Saudi Arabia beheads citizen over murder

Saudi authorities on Sunday beheaded a citizen in the southern Najran province after he was convicted of killing another man, the interior ministry said. Zafer al-Batheen shot dead Ayed al-Qashaneen using a machine gun, following a dispute between the two. His execution brings to 70 the number of people executed in Saudi Arabia so far this year, according to an Agence France Presse count. In 2012, the conservative Muslim kingdom carried out 76 executions, according to a tally based on official figures. Human Rights Watch has put the number at 69. Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under the oil-rich Gulf state's strict version of sharia, or Islamic law.