Santa Claus and Sarah Palin contest Alaska seat

And other stories from the stranger side of life

Sarah Palin delivering a speech

Sarah Palin and Santa Claus are among the candidates contesting Alaska’s special primary election. Palin, a former Republican vice presidential candidate, hopes to win the House seat that is open for the first time in nearly 50 years. So does Santa Claus, a 75-year-old North Pole councilman, described by CNN as “a portly, bearded Anglican monk who wears a red robe”. He changed his name from Thomas Patrick O’Connor in 2005.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.