"Angela Merkel gains 1½ stone after swapping fruit and carrot snacks for sausage sandwiches and biscuits"

From The Daily Mail:

* White House reporters noted that Merkel looked 'well fed and content'

* Biscuits and sausage sandwiches are now her preferred snack foods

* She never wants to see another raw chopped carrot or leek ever again

She is a heavyweight politician with a figure to match. Her imposing new physique is apparently down to observance of a strict new diet.

The result is that she has gained around one and half stone, with pictures of her taken this year and last highlighting the difference her perseverance has made.

The previously favoured fruit and vegetable snacks are now strictly off limits, with the German Chancellor, 59, now munching happily on cheese and sausage sandwiches and biscuits instead, according to Germany's Bild newspaper.

It is rumoured that Mrs Merkel's change of diet came after a state visit by the King of Tonga, who appeared very disconcerted when he first met her face to face and enquired discreetly whether Germany was suffering a terrible famine.