Germany’s version of Captain Birdseye has suffered a court defeat against a lookalike from a rival brand.
Judges in Munich ruled that the distinctive look of the character Germans call Käpt’n Iglo had not been ripped off by the Appel-Man used by Appel Feinkost.
Although both are elderly men with beards and caps who are pictured by the sea, the court noted that Appel’s character, wearing an “elegant three-piece suit”, was more of a hipster grandad “spending his free time on the beach” than a sailor.
Another Iglo claim, that consumers would not be able to tell the two brands apart on smartphone adverts because their logos would appear very small when viewed, was dismissed with the words: “The sale of frozen fish via mobile phones is likely to be a completely unusual sales channel.”
A bored Russian security guard who doodled eyes on a £740,000 painting
will not face jail.
Anna Leporskaya’s Three Figures (1932-34), which was hanging in the Yeltsin Gallery, Yekaterinburg when the guard scrawled on it with a biro, has been taken to Moscow for restoration.
Russia’s ministry of culture had demanded that the 60-year-old guard, on his first day of work for a private security firm, should face charges that might have brought him three years in prison and a fine of up to £30,000.
Instead, the guard will be charged only with vandalism, which carries a maximum penalty of three months’ house arrest or 360 hours of community service.
Police who called on an Italian pensioner to warn her that trees in her garden might be blown over in a predicted storm found that she had been sitting dead at her kitchen table for at least two years.
Officers found the body of Marinella Beretta, 70, at her home in Prestino, near Lake Como, Italy. The last confirmed sighting of her was in September 2019, and neighbours told police that they assumed she had moved away in the pandemic.
A new prison in Zurich is asking for volunteers to serve a short stretch as a
test run before it accepts real prisoners.
Officials said they were looking for people to be locked up from noon on
Thursday, March 24 to 10am on Sunday, March 27. Those who come forward will receive no payment and spend most of the time locked in their cells, although they will be served three jail meals per day. Authorities said: “There are only winners in this test operation.”
Croatian stand-up Aleksandar Curać Šarić made a woman laugh so hard she
was hospitalised with a hernia.
Natko Beck, a Zagreb radiologist who has become a social media celebrity, confirmed that he had helped to diagnose the woman and that she has “literally burst out laughing”. He said the patient was in good condition after treatment, but was being teased by friends.
Curać Šarić said: “I have had fans thanking me for cheering them up and making them feel better but this is certainly the first physical injury due to one of my performances.”
A Spanish cafe that serves French-style pancakes and calls itself Hansel
& Crêpel features on a list of the country’s funniest-named restaurants.
Others include Vegans ’n’ Roses, the Latin American-style Latina Turner and Greek diner Anita Gyro, which takes its name from the song Holding Out For A Hero by Bonnie Tyler.
Passengers who spent 17 hours on an Athens-to-Thessaloniki train because of a freak snowstorm have given a frosty response to railway bosses’ attempts to help.
They claim employees of the Hellenic Railways Organisation did not contact them for hours – and when they did, it was with the suggestion that once food and water ran out on board, they should leave the stranded train in the middle of the night and knock at nearby houses for supplies.
Some disgruntled passengers then hired a bus to take them from Oinoi, where the train had stopped, back to Athens, but it was turned back by police, who had closed local motorways.
The Greek government has now agreed to award each of the 300 passengers 1,000 euros (£835) as compensation.
