Barack Obama too thin to win White House?

LONDON: Barack Obama, who hopes to become the first Black-American President, may be ahead of Republican candidate John McCann in some opinion polls, but when it comes to figure, he is far behind.

In fact, The Wall Street Journal has indicated that Obama is too thin to win the White House as his slim physique could be a liability in a nation of mostly obese voters and it might also affect his presidential campaign.

To be specific, the report suggested that Obama might be too thin and too fit to appeal to voters who tend to like candidates with flaws that they can identify with, British newspaper The Sunday Times reported.

Obama's enthusiasm for exercise first raised eyebrows last month, when he stopped three times in one day for workouts at Chicago gyms, prompting a reporter to wonder: "Sometimes it's hard to tell if Barack Obama is running for President or Mr Universe."

It has also been widely noted that Obama sometimes seems appalled when presented at election meetings with the pride of local cuisine, often a fat-smothered hunk of meat or a sugary bun dripping in aerosol cream.

Aussie PM related to an underwear thief: Study

CANBERRA: Australia's prime minister Kevin Rudd is a descendent of a child underwear thief and a convict sent to Australia from England for stealing a bag of sugar, a new family history of the PM has found.

Australia's Mormon church spent more than a year researching Rudd's family history, and presented the findings to the prime minister on Thursday.

The Mormon church has a reputation for the excellence of its genealogical research. It found Rudd, like many Australians, had convict ancestors — including his fifth great-grandmother who was sent to Australia at the age of 12 after originally being sentenced to death for stealing another girl's dress and underwear.

The family history reveals Rudd's fifth great-grandmother Mary Wade lived in poverty in England and survived by sweeping streets and begging. In 1788, aged about 12, she and another girl robbed an eight-year-old girl of her dress and underclothes. Wade was caught and tried in January 1789 and was sentenced to be executed, but after three months she was transported to Australia.

Guests mistake police for strippers

BERLIN: Police say two officers who responded to complaints about a raucous weekend party in western Germany were mistaken for male strippers by the female guests. Simmern police spokesman Bernd Hoffmann says neighbors called police around 12.45 am on Sunday to complain about noise from a birthday party in their building.

A round of applause from the apartment resident - who had just turned 30 - and her friends greeted two officers who went to investigate. Hoffmann said on Monday that ``they thought the policemen were dressed like that because they were strippers. It took them a while to realize they were real police officers.'' Hoffmann says the women had not ordered strippers but thought someone had sent them as a birthday surprise.

The incident resulted in no arrests.