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Tirana under

high security

TIRANA: Albanian police are taking "high security measures" for the visit Saturday of US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Interior Ministry spokesman Sokol Bizhga said on Friday. Albright's nearly seven-hour stay will be the first time a top US official has come to Albania, considered a highly dangerous country by security experts. Police have stepped up controls of individuals and automobiles at all entrances to the capital, Bizhga said.ÑAFP

110 kilos of heroin seized

ANKARA: Police in Istanbul have seized more than 110 kilogrammes (240 pounds) of heroin and other narcotics in operations during the past week, Anatolia news agency reported on Friday. Acting on a tip, security forces raided on Thursday a farm house in the resort district of Silivri, where it discovered a drug laboratory and detained seven people. Seventy-seven kilogrammes (169 pounds) of packed heroin, 120 litres (31 gallons) of liquid heroin and 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) of morphine base as well as other drugs were found in the house, Anatolia said.ÑAFP

Killer executed in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: A Saudi citizen found guilty of a triple killing was executed in the western province of Taef on Friday, while an Egyptian had its right hand amputated for theft in the holy city of Mecca, the Saudi interior ministry reported. Saqr bin Mohammed bin Marzuq al-Utaibi was beheaded for killing his wife and both his parents-in-law with an automatic rifle after a quarrel, said a ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency.ÑAFP

National museum

BEIJING: China wants to build a massive national museum capable of housing the country's reserve of cultural relics reflecting the nation's 5,000-year history, the Peoples Daily reported on Saturday. It quoted officials from the Ministry of Culture as saying China would seek out world-renowned architects, from home and abroad, to design the museum which would partially be filled by relics from the Palace Museum and the Museum of Chinese History. Latest statistics show that the Palace Museum exhibits only one-tenth of its 930,000 treasured relics, and the rest are kept in storage, the official newspaper said.

Authorities have said they hoped the new facility would be a Chinese version of the Louvre art museum in Paris.ÑAFP

Anti-US march

BEIRUT: At least 10,000 people were marching toward the UN headquarters in Beirut on Friday afternoon to protest against US sympathy for Israeli air raids that knocked out three power plants and wounded 22 civilians. "America and Israel, our eternal enemies!" and "Drive the US ambassador out of Lebanon," they shouted.ÑAFP

US-made Patriot missiles

arms advances

THESSALONIKI, (Greece): Greek military officials inaugurated the US-made Patriot missile defense system on Friday as part of the nation's costly military expansion. The missiles, made by Raytheon Corp., were ordered in 1998 as one of the largest single contracts in Greece's estimated dollars 24 billion programme to upgrade its armed forces to keep pace with Turkey.ÑAFP

Angry MPs

JAKARTA: Angry Indonesian MPs attempted to quiz former president Suharto at his home here Friday after he failed to appear in parliament for questioning over bank funds for the second time. The seven legislators left Suharto's push Jakarta home frustrated however after discovering the former strongman was staying at another of his homes.ÑAFP

US 'disappointed'

ZAGREB: The United States is 'disappointed' that the far-right Freedom Party was included in Vienna's new government, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Austrian President Thomas Klestil on Friday. Albright told a news conference she had conveyed her feelings to Klestil during a brief encounter with him at a reception here for Croatia's newly inaugurated reformist President Stipe Melic.ÑAFP

Surprise visit

BEIRUT: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is due to arrive later Saturday on a surprise visit to Beirut, a presidential spokesman told AFP.ÑAFP