Man Leaves Mother Dead in Chair for Two Years
In Berlin, Germany, a man left his dead mother seated in her favorite armchair at their shared home for two years because he could not face organizing a funeral. The woman died of natural causes in the chair in July 2005 at the age of 92, a police spokesman said. A doctor called to the scene at the time gave the son a death certificate but he did not register the death. Neighbors alerted police about the corpse. The man told police he could not bear to move his mother and said he never again entered the room where she was seated. Police have started an investigation for violating German burial law.
Boy in court for assault by sausage
A 12-year-old British boy appeared in court charged with assault for throwing a sausage at a pensioner, police said. The boy’s mother described the decision to charge her son as “an absolute joke,” although police said they had no choice. The youth, who can’t be named, was arrested after a 74-year-old man reported him to police for throwing a stone in Manchester, northern England. The object turned out to be a cocktail sausage. Police and prosecutors have launched a joint review of the case after a judge at Manchester Youth Court reportedly urged them to reconsider. The boy’s mother said her son was worried he might be sent to prison.
Mattel sues porn site over use of barbie’s name
Mattel Inc. sued a small company on Tuesday for using the toymaker’s famed “Barbie” trademark as part of the name for a pornographic Web site it owned. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, said the Web site www.chinabarbie.com had used the Barbie trademark to capture the positive image Mattel had created through its “Barbie” products. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, said the company, Global China Networks LLC, was based in Florida with a postal address in New York and had sold memberships to the site to customers around the world. Mattel co-founder Ruth Handler in 1959 created the Barbie doll after noticing her daughter preferred playing with paper cut-outs of adult female fashion dolls, the lawsuit said.
-From Reuters reports compiled by Yahoo