Bronislaw Komorowski, currently acting president of Poland after the death of president Kaczynski in a tragic plane crash in May, has been elected as president after winning the second round of voting by getting 53 percent of the votes cast. his opponent, the twin brother of the deceased president and the current opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski got 47 percent of the votes.

Mr Komorowski was the candidate of the governing Civic Platform party and has been the parliament speaker.

A Polish government aircraft carrying among others president Lech Kaczyński crashed earlier today during a landing attempt in bad weather at Smolensk in Russia on their way to attend the 70th anniversary cermonies for the victims of the Katyn Forest massacre. The plane carried between 88 and 130 persons - the numbers given vary this far - and no one survived the crash. Among other victims are the president's wife, Ryszard Kaczorowski who was the last non-communist president in exile of Poland, the army chief of staff, and relatives to the massacre victims of 1940.

Originally written in June 2005

With the death of pope Johannes Paulus II (John Paul II) the Roman Catholic church have lost one of their most important voices in a long time. Not because he was the pope, but because he was Johannes Paulus II, the Pope.