World Notes

Albania's communist Party of Labor had scant reason last week to celebrate its landslide victory in the country's historic free elections. Though the communists won a commanding 162 of the 250 People's Assembly seats -- against 65 for the opposition Democratic Party before runoffs in undecided contests -- their victory ignited some of the worst violence the country has seen in more than a year of escalating unrest.

In the northern city of Shkoder, a local D.P. leader was reportedly shot in the back by security forces as demonstrators surrounded the local communist headquarters to protest the victory. Two others were shot dead as the protesters surged into the building, burning party files and the portraits of communist Albania's founding father, Enver Hoxha. Another shooting victim died later. The port city of Durres, besieged last month by Albanians seeking any vessel out of their blighted country, braced for a new exodus. While communist leader Ramiz Alia remains the head of both state and party, he could have trouble continuing the concessions that led to free elections. Party hard- liners are in the ascendant, and last week's crackdown could even signal a return to the bad old days of Stalinist-style repression.