Lithuania's Labor Party, led by Viktor Uspaskich, won general election

Lithuania's Labor Party, led by Viktor Uspaskich, won the country's general election. The Labor Party took 30 percent of yesterday's vote, the Election Commission in Vilnius said, based on ballots from 75 percent of polling stations. The governing coalition of the Social Democrats and New Union trailed with 21 percent. Uspaskich, 45, has pledged to raise pensions and salaries in a country of 3.5 million people where the average monthly wage of $435 compares with $4,590 in Germany. Discontent with the pace of progress toward western-European living standards has now cost Lithuania's ruling parties four elections since the nation declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Uspaskich was born in Siberia and came to Lithuania in 1985 to manage the construction of a natural gas pipeline. He later worked as an intermediary between the government of newly independent Lithuania and OAO Gazprom.