British newspaper The Observer says that the leadership of Britain's armed forces is increasingly concerned by obesity among its soldiers.

An army memo leaked to the paper finds that nearly 4,000 soldiers are too overweight to be deployed in southern Afghanistan. A further 8,000 personnel are only partially fit. The memo concludes that the war effort in southern Afghanistan is suffering as a result and calls for swift measures to reduce its forces' obesity.

Photo Martin Brookes Oakham/Flickr