Rats! Look who's getting tipsy

Rats are gnawing at beer cans and making holes in caps of whisky bottles stored in police storehouses in eastern India and apparently getting drunk, authorities said on Wednesday. The rodents' love for liquor has the police department in Bihar state stumped as it tries to store hundreds of bottles seized from illegal sellers from across the state in Patna, the state capital, said Kundan Krishnan, a senior officer.

"We are fed up with these drunk rats and cannot explain why they have suddenly turned to consumption of alcohol," he said.

The problem costs revenue as the seized liquor is usually sold through auctions, he said. Rats were also attacking people near the police buildings, nibbling at their toes, although it was not clear if they were under the influence, officials and witnesses said.

84-year-old man drove 67 years without license

An 84-year-old Dutch driver astonished police this week when he admitted during a random check that not only was his car uninsured but he had been driving without a license for 67 years. Dutch media said Wednesday the man had escaped detection because he had never got a speeding ticket or been involved in a crash. The man promised police he would ditch his car, which had also never been put through a vehicle safety test, reports added.

Alaskan man pleads guilty to sale of seal penises

An Alaska man has pleaded guilty to selling more than 100 fur seal "oosiks" -- or penises -- to a local gift shop that intended to sell the items as an aphrodisiac.

Michael Richard Zacharof, an Aleut and former tribal president from the Bering Sea village of St. Paul, pleaded guilty this week to one count of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Federal law forbids the sale of any raw marine mammal parts unless they have been crafted into pieces of Alaska Native artwork.

In Zacharof's case, the former tribal leader sold the raw seal penises to a gift shop catering to customers from Asia. The shop then sold the items for about $100 each, according to the Justice Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Steward said seal penis bones, also known as seal sticks, are believed to have properties similar to erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra. Zacharof faces a possible one-year prison term and a $20,000 fine, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

An India couple have been accused of trying to get their 15-year-son into the Guinness Book of World Records by allowing him to perform a caesarean op

A former Kashmiri rebel was wounded when a tiny detonator planted in a cigarette by suspected militants exploded when he lit it up in a police station, a newspaper report said Thursday. The small blast, the first of its kind in the revolt-torn Himalayan region, took place in a remote village of Doda district where Mohammad Rafiq had surrendered to police, the Daily Excelsior said.

Separatist militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed region since 1989 frequently target their former colleagues who surrender to the police or the army. "The small detonator, planted inside the cigarette, exploded when Rafiq was smoking, causing him minor injuries. He has been hospitalized," the newspaper quoted a senior police officer as saying.

He said police were investigating how a cigarette with a detonator hidden inside reached Rafiq in the police station. More than 42,000 people have been killed in the insurgency, officials say. Rights activists put the number at 60,000 dead or missing.

Paging Doogie Howser...

An India couple have been accused of trying to get their 15-year-son into the Guinness Book of World Records by allowing him to perform a caesarean operation, local newspapers reported on Thursday.

The parents, both doctors from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, screened a video recording of the operation on a 20-year-old woman to other doctors in the hope of attaining the record as the world's youngest surgeon, newspapers reported.

Family members said the boy was only helping out in the operation, handing his father medical instruments. Indian medical authorities are investigating the case and could revoke the couple's medical licenses.

Missing: Large lake in southern Chile

A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole. The lake was situated in the Magallanes region in Patagonia and was fed by water, mostly from melting glaciers. It had a surface area of between 4 and 5 hectares (10-12 acres) -- about the size of 10 soccer pitches.

"In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal ... we went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," said Juan Jose Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation CONAF. "The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure," he told Reuters. CONAF is investigating the disappearance. One theory is that the area was hit by an earth tremor that opened a crack in the ground which acted like a drain. Southern Chile has been shaken by thousands of minor earth tremors this year.