THERE'S no free meal. That's what a man in Germany discovered recently.
He thought he had struck gold when an unknown girl called him and started to flirt with him all night.
Little did he know that the encounter would set him back 6,000 euros ($12,000).
According to the police, the woman calling herself Tina, rang the 28-year-old man on his handphone.
'She said she had found his number on the Internet and would really like to chat with him,' a police spokesman in the westerly town of Wesel said.
She gave the man a number and asked him to ring her back, saying it would be a cheap rate.
The pair then chatted away for six hours.
'The man said they talked about far more than just sex,' the spokesman said.
But he got a rude shock when he received his bill.
He made a report and police are investigating the allegations of fraud.
And now, SMS a novel
A CHINESE author has written a novel meant to be read in 70-word chapters transmitted by SMS.
Outside The Fortress Besieged, the story of an extramarital affair, consists of 60 such chapters totaling about 4,000 words, the Xinhua News Agency said.
'The plot develops just like that of an ordinary novel,' author Qian Fuchang was quoted as saying.
The potential market is huge: China has the world's biggest handphone market, with more than 300 million users.
They are avid buyers of services that send news, sports, horoscopes and other material by handphone message.
Mr Qian's employer, the Guangdong Literature Academy in Guangdong, is planning an auction to sell the novel to SMS providers.
It is not known whether the whole novel will be transmitted at one go or in stages - Wire services.
Source: NP
