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TULSA, Okla. - Singer Clay Aiken apparently got into a dispute with a woman during a flight to Tulsa, drawing some scrutiny from FBI agents but no charges, a newspaper reported. ADVERTISEMENT The 2003 "American Idol" runner-up was on the Saturday morning Continental Airlines flight for a evening show, and concertgoers said afterward that Aiken joked on-stage about being beaten up by a girl earlier in the day. FBI Special Agent Gary Johnson told the Tulsa World there was a dispute between a male passenger and a woman on the flight. He said the man was a former "American Idol" contestant but did not give his name. Johnson said the dispute was over the male passenger's foot resting on the woman's armrest. He said there was an allegation the woman gave the male passenger a "minor shove" during the argument. "At that point the flight crew was able to resolve the situation," Johnson said. Tulsa Airport Authority spokeswoman Alexis Higgins said the passengers were held until FBI agents arrived to interview them. No injuries were reported and the disturbance did not interfere with the flight of the aircraft, Johnson said. The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to file charges, he said. Telephone calls and e-mails from The Associated Press to Aiken's publicist and manager in Los Angeles were not returned Sunday.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - Leaf it to New Hampshire, where a bank branch was held up by a man disguised as a tree. Just as the Citizen Bank branch opened Saturday morning, a man walked in with leafy boughs duct-taped to his head and torso, and robbed the place. "He really went out on a limb," police Sgt. Ernie Goodno said Sunday. Police said the leafy man didn't saying anything about having a weapon, just demanded cash, and was given an undisclosed amount. Although the branches and leaves obscured much of the man's face, someone who saw images from the bank's security camera recognized the robber and called police. Officers said James Coldwell, 49, was arrested early Sunday at his Manchester home and charged with robbery. Arraignment was not expected until Monday.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Condom makers say it's the world's best job, a "sexecutive position". An Australian company is seeking real life testers for its condom products. "Got what it takes to be an official condom tester?" asks an advertisement launched by Durex Australia next to a photo of a busty young woman in a revealing nurse's outfit. "With this job on your CV, it really will be a chance to brag to your mates about the special skills you possess, not to mention that your new role will work wonders with the opposite sex," Durex Marketing Manager Sam White told local media. The "bed-testing" position is unpaid, but 200 selected testers would be up for free pack of Durex products, plus a bonus prize of A$1,000 (425 pounds) for one lucky winner, White said. In return, testers would have to report back on the feel and performance of the company's products. Only Australians need apply, and would-be testers will be asked to explain why they should be considered. Humour would help in the application, Durex said. "To apply, simply explain why you think you're right for the position (missionary is acceptable) and you could be eligible for the employee bonus of $1,000," said the ad on Web site

KATY, Texas - Writing "I love Alex" on a school gymnasium wall brought a 12-year-old the same punishment as if she had made terrorist threats. The Katy Independent School District rated the message, written with a baby blue marker by sixth-grader Shelby Sendelbach, as a Level 4 infraction — the same as for threats, drug possession and assault. Only murder, gun possession, sexual assault and arson are considered more severe by the suburban Houston district. For her punishment, Shelby was assigned to an alternative school from Aug. 27 through Dec. 21. School district spokesman Steve Stanford said the district was just following a state law, saying it requires assignment to an alternative school for graffiti. Her parents have appealed and a hearing is set for this month. Lisa and Stu Sendelbach said they don't condone what Shelby did but think the punishment is overly harsh. "We are shocked that the school district rules as they are written make no distinction between what Shelby is accused of and what a gang member does with a can of black spray paint," Stu Sendelbach said.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police broke into a darkened flat fearing they would find a dead body after neighbours complained of a nasty smell seeping out onto the staircase. ADVERTISEMENT The shutters of the apartment had been closed for more than a week and the post-box was filled with uncollected mail. But instead of a corpse police found a tenant with badly smelling feet asleep in bed next to a pile of foul-smelling laundry, police in the south-western town of Kaiserslautern said on Sunday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The power of the Internet has saved more than 800 cats from being skinned and served up on Chinese dinner tables. ADVERTISEMENT About 30 animal lovers rushed to a parking lot in Shanghai after reading an Internet posting sparked by animal rights activist Huo Puyang that said two trucks carrying cats in wooden boxes had been intercepted, Huo said on Monday. Huo's daughter-in-law had been looking for their missing pets and stumbled into the trucks, one of which sped away. The daughter-in-law called Huo, whose animal-loving friends then sent out an Internet alert last Friday. The felines were on their way to the booming southern province of Guangdong, where some residents pride themselves as gourmets who will eat anything that flies, crawls or swims. "It was a cruel sight ... Pregnant cats and kittens were packed into the boxes," Huo told Reuters. "Many cats had died and smelled," she said. "Some were trampled to death. Others bit each other." Huo also telephoned police, who took the driver and the truck to a police station. Police said Huo had lacked evidence to prove the 42 boxes held stolen pets and told the animal lovers to buy the cats. The driver demanded 14 yuan (91 pence) each. After hours of haggling, the animal lovers paid more than 10,000 yuan for 840 cats. "We have a difficult task. The cost of feeding them pales compared to medical fees, vaccines and sterilisation," Huo said. She called for donations and for other animal lovers to adopt the cats, which were initially being cared for at her shelter. SMALL VICTORY Huo's expensive act was another small victory of sorts in Chinese citizens' efforts to harness Internet and cell phone technologies to mobilise around often long-stifled grievances. A slavery saga at brick kilns in the northern province of Shanxi came to light partly as a result of an Internet campaign conducted by the fathers of missing children. The Maglev train project between Shanghai and nearby Hangzhou was put under review after petitions by thousands of residents. Construction of a chemical plant in the southeastern port city of Xiamen was shelved after thousands of protesters received cell phone text messages that warned the plant would be the equivalent of an "atomic bomb" and threaten seaside environment. Internet censorship is common in China, where the government employs an elaborate system of filters and tens of thousands of human monitors to survey its 140 million Internet users' surfing habits, surgically clipping sensitive content. (Additional reporting by Vivi Lin)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian man appeared in court on Friday after a woman at his dinner party found the bodies of his wife and stepson in the freezer as she put away the leftovers, prosecutors said. ADVERTISEMENT The woman went to the police after discovering the 46-year-old woman and her 11-year-old son and officers arrested the man in the town of Verviers, near Liege in east Belgium, on Wednesday. "She went to the freezer and that is what she saw. She then alerted the police," said Georges Lahaye of the local public prosecutors' office. Prosecutors want the suspect, aged 43, to be remanded in custody to allow more time for an investigation into the deaths. Lahaye said the suspect had not made a confession. He added that the couple argued a lot.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Condom makers say it's the world's best job, a "sexecutive position." An Australian company is seeking real life testers for its condom products. ADVERTISEMENT "Got what it takes to be an official condom tester?" asks an advertisement launched by Durex Australia next to a photo of a busty young woman in a revealing nurse's outfit. "With this job on your CV, it really will be a chance to brag to your mates about the special skills you possess, not to mention that your new role will work wonders with the opposite sex," Durex Marketing Manager Sam White told local media. The "bed-testing" position is unpaid, but 200 selected testers would be up for free pack of Durex products, plus a bonus prize of A$1,000 ($854) for one lucky winner, White said. In return, testers would have to report back on the feel and performance of the company's products. Only Australians need apply, and would-be testers will be asked to explain why they should be considered. Humor would help in the application, Durex said. "To apply, simply explain why you think you're right for the position (missionary is acceptable) and you could be eligible for the employee bonus of $1,000," said the ad on Web site

MIAMI (Reuters) - An 11-year-old girl was charged with drunken driving after leading police on a chase at speeds of up to 100 mph that ended when she flipped the car in an Alabama beach town. ADVERTISEMENT A video camera in the police car captured the look of surprise on the officer's face when he approached the wrecked car and got a look at the motorist. The Mobile Press-Register newspaper said the patrolman saw the Chevrolet Monte Carlo speeding and flashed his lights to signal the driver to stop. Instead, the car sped faster, traveling at up to 100 mph (160 kph) before sideswiping another vehicle and flipping over in the Gulf Coast town of Orange Beach, Alabama, on Tuesday night. The young driver, who lived nearby in Perdido Key, Florida, was treated at a hospital for scrapes and bruises and released to relatives. Police also charged her with speeding, leaving the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment. The car belonged to a relative and police were still trying to find out where she got the alcohol. There was none in the vehicle but her blood alcohol level was over the limit for adult motorists, police told the newspaper.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Extraterrestrial life may well be so weird we would not immediately recognize it, and scientists looking for alien life should be seeking the unfamiliar as well as the familiar, experts advised on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT They said NASA'S current approach to "follow the water" works well if the assumption is that life everywhere is just like life is on Earth -- based on water, carbon and DNA. But the "life as we know it" approach could easily miss something exotic, the National Academy of Sciences panel advised. "The purpose of this whole report was to be able to look for life on other planets and moons with an open mind ... and not maybe miss some other life form because we looking for some obvious life form," said John Baross, professor of oceanography at the University of Washington in Seattle, who chaired the committee. The U.S. space agency commissioned the report from the National Research Council, one of the independent National Academies set up to advise the federal government on scientific issues. The panel of biochemists, planetary scientists, geneticists and other experts considered all the possible ways that life can arise and exist. Recent discoveries of extremophiles -- organisms living in conditions of heat, cold and dark and using chemicals once thought incompatible with life -- have changed ideas of where life can survive. As a biochemist, Baross said lab experiments also show water does not necessarily have to be the basis for life. It might be possible for a living organism to use methane, ethane, ammonia or even more bizarre chemicals, he said. HOW WEIRD CAN IT GET "We had some discussion about how weird to make this because there are so many concepts out here. There are so many theories about what life is and what could be a living system," Baross said in a telephone interview. NASA and other groups are looking hard for extraterrestrial life. Telescopes search for spectral signatures from other planets that might suggest water is on the surface. Robots on Mars are seeking evidence of water, past or present. "We wanted to actually think outside of that box a little bit and at least try to articulate some of the other possibilities besides water-carbon life," Baross said. All life on Earth uses some form of DNA or RNA to encode the basic information for replicating and changing, but perhaps other life forms exist that use a different method to do this, the report suggests. NASA might also think about returning to some of the more promising places in our own solar system to look for evidence of life, the committee said. They include Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus and even steamy Venus. "If you are a biochemist, Titan is of enormous interest, because it's a carbon moon. It does have clearly some liquid methane or liquid ethane lakes or pools. There could be chemical reactions going on that could be favorable for producing complex biochemicals," Baross said. "The exploration that could lead to a novel life form ... would be the most profound discovery ever made," Baross said. Stumbling past it or worse, destroying it because it did not look like life, would be an equally profound tragedy, he said.