Poles vote for new president

WARSAW - Poles began voting for a new president on Sunday in an election that will help shape economic reforms and set the tone for Warsaw's relations with the European Union and Russia.

Billed as the strangest election in Poland's 21-year post-communist history, it was called after the death of President Lech Kaczynski and much of the country's political and military elite in a plane crash in Russia on April 10.

The two frontrunners, both Catholic conservatives espousing family values but divided on many other issues, are far ahead of the other eight candidates in opinion polls. The winner will serve a five-year term as head of state.