Drug traffickers beheaded in Saudi

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia Monday beheaded two foreign drug traffickers in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah.

An Interior Ministry statement said the two convicts, both Pakistani nationals, were executed with a sword for smuggling heroin.

Monday's twin executions brought to eight the number of people beheaded in the kingdom since the beginning of the year.

As many as 35 people were executed last year, mostly smugglers. Some 52 people, including foreigners, were executed in 2003.

Executions of people convicted of murder, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking are conducted in public, in line with Shariah, the legal code of Islam.