World News Left gains in Czech polls

Czech left-wing opposition parties have won a major victory in regional elections, reflecting public anger at the government's harsh austerity measures.Voters punished the centre-right Civic Democratic Party (CDP) government for spending cuts and sleaze scandals.The CDP won just 12.3 per cent of the national vote, half of their 2008 result, trailing the centre-left Social Democrats with 23.6 per cent and the Communists with 20.4 per cent.With 99 per cent of votes counted on Saturday, Social Democrats won in nine of 13 regions contested and Communists claimed the victory in two, their best result since the collapse of the Soviet Union.A third of the 81 seats in the parliament's upper house were up also for grabs in the voting, but no candidate reached the 50 per cent threshold to win outright and the top two finishers face run-off elections next week.