Saudi beheads Pakistani, Nigerian drug smugglers

RIYADH, - Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man and a Nigerian man convicted of smuggling drugs into the conservative kingdom, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

Monday's executions in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah raised to at least 39 the number of people put to the death this year in Saudi Arabia, which enforces strict Islamic sharia law.

At least 45 people were put to death last year, 75 in 2001 and 121 in 2000.

The Gulf Arab state executes murderers, rapists and drug smugglers, usually by public beheading.