President’s disappearing watch

When George W Bush began shaking hands with enthusiastic well-wishers in Albania he was wearing a watch. When he stopped a few minutes and dozens of hearty welcomes later, he was not.

What happened to the watch became the subject of intense international speculation yesterday.

The Albanian media and websites, which carried video of the event in Fushe Kruje, 15 miles north of Tirana on Sunday, speculated that the best-protected man in the world had been fleeced.