Crucified

February 21 (LBO) – Saudi Arabia has 'crucified' four Sri Lankans after beheading them, including a man who was told he was only serving a prison-term, media reports from the desert kingdom said. In 2006 consumer inflation in Sri Lanka rose by 19.3 percent and the rupee fell to 109 to the dollar after the government printed more than 40 billion rupees to finance the budget deficit.

Object Lesson

Agency reports quoting al-Riyadh, a Saudi newspaper, said the four Sri Lankans were executed in a busy market square Monday and their bodies were tied to wooden beams or 'crucified' and put on public display as a lesson to expatriate workers.

"Foreigners in the kingdom are implementing criminal plans made abroad," al-Riyadh had quoted Abdel-Rahman al-Luweiheq, who teaches at the Imam bin Saud University the Reuters news agency said.

In March 2004, four Sri Lankans, Victor Corea, Ranjith Silva, Sanath Pushpakumara and Sangeeth Kumara were arrested for involvement in robbery and possession of firearms and convicted in October of the same year.

Sangeeth Kumara was told that he had been sentenced to a 15-year prison term.

Somalia and Sri Lanka

But Sri L