World IN BRIEF : ALBANIA : Pressure Mounts to Break Strike

Albania’s Communist authorities are threatening and harassing workers in a bid to break a general strike that has brought the country to a virtual standstill, independent union officials said. “We are receiving reports from all over the country of harassment and threats to strikers, and some have even been beaten by the police,” said Valer Xheka, leader of the strike committee of the Independent Federation of Trade Unions. He said groups of workers are joining a hunger strike by miners barricaded in a mine near the capital.