Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Speaker Nabih Berri launched on Tuesday the 300-million dollar Litani River project to irrigate land in southern Lebanon.

Miqati said at the launch at the Grand Serail: “Its success cannot be achieved without fortifying Lebanon’s stability.”

Kuwait has decided to deport stateless people who took part in protests demanding citizenship which turned violent, newspapers reported Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Central Agency for Illegal Residents, which deals with the stateless people known as bidoons, chaired by Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Humud al-Sabah, al-Anbaa newspaper reported.

About 30 international observers will for the first time be allowed to monitor Kuwait's parliamentary election on February 2, the head of a non-governmental organization said on Monday.

Most of the observers will be Arabs from the Arab Network for Election Democracy but contacts are underway with some non-Arab organizations to send monitors, Salah al-Ghazali told a press conference.

Kuwaiti riot police on Saturday used tear gas and batons to disperse hundreds of stateless demonstrators for the second day in a row and arrested dozens, witnesses and a rights group said.

A day after riot police beat stateless protesters demanding citizenship in Jahra, northwest of Kuwait City, demonstrations expanded on Saturday to include Sulaibiya, west of the capital.

The U.S. government is concerned that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran, and has stepped up contingency planning to safeguard U.S. facilities in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday.

The newspaper said President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and other top officials have delivered a series of private messages to Israeli leaders, warning about the dire consequences of a strike.

Human Rights Watch on Friday strongly criticized a decision by the Gulf state of Kuwait to bar stateless people from protesting, saying the order denies them their rights and should be revoked.

Kuwait's interior ministry has issued three statements this week warning stateless people, locally known as illegal residents or bidoons, not to demonstrate or they will be punished.

Kuwait said Tuesday it will not allow stateless people to stage any more demonstrations after having promised to resolve their demands for citizenship.

"The ministry will not allow any processions, gatherings or demonstrations (by stateless), regardless of their nature or aims," the interior ministry said in a statement.

Yemen's Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa began a tour to the country's oil-rich Gulf neighbors on Monday to seek urgently needed aid for an economy approaching collapse.

Basindawa, formerly an opposition leader who is now leading a transitional government, heads in search of financial help while political tensions at home remain acute and protests continue against the deal that brought him to power.

Kuwait's police have uncovered a plan to smuggle 2.5 million liters of subsidized diesel and arrested 25 people in connection with the scheme, the interior ministry said Sunday.

The diesel was found in tanks and containers at several stores in the southern oil-rich industrial area of Mina Abdullah, the ministry said in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency.

Kuwait will start granting citizenship to some stateless people by early February, the interior minister said in remarks published on Sunday.

"The first batch of citizenships (to stateless) will be announced by the end of January or the beginning of February at the latest," Sheikh Ahmad al-Humud al-Sabah told al-Rai newspaper, without giving further details.