POLAND’S president has set October 9 as the date for parliamentary elections, opening a campaign certain to be shaped by bitter disputes over the plane crash last year that killed President Lech Kaczynski.

A passenger jet crashed in heavy fog and burst into flames on a main road in north-western Russia, just short of a runway whose high-intensity lights had failed, killing 44 people. Eight people survived.

US president Barack Obama is to ask Polish leaders to use the lessons they learned during the fall of communism to aid fledgling democratic movements in the Middle East and North Africa.

POLAND yesterday relived the deep pain that engulfed the nation a year ago with a day of prayers and other ceremonies marking the anniversary of the plane crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski and many other prominent civilian and military leaders.

Investigators from the Irish Air Accident Unit will today be trying to understand why the pilot of the Manx2 Fairchild Metroliner tried to land after aborting two earlier attempts and circling for 20 minutes in a holding pattern hoping for conditions to improve.

A RUSSIAN investigation into the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski blamed the Poles, saying the crew was forced to land in bad weather by an air force commander who had been drinking.

A Russian investigation into the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski blamed the Poles, saying the crew was forced to land in bad weather by an air force commander who had been drinking.

POLAND has rejected as “unacceptable” Russia’s draft report on the causes of a plane crash that killed the Polish president.

Two people were killed and 83 injured when a passenger jet with 155 people on board skidded off the runway during an emergency landing at a Moscow airport today, Russian officials said.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev will visit Poland on December 6 in a visit described by his Polish counterpart as a step in a difficult process of reconciliation between the nations.

Poland’s new president formally took control of the nation’s military today and unveiled a plaque to the victims of the plane crash that killed his predecessor and 95 other people.

THE election of Bronislaw Komorowski’s as president offered Poland’s pro-business ruling party an opportunity but also a challenge, as it prepared to govern without a hostile head of state.

THE election of Bronislaw Komorowski’s as president offered Poland’s pro-business ruling party an opportunity but also a challenge, as it prepared to govern without the obstacle of a hostile head of state.

Poland’s Bronislaw Komorowski was officially declared the country’s new president today comfortably defeating rival Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

JAROSLAW KACZYNSKI has conceded defeat in the Polish presidential elections.

Poles were today voting in a presidential run-off election which pits the identical twin brother of the last head of state, who was killed in a plane crash, against the acting president.

POLAND’S centrist presidential candidate Bronislaw Komorowski faces a tight run-off vote against his right-wing rival Jaroslaw Kaczynski on July 4 after beating him by only a few percentage points in a Sunday vote.

A sombre election season in Poland was prolonged by two weeks when a first round of voting produced no immediate successor to Lech Kaczynski, the president killed more than two months ago in a plane crash.

EXIT polls in Poland’s presidential election last night show that the interim president and parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski is leading Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the brother of the president killed in a plane crash in April, but without the 50% needed for outright victory.

More than two months after Poland’s president was killed in a plane crash, Poles are voting today to choose his successor – and polls show that his surviving twin brother faces an uphill battle in defeating the favourite despite a recent surge in sympathy for him.

Four Russian soldiers have been charged with stealing bank cards from the wreckage of the plane crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.

PILOTS of the doomed aircraft carrying Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski received at least a dozen warnings from on-board systems to regain altitude during the last minute before the crash, according to transcripts from its cockpit recorders released yesterday.

NON-CREW members were in the cockpit of the plane of Polish president Lech Kaczynski before its fatal crash in Russia, officials said yesterday, raising fresh questions about the tragedy’s cause.

As Polish President Lech Kaczynski’s plane streaked toward disaster, at least two passengers visited the cockpit, others may have chatted on mobile phones that can obstruct navigation instruments and an under-trained crew faced heavy fog over challenging terrain.

An investigation into the plane crash that killed the Polish president has said non-crew members were present in the cockpit of the plane.

JAROSLAW KACZYNSKI, the twin brother of Poland’s late president Lech Kaczynski, said yesterday he would be the candidate of his right-wing opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) in a presidential election.

Polish opposition party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski is to stand in the presidential election called after his twin brother was killed in a plane crash.

THE Speaker of Poland’s parliament has set the date for a presidential election following the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash.

The Speaker of Poland’s parliament has set the date for a presidential election following the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash 11 days ago.

POLAND steeled itself yesterday for a return to political wrangling after burying president Lech Kaczynski, as hundreds of mourners bid a final farewell at his tomb.

AN ELABORATE state funeral for Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, was held yesterday bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralysed by the plume of volcanic ash that has covered Europe.

An elaborate state funeral for Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria, began today bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralysed by the plume of volcanic ash that has covered Europe.

The bodies of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife were flown from Warsaw to Krakow today for burial among Polish kings and poets at a tradition-laden ceremony that will be bereft of many world leaders whose travel plans were paralysed by a plume of volcanic ash.

Irish air space will remain shut down until tomorrow at least as fears grow of widespread travel disruption for another week, it emerged today.

Some 100,000 Poles filled Warsaw’s biggest public square today, joining together for a memorial and funeral Mass for the 96 people killed in a plane crash a week ago.

Irish airspace is facing massive disruption for a week as weather conditions are set to continue pushing the volcanic ash cloud across the country, it emerged today.

Church bells across Poland have tolled and an emergency siren has wailed to mark the minute a week ago that a plane crashed in western Russia, killing Poland's president, his wife and many of the country's civilian and military elite.

VOLCANIC ash sifted down on parts of northern Europe yesterday and 17,000 thousand planes stayed on the tarmac to avoid the hazardous cloud as travel chaos engulfed major European cities.

Irish airspace, with the exception of a block off the south coast, will continue to operate without restrictions, according to the Irish Aviation Authority.

INVESTIGATORS blamed pilot error yesterday for a crash that killed Poland’s president, as harrowing details emerged of how the crew knew they were doomed after hitting trees while trying to land in Russia.

Poland will wait until after Sunday’s state funeral for President Lech Kaczynski to decide when to hold an early election to replace him.

Thousands of mourners threw flowers on a slow-moving hearse and joined an enormous viewing line at Warsaw’s Presidential Palace to pay their respects to Lech Kaczynski and his wife as their bodies lay in state.

Readings from flight recorders indicate there were no technical problems with a Soviet-made plane which crashed, killing the Polish President and 95 other people, Russian investigators said today.

The death of Poland’s president and many elite figures in Saturday’s plane crash in Russia rekindled memories of the wartime Katyn massacre.