Saudi execution toll climbs to 135

Saudi Arabia today executed one of its citizens convicted of murder, bringing to 135 the number of people put to death this year.
The number is up sharply from the 87 Saudis and foreigners executed during the whole of 2014.
In the latest case, authorities carried out the death sentence against Abdullah al-Ahmari in the southwestern region of Asir, the interior ministry said.
He had been found guilty of shooting dead another man in a dispute.
London-based Amnesty International says Saudi Arabia had the world's third-highest number of executions last year, far behind China and Iran, but ahead of Iraq and the United States.

Under the kingdom's strict Islamic legal code, murder, drug trafficking, armed robbery, rape and apostasy are all punishable by death.
Most Saudi executions are carried out by beheading with a sword, punishment which the interior ministry says is a deterrent.