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Colourful US presidential candidate Kucinich to bow out

Other News Materials 25 January 2008 03:56 (UTC +04:00)

( dpa )- Dennis Kucinich, a left-wing Democratic congressman who believes in UFOs, "strength through peace" and a vegan diet, said Thursday he will abandon his 2008 presidential bid.

Kucinich, 61, got attention on the campaign trail with fervent opposition to the Iraq war and his British-born, 31-year-old second wife, but he polled no more than 4 per cent so far this month in the party's first five state-by-state presidential preference contests.

In an interview with the daily Cleveland Plain Dealer in his home state of Ohio, he said he would hold a news conference Friday "where I will be announcing that I am transitioning out of the presidential campaign."

Kucinich's 2004 bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination also ended early. During a Democratic debate in October, he got the audience laughing when he said he once saw a UFO over Hollywood star Shirley MacLaine's home.

The congressman has had a long political career, including 10 years in the US House of Representatives. In 1977, he was elected mayor of Cleveland at age 31, making him the youngest mayor of a major US city at the time.

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