Minimalist poet, minimalist lifestyle

Sexy 'woman' on dating line was man

An unemployed Dutch man pretended to be a woman on a premium sex phone live - with the blessing of social services.

Francis Capelle, 38, from Enschede, says officials were content he was earning money and no longer needed unemployment benefits.

Mr Capelle has been earning his living by pretending to be "sexy Ellen" to hundreds of men on the phone, reports De Telegraaf.

He says he could make his voice sound like that of a seductive woman to keep men on the phone for hours. He earned a modest income - about double what he would have got on benefits.

But, after ten months, he decided to call a halt because he felt he was earning money fraudulently.

"A lot of men gave me their names, address and phone number and tried to get a date. But I never went," he said.

"I'm very sorry for the men who spent so much money in talking to me. They spent a real fortune."

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysians in a northern village were alarmed by rumors that space aliens had been laid to rest in their neighborhood cemetery, but authorities learned the graves had merely been filled with banana tree trunks for a superstitious ritual, police said Tuesday.

Residents feared a local witch doctor had instructed grave diggers to bury extraterrestrials in the rural district of Pasir Mas on Sunday, causing police to detain the man for investigation, said district police chief Haliludin Rahim.

The man was freed after he explained that banana tree trunks, not aliens, had been buried in a ceremony for "medicinal purposes," Haliludin told The Associated Press.

The New Straits Times newspaper said the rumor started because of a misunderstanding after some of the grave diggers claimed to other people that they had been told they were burying aliens.

Witch doctors and spiritual healers are common in rural parts of Malaysia where traditional beliefs have long been entrenched.

Pole dancing ad ruled OK but aliens are out

Nando's ad received more than 200 complaints

Pole dancing "not incompatible with family values"

Bureau decisions "not based on complaint numbers"

POLE dancing strippers are compatible with family values, but animated aliens bearing hamburgers are deemed unfit for television, Australia's ad watchdog says.

The Advertising Standards Bureau dismissed 200 public complaints about a Nando's chicken chain ad featuring a pole dancer wearing only a G-string.

But an animated McDonald's advertisement showing a girl being abducted by aliens and rewarded with a Happy Meal has been axed for undermining "stranger danger" messages.

The ad watchdog previously banned a bank ad in which a man in a bunny suit was tripped up by a shopkeeper - because of one complaint of animal cruelty.

The dismissal of complaints about the overtly sexual nature of the Nando's TV and cinema advertisements has left critics shocked and confused.

The commercial features a topless mother working as a pole dancer thrusting her backside in a G-string at a male customer's face to receive a cash tip.

She is wearing a Nando's-fix patch designed to deal with her craving for Nando's meals.

The woman is then shown fully clothed with her husband and two children enjoying dinner at a Nando's restaurant.

The ad is classified M and can be shown after 8.30pm and on weekdays between noon and 3pm.

The Advertising Standards Bureau said the ad did not breach the advertising ethics code.

It ruled that "pole dancing was not incompatible with family values ... (and) this depiction of pole dancing was ... not overtly sexual."

But the bureau also found the woman "enjoyed being sexy" while pole dancing.

Advertising lobby group Young Media Australia said the decision was confusing.

"I thought (the ad) was a bit out there and based on the number of complaints it received, the bureau's decision not to ban it seems crazy," Young Media president Joan Roberts said.

"Two hundred complaints seems more reflective of community standards than one."

But bureau chief executive Fiona Jolly said decisions were not based on complaint numbers.

A majority of the board rejected all complaints over the ad.