During a speech he was making at the White House on Thursday, US President Barack Obama was nearly upstaged by a rodent. As Obama stood at the podium at the Rose Garden, a rodent dashed out of the bushes to Obama’s right and made a bee-line for another set of bushes to Obama’s left.The president didn’t show any reaction.
Afterwards, a debate erupted among the photographers and reporters over whether it was a rat, a mouse or another rodent.
Experts, too, joined the fray. Russell Link, a wildlife biologist said, “My suspicion is it’s a vole, commonly called a ‘meadow mouse’.”
Meanwhile, in Indonesia, a film titled Little Obama is being made. The film tells the story of Obama’s childhood in Jakarta, where he lived with his mother and Indonesian stepfather from age 6 to 10. 12-year-old Hasan Faruq Ali plays the role of the young US president in the film.
“It feels great to play Obama,” he says. The film’s screenwriter Damien Dematra adds, “It’s just the story of a boy.”