White smoke emerges from sistine chapel as new pope is elected

READ UPDATE

The Pope’s Twitter account has now been reactivated on @pontifex.

A NEW POPE has been elected to lead the Catholic Church.

In the last few moments, white smoke has emerged from the roof of the Sistine Chapel, where the 115 voting-age cardinals have been deliberating since Tuesday.

The white smoke means that a candidate has won the approval of 77 of the cardinals, meaning a two-thirds majority � and will now take command of a religion with an estimated 1.2 billion followers worldwide.

The identity of the new pontiff, and the papal name they are to adopt, will be announced shortly.

More to follow…