Saudi Arabia's Supreme Court has confirmed death sentences for two suspected Saudi Al-Qaida members convicted of murdering four Frenchmen in 2007, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

They had been sentenced by a special "terrorism" tribunal in January of last year, in verdicts now upheld by the highest court, the Arryadh daily said.

Top French and Saudi leaders will huddle Wednesday in Paris to discuss projects worth billions of euros, as France tightens relations with the conservative kingdom despite persistent criticism of its human rights record.

French President Francois Hollande will host Saudi Arabia's Defence Minister Prince Mohamed bin Salman after the inaugural meeting of a Franco-Saudi committee that is to discuss proposed projects in the aeronautics, nuclear power, health and investment sectors.

A prominent Saudi comedian who has mocked the Islamic State group and Islamists in the ultra-conservative kingdom has said he shall not be deterred after receiving online threats.

Nasser al-Qasabi, who appears in a new satirical television sitcom titled "Selfie" aired by the Saudi-owned MBC network, said in remarks published Monday that he has "the right to express an opinion."

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri stressed on Friday that his country is counting on the wisdom of Lebanese officials to reach solutions that will ease tensions in Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency said.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is keen to preserve Lebanon and its people, and it is counting on the wisdom of its officials to reach solutions that would ease the tension and fortify the internal arena,” said Asiri.

The United Nations on Friday appealed for $1.6 billion to help the millions of people in need of aid in war-torn Yemen, warning of a "looming catastrophe".

The money is needed to address the "constantly increasing humanitarian needs in Yemen" until the end of 2015, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N.'s humanitarian agency, told reporters in Geneva.

Yemen's warring factions want to make military advances on the ground before accepting a humanitarian pause proposed by the U.N. at deadlocked negotiations in Geneva, experts say.

So far, no advances have been made at the talks, expected to wrap up Friday, with both the Iran-backed Huthi rebels and the Saudi Arabia-supported exiled government sticking to their guns.

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel and a French official have denied a report that Saudi Arabia has asked French authorities to freeze the delivery of weapons to the Lebanese army under a Saudi grant.

Al-Liwaa daily on Friday quoted Moqbel as saying that information about the freeze of the delivery of arms is not true.

Bahrain has seized explosives and bomb-making material smuggled into the country from Iraq and intended to be used in the kingdom and in Saudi Arabia, the interior ministry said Thursday.

A statement said that an investigation indicated that the explosives had been smuggled in by two fugitive Bahraini men who live in Iran and who had been sentenced to death in "terrorist" cases.

A landmine blast on the Saudi-Yemen border has claimed the life of a senior Saudi officer, the coalition carrying out air strikes on rebels in Yemen said on Thursday.

Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah al-Balwi died Wednesday "as a result of the explosion of a landmine in Twalig mountain" in the Saudi border district of Jazan, the Saudi-led coalition said.

Human Rights Watch urged the ruler of Kuwait on Thursday to waive a six-year jail sentence against a blogger for criticizing neighboring Saudi Arabia on Twitter.

The supreme court last week upheld the sentence against Saleh al-Saeed who tweeted comments on a row between the Gulf neighbors over a halt to shared oil production from the neutral zone between them and on the hostile Gulf position towards the Syrian regime.