Bangladeshi villagers take part in a frog wedding in Ramchandrapur village on August 10. Farmers in a parched district of northern Bangladesh are marrying off frogs in a desperate bid to bring on monsoon rains and protect their crops, local officials said

DHAKA (AFP) – Farmers in a parched district of northern Bangladesh are marrying off frogs in a desperate bid to bring on monsoon rains and protect their crops, local officials said.

Bangladesh suffered its driest July in decades, prompting farmers to turn to the centuries-old rain-making ritual of celebrating frog marriages, officials say.

“There have been lot of frog marriages as there has been hardly any rainfall here even though it’s monsoon season,” Sadullahpur district government administrator Ariful Haq said.

At a frog wedding in Ramchandrapur village, 300 villagers dressed in their best clothes attended the festivities, said Tajul Islam, who was at the wedding.

“The frog bride and groom are highly decorated with a red streak of color on their forehead and carried in a special basket to a banana-leaf stage,” he said.

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Pensioner drove for 51 years without license

BERLIN (AFP) – German police stopped a 79-year-old man for veering into the wrong lane in his car only to learn he had his driving license withdrawn half a century ago, authorities said.

Officers in the western city of Oberhausen asked to see his license after the man steered into the oncoming lane while pulling into a grocery store car park.

The pensioner handed over his identity card and car registration but said he had lost the driving license.

“A preliminary investigation revealed that the 79-year-old had his license withdrawn,” police said in a statement. “Computer records from the Federal Motor Transport Authority showed that he was banned from driving until June 2031. That is one day before his 100th birthday.”

The man, whose name was not released, had his license revoked in 1959 for drunk driving. When he repeatedly took to the roads anyway, a judge stripped him of his permission to drive for the next 72 years. A police spokesman told AFP he would likely face a fine and strict enforcement
of his driving ban.

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Sweden rejects ‘Lucifer’ as car number plate

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – Sweden’s transport authority balked at the idea of the devil riding the Nordic country’s roads as it rejected a citizen’s request for “Lucifer” as her personalized car number plate.

“The combination of letters that you have asked for could be interpreted as offensive,” the Swedish transport authority said, throwing “Lucifer” in the same bin as other rejected words such as “Badazz”, “Sexyboy” and “Vodka”.

However, 40-year-old Annsofie Tedfors told the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter she did not have the devil in mind and “just wanted to pick a memorable name.”

Tedfors added she had once had a cat and a business also called “Lucifer”.

According to Swedish law, personalized car number plates must not be “offensive or disturbing”, and the authorities must consider all proposals before they appear on the roads.

In a country with 9.5 million people there are some 15,860 personalized car number plates in circulation, each costing 6,000 Swedish Kroners (around 630 euros or $815) and lasting 10 years.

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Dog gives birth in police car

PRESCOTT VALLEY, Arizona (AP) – A pit bull delivered quite a surprise in the back of a Prescott Valley patrol car. Prescott Valley police said an officer picked up the pit bull from an area woman who had been watching the dog.

The officer noticed the dog appeared quite pregnant, but the woman told him she was not. She told the officers she was only supposed to watch the dog for a short time and that its owners never picked her up.

The officer put the dog in the back of his patrol car to be impounded, but when he got to the station, he found more than one dog in the back.