Saudi executes Pakistani drug trafficker

Saudi authorities beheaded a Pakistani man on Tuesday after he was convicted of smuggling drugs into the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry announced. Zufar Iqbal Mohammed Khan was arrested as he was smuggling a large amount of heroin into the kingdom, said a statement carried by the SPA news agency. He had admitted to the allegations during interrogation and was executed on Tuesday in Riyadh, becoming the 78th person to be executed in the deeply conservative kingdom this year, according to an AFP count. In 2012, Saudi Arabia carried out 76 executions, according to a tally based on official figures. Rights group Amnesty International put last year's figure at 79. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich nation's strict version of Islamic sharia law.