CHINA EXECUTES SCORES OF DRUG DEALERS

BEIJING (AP) -- Firing squads executed at least 71 people for drug
trafficking Friday in China's annual barrage of executions to mark
U.N. anti-drug day, state media reported.

At least 98 people have been executed or sentenced to death nationwide
in recent days ahead of Saturday's International Day Against Drug
Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, according to state media reports.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights opposes the death penalty
and has called for an end to executions worldwide.

Twenty-eight traffickers were executed Friday in the southern
provincial capital of Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, after their sentences
were announced at public rallies attended by nearly 7,000 people, the
state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

They included Qu Yongcai, who manufactured 2,085 pounds of the
amphetamine "ice," and four others executed for selling 14 pounds of
heroin, Xinhua said.

It did not name the others who were executed or give details on their
cases.