More than 600 were injured in yesterday's 6.4 magnitude tremor, which led to several aftershocks.

An Albanian political candidate was shot and a supporter of a rival party killed in an exchange of gunfire near a polling station, police said yesterday, as the country held elections already marred by a dispute that could leave the outcome up in the air.

Albania’s political crisis escalated as the government and its opposition traded blame for the deaths of three protesters during a violent demonstration against an administration accused of deeply-rooted corruption.

Albania’s opposition leader was said to be ahead today in parliamentary elections seen as a key test of the country’s post-communist democracy.

Albanians today cast ballots in a key test of its post-Communist institutions, but local observers raised some concerns over voting procedures in rural areas.