The first directly-elected president of independent Lithuania, Algirdas Brazauskas, has died at the age of 77 after a long struggle with cancer. He started his political career with the Communist Party when Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union but broke with Moscow in the late 1980s. Mr Brazauskas was a key figure in Lithuania's independence from the USSR in 1991. He was elected the country's first post-independence president in 1993. Lithuanian media said Mr Brazauskas had lymphoma and prostate cancer.