CHINA EXECUTES AT LEAST 71 IN A DAY

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

In all, 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.'' Four others, Chen Shoubo, Dai Tianshi, Chen
Guangtong and Chen Mingfa, were executed for selling 14 pounds of
heroin, Xinhua said.

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

Courts in northern Shaanxi province also executed 12 people Friday for
selling and transporting drugs, Xinhua said. Another 14 traffickers
were executed in southeastern Fujian province, Xinhua reported.

Shanghai, meanwhile, put to death nine traffickers and destroyed about
660 pounds of drugs seized last year, the most drugs the eastern port
city has destroyed at once, Xinhua said.

Eight people also were executed by gunshot Friday for selling,
transporting or manufacturing drugs in southern Hunan province, Xinhua
said.