Israel has adopted a new form of psychological warfare on Lebanon through telephoning a number of southern residents on their mobile phones and informing them that they have won a financial reward from a Saudi bank.

Israeli security sources added that the residents are then asked to call a number, 4382094678, to receive their reward.

Indonesia will suspend sending domestic helpers to Saudi Arabia after the beheading of a maid convicted of murdering her Saudi employer, a minister said Wednesday.

"The Indonesian government has decided to impose a moratorium on sending workers to Saudi Arabia," Labor Minister Muhaimin Iskandar was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying.

Wounded Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is "well" but the date of his return cannot be confirmed, the deputy information minister said on Tuesday, amid conflicting reports on the embattled leader's health.

"We have no confirmation yet" on the date of the return of Saleh, recovering in Riyadh from wounds sustained in an explosion as he prayed at his palace mosque earlier this month, "but we assume he'll be back within the few coming days," Abdo al-Janadi told Agence France Presse.

Indonesia on Monday recalled its ambassador to Saudi Arabia amid anger over the beheading of an Indonesian maid convicted of murdering her Saudi employer, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said.

Riyadh carried out the execution by sword without giving Indonesia prior notice, Natalegawa told reporters after being grilled about the government's response in parliament.

Saudi Women for Driving, a coalition of leading Saudi women’s rights activists, bloggers and academics campaigning for the right to drive, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday asking why she has yet to comment on this issue.

The coalition stressed in their letter that Clinton “personally making a public statement of support for Saudi Arabia opening the country's roads to women would be a game changing moment.”

Ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, whose trial begins in absentia in Tunis on Monday, denies all charges against him and hopes his country will "overcome chaos," his lawyer said.

Ben Ali "strongly denies all charges they are trying to press as he never possessed the sums of money they claimed to have found in his office," his Beirut-based lawyer Akram Azoury said in a statement released on the eve of the trial.

Embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, being treated for shrapnel wounds in Riyadh, will not return home, a top Saudi official told Agence France Presse on Friday, contrary to Sanaa's claims that he will return soon.

"The Yemeni president will not return to Yemen," the official said, requesting anonymity.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati is expected to kick off a regional tour that would include Syria, Saudi Arabia and Turkey after his new cabinet receives parliament’s vote of confidence.

As Safir daily said Monday that Damascus would be Miqati’s first stop. The premier might also visit France, it said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati traveled to Mecca on Tuesday for Omra but he is scheduled to return the same day to attend the new cabinet’s photo taking session that will take place at Baabda palace on Wednesday.

Media reports said Miqati’s visit to Saudi Arabia is not an official trip and is only aimed at performing the Omra.

Oil prices fell to below $99 a barrel Monday in Asia, extending a big loss from Friday after a report said Saudi Arabia plans to boost its crude production.

Benchmark oil for July delivery was down 57 cents to $98.72 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $2.64 to settle at $99.29 on Friday.