratory virus that has killed at least one person and left another in critical condition does not appear very contagious, the World Health Organization said Friday.

"From the information available thus far, it appears that the novel coronavirus cannot be easily transmitted from person to person," the WHO said in a statement.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati is scheduled to address on Thursday the 67th General Assembly meeting held at the United Nations headquarters in New York around midnight Beirut time.

The premier contacted President Michel Suleiman to brief him on the meetings that he held in New York with top officials, according to a statement issued by Miqati's press office.

Qatar has inked a deal with Jordan to give it a total of $1.25 billion as part of a Gulf Cooperation Council plan to back economic reforms, the state-run Petra news agency reported on Thursday.

Under the agreement signed on Wednesday, Qatar will provide Jordan with $250 million a year for the coming five years.

President Bashar Assad has hit out at Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, accusing them of arming Syrian rebels but insisting they will not win, according to excerpts from an interview to appear in an Egyptian newspaper on Friday.

"They suddenly saw money in their hands after a long period of poverty and think they can buy history and play a regional role," Assad told al-Ahram al-Arabi, which put excerpts from the interview on its website on Thursday.

Qatar Holding, a major shareholder of mining group Xstrata, said Tuesday it has made no decision yet on whether to accept Glencore International's latest offer to salvage a multibillion-dollar merger bid for the Anglo-Swiss company.

The brief comments suggest Qatar Holding is at least considering Glencore's latest offer. The government-run investment firm is Xstrata's second-largest shareholder. It had pushed for better terms for Xstrata, and its opposition to the original bid threatened to scuttle the entire deal.

The success of a new international peace envoy to Syria depends on states such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and not on Syria, a Syrian minister told reporters in Damascus on Monday.

"The success of Lakhdar Brahimi does not depend on Syria," said Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri lashed out at LBCI channel for broadcasting a report claiming that he received huge financial aid from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“This report is completely false,” Hariri’s press office said in a statement on Thursday.

Syria's former Prime Minister Riad Hijab, who fled to Jordan after defecting almost two weeks ago, is now in Qatar, his spokesman said on Friday.

"Mr. Hijab went to Qatar on Thursday for a three-day visit during which he will address the media to spell out his plans and his program," spokesman Mohammed Otri told Agence France Presse.

Kuwait urged all nationals currently present on Lebanese territories to leave the country “immediately.”

“All the Kuwaiti citizens currently in Lebanon should leave amid fears that the security situation might deteriorate in Lebanon due to the swift developments in Syria,” a source in the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said.

The family members of the 11 abducted Lebanese pilgrims staged a sit-in on Friday near the Qatari embassy in Ain el-Tineh in Beirut.

Sheikh Abbas Zgheib, who has been tasked by the Higher Islamic Shiite Council to follow up the case, urged Qatar to cooperate to resolve the case of the abducted men.