Today's Crossword: Bizarre moments from the lives of former world leaders

Steering the world towards progress and development requires competent leaders at the wheel.

Click start to play today’s Crossword, where you can identify various 21st century world leaders.

Heads of states spend most of their time dealing with political and economic issues. But in their downtime, they often show a side of themselves that the world hasn’t seen. Here are a few quirky and strange things former world leaders have reportedly done or said that will make you reconsider everything you knew about them:

1. Mikhail Gorbachev, Grammy winner

It’s true – former Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev took home a Grammy award in the category of Best Spoken World Album for Children, for his voice work on a recording of the Russian folk tale, Peter and the Wolf. Gorbachev provided the opening narration and epilogue for the album. It gets even more bizarre – he shared his award with former US president Bill Clinton and Oscar-winning Italian actress Sophia Loren, who also participated in the project.

2. Kim Jong Il once abducted a director

As the former leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il was known for doing a lot of bizarre things. Foremost among them was the time he kidnapped a South Korean director and his actress wife. According to US-based magazine Vanity Fair, Kim was a cinephile and when he took over his country’s movie industry, he found himself dissatisfied with the quality of films. So, he managed to lure South Korean director Shin Sang Ok and his wife Choi Eun Hee across the border through an elaborate plan. The two were held captive for years, and agreed to film a number of movies for the North Korean supreme leader. Their final collaboration was Pulgasari, a bizarre knock-off of the Hollywood film Godzilla. Kim was so happy with this ‘masterpiece’, he allowed the couple to go to Vienna on a business trip. Of course, the minute they arrived, Shin and Choi fled to the US embassy and never returned to North Korea.

3. Napoleon Bonaparte’s romance novel

He may have been a military commander, but 18th century French leader Napoleon Bonaparte also had a softer side. He is known to have written a manuscript for a romantic novella when he was 26 years old. Titled Clisson et Eugénie, it was said to be inspired by Bonaparte’s affair with Bernardine Eugénie Clary – his sister-in-law. According to UK-based publisher The Telegraph, the manuscript was found in Bonaparte’s possessions after his death – it was first published in France in 2008. The first page of the manuscript sold at a 2007 auction for just under $25,000 (Dh91,824).

Did you know these strange but interesting facts? Play today’s Crossword and tell us at games@gulfnews.com.