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
