Saudi beheaded for murder

 A Saudi man convicted of stabbing his father to death in a mosque was beheaded by the sword in the southern province of Assir toay, the interior ministry said.

 Mashari bin Omeir al-Shahrani was found guilty of murdering his father as he prepared to take part in Friday prayers following an unspecified row, said a ministry statement quoted by the official SPA news agency.

 The beheading took to 34 the number of executions announced in Saudi Arabia this year.

Executions generally take place in public in the conservative kingdom which applies a strict form of sharia, or Islamic law, imposing the death penalty for murder, rape, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking. 

At least 48 people were executed in Saudi Arabia in 2002.