SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian man who worked as a baggage handler for the national airline Qantas was jailed for at least two years on Friday for stealing hair from women’s luggage to satisfy a sexual fetish.

Rodney Lyle Petersen, 30, pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to 50 counts of theft, Australian Associated Press reported.

The court was told that Petersen would rummage through lost or delayed luggage that he was returning to passengers. He collected the hair from brushes and clothing, then put it inside plastic slips and record the women’s personal details.

Police said he had catalogued the hair in more than 80 bags.

Petersen’s lawyer told the court that his client did not mean to frighten the women because they were not meant to find out.

The court was told that Petersen suffered from a range of sexual deviances.

He was sentenced to two years and eight months in jail, with a non-parole period of two years.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican men who display extreme jealousy or avoid sex with their wives could be tried in court and punished under a new law, the special prosecutor for crimes against women told a local newspaper on Friday.

Men who phone their wives every half hour to check up on them, constantly suspect them of infidelity or try to control the way they dress are committing the crime of jealousy, special prosecutor Alicia Elena Perez Duarte told Excelsior newspaper.

Those who stop talking to their wives, avoid sex or try to convince suspicious spouses they are “crazy” even if they are caught red-handed having an affair, are guilty of indifference, she said.

Men found guilty of jealousy or indifference could face up to five years in prison, the newspaper said. Mexico’s individual states will determine the punishments, it said.

The progressive new law was passed this month to protect women from domestic violence.

In Mexico, about 75 percent of all murdered women are killed by their husbands, Perez Duarte said.

“If we do not stop this from the beginning, it turns into beatings, and the beatings turn into more beatings and rape, until it gets out of hand, and whoops, she died,” she told the paper.

Perez Duarte said the law would be a weapon that women could employ to level the playing field with abusive men.

“Men ought not to feel discriminated against,” she told Excelsior.

Perez Duarte said indifference, jealousy or lack of love were crimes against women just as much as physical violence.

“Jealousy produces a particular type of stress in the person that comes up against it,” she said. “It is exactly the same. They are wounds, psychological scars identical to physical scars.”

HOYOCASERO, Spain (Reuters) – Cupid can always use a little encouragement, especially in a remote Spanish village.

With that in mind, about 150 women traveled by bus to Hoyocasero on Saturday in response to an Internet plea from men tired of being alone.

Commonly known as “una caravana de mujeres” (a caravan of women), the travelers were met with flowers by cheering men eager for a love match — or at least a good party.

For the 400 residents of the isolated mountain village of Hoyocasero, a mass invite seemed like a good idea in the face of a declining population. The “caravan” appeal was first tried 20 years ago by a similarly love-lorn Spanish village and has since been used in dozens of places across the country.

“Meeting someone this way, it’s more rustic and authentic … it’s easier to get to know someone face to face,” said 32-year-old farmer Cesar del Rio, whose family has lived in Hoyocasero for centuries.

He hopes to be able to offer some lucky woman a new life in this village located about 100 km west of Madrid.

“The idea that living in the country is all work is just a myth … this is a slow simple life, and there’s not a lot of hard work.”

The young people in Hoyocasero, along with many other rural communities in Spain, have quit the countryside in favor of jobs in towns. Some villages have been abandoned completely.

To show prospective partners their rural skills some of the men, who are mostly cattle farmers, leapt onto horses to demonstrate riding skills. The display was followed by a feast of regional culinary delicacies — beans, a meat stew and locally-made sweets — before a dance late into the night.

The organizers hope some couples will hit it off, settle here and eventually have children. The local school is already under threat of closure because there are not enough pupils.

In the days of Internet dating, some people feel such “caravans” are no longer needed.

“It’s not really necessary to (meet people) this way any more. The thing is, it’s more fun,” said Laura Martin, 27, who was hoping for “a laugh, friendship, maybe something more.”

“It seems to me that there are lot of older men who are interested but we younger women want our freedom and, here in the village, the men want to come straight down to business,” she said, surrounded by a group of giggling girl friends.

Others had stopped off at the village to watch the party.

“There are a lot of single people in this village, but they’re all getting on a bit … we’ll see if anything juicy comes our way,” said Jose Maria Martin, a 45-year-old construction worker, dressed in bikers’ leathers.

JAKARTA (AFP) – An Indonesian company has launched a women-only bus service, believed to be the first in the world’s largest Muslim-populated country, according to a report.

Five buses would initially serve a new route in Pekanbaru, capital of Riau province on the island of Sumatra, the Kompas newspaper said in its online edition.

PT Riau Kencana Madani launched the service to provide women with a safe mode of transport that would also protect them from sexual harassment, as frequently happened on regular buses, it quoted company president Deddy Mizward as saying.

While accepting only female passengers, the buses would still be driven by men as Mizward said they had so far failed to recruit any women willing to work as drivers.

Most Indonesian Muslims, accounting for more than 80 percent of the country’s some 214 million people, follow a moderate form of Islam.

NORTH LOGAN, Utah – A University of Southern California hockey goalie put on a show, but it had nothing to do with stopping shots. Mickey Meyer rode his stick like a horse, dropped his bulky pants, mooned the crowd and slapped his buttocks during a game against Brigham Young University, police said.

He was ejected and ticketed for lewdness, a misdemeanor, after an officer who was working security at the rink said he witnessed the scene Saturday.

“I had my fill of these refs,” Meyer said on an Internet broadcast of the game, according to The Herald-Journal of Logan.

It will be up to prosecutors whether to pursue a case against him.

“This is a small town,” North Park police Sgt. John Italasano said. “This was a college team playing and hockey’s a wild game. Sometimes things get out of hand.”

Meyer’s antics occurred while play was stopped and referees were trying to sort out penalties in the third period of a consolation game in the ACHA West Regional tournament at Eccles Ice Center.

The junior from Clinton, N.Y., was “riding his hockey stick like a horse and slapping his butt,” North Park Officer Mike Stauffer said in a report.

After pulling down his pants, Meyer slapped his bare bottom several times, Stauffer said.

Rink manager Floyd Naegle was unhappy.

“We don’t treat this as a funny incident,” he said Tuesday. “We’re a family oriented business. It’s a one-time incident and we try to do what we can to protect ourselves.”

The Trojans lost the game against BYU, 6-4. The night before, they’d lost 3-1 to Utah State. USC volunteer hockey coach Mark Wilbur said the incident highlights the frustration that can come with playing tournament consolation rounds early in the morning after a loss far from home.

“All you’re doing is asking for seniors to do stupid stuff,” he said.

If the season’s over, he’d just like to pack up the team gear and go home, he said.

Wilbur said he had no specific policy for dealing with publicly bared bottoms.

“I sure as hell don’t condone it on any level,” Wilbur said.

Prosecutor Scott Wyatt laughed when told about the incident Tuesday at the state Capitol, where he is a member of the Utah House. He declined to say whether he would press charges. The maximum penalty is six months in jail.

“Well, that’s my call, but I haven’t seen anything” from police, Wyatt said.

OCONOMOWOC, Wis. – A man says he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.

“Now I feel stupid,” said James Van Iveren, who has been charged in the case. “This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake.”

According to a criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning Feb. 12, damaging the frame and lock.

“Where is she?” Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the sword at the neighbor, the complaint said. “Where is she?”

The neighbor told police Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he had heard a woman being raped. The complaint said that, with the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone.

The neighbor later played for police the part of the DVD he believed Van Iveren heard downstairs.

Van Iveren, 39, of Oconomowoc, was charged with criminal trespass, criminal damage and disorderly conduct, all while using a dangerous weapon, and is due in court March 5. Together, the misdemeanor counts carry a maximum sentence of 33 months in jail.

Van Iveren said Tuesday that he heard a woman “screaming for help,” grabbed the sword, bounded up the stairs, kicked in the apartment door and confronted the man who lived there.

“I intended to hold it behind my back and knock. But I froze and instead, what happened happened,” he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Contesting his neighbor’s account, Van Iveren said he didn’t look anywhere in the apartment except the front room, and that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword.

“I had the sword extended. But that was all,” he said.

Van Iveren, who lives with his mother in the downstairs apartment, said he did not call police when he heard the noises because he does not have a telephone. He said he barely knew the upstairs tenant.

Police seized Van Iveren’s sword, which he said was a family heirloom.

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Indian airports have ditched high-powered X-ray surveillance that offers near-naked images of passengers amid fears of protests over privacy abuse, officials said.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which guards Indian airports, said a single Backscatter X-ray device imported from the United States in November had been mothballed after its results shocked security personnel.

“It was quite unnerving … terribly embarrassing actually,” a CISF commandant who trained on the equipment, told AFP.

“Only one machine was brought to the Indira Gandhi International airport (in New Delhi) four months ago for trials, but we found the images were too revealing,” a senior CISF official told the Times of India.

“Using the backscatter machine would have become very sensitive here,” the official said.

Backscatter uses high-energy X-rays that can penetrate clothing. It is unlike X-rays used in medical applications, which pass through human tissues but bounce off bones or metal parts.

Security at most Indian airports is usually tight due to fear of attack by Kashmiri guerrillas fighting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory since 1989.

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – A respected Malaysian Muslim religious advisor has suggested that women wear chastity belts to thwart “sex maniacs” who rape and commit incest, according to a report.

Abu Hassan Din Al-Hafiz said cases of rape and incest were rampant and that chastity belts would help reduce sex-related crimes, the Star daily reported.

“We have even come across a number of unusual sex cases, where even senior citizens and children were not spared. The best way to avert sex perpetrators is to wear protection,” he was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

“My intention is not to offend women but to safeguard them from sex maniacs,” he said.

Elaborating on his idea, he said there would be other positives to donning the belts.

“Husbands could also feel more secure, if you know what I mean,” he said, adding chastity belts were worn as recently as the mid-1960s.

Abu Hassan has served as a religious advisor to Malaysia’s king and written books on Islamic studies.

TEMPE, Ariz. – A woman has been arrested on suspicion that she tied up a man during sex, then stabbed him repeatedly with a knife and told him she likes to drink blood, police said.

Tiffany Sutton, 23, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault Tuesday night at a Tempe home where she and the victim were living, according to authorities.

The man, whose identity was not released, told police he had consented to being tied up but became scared when the woman attacked him with a knife.

He eventually freed himself and ran away, but Sutton chased him with a pickax, police said.

The man was taken in an ambulance to a local hospital, where he was treated for injuries.

Police said both Sutton and the man admitted that they had consumed alcohol and drugs prior to the incident.

Sutton claimed the entire encounter was consensual, police said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Porn star Ron Jeremy wants to be taken seriously — with his clothes on.

Dressed in a dark track suit with a protruding belly that shows he is past his physical prime, Jeremy hardly strikes you as one of the most successful American porn stars.

But Jeremy, 53, who claims to have been with more than 4,000 women during a 30-year career, is the first to admit that he is not your stereotypical sex star. He believes his average looks are a key to his success.

In a new memoir, “Ron Jeremy: The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz,” he said audiences identified with him because he was just like them — hairy, with a mustache and standing just 5 feet 6 inches tall.

“They look at themselves in the mirror and think, Y’know, compared to Ron Jeremy, I’m not that bad looking at all,” Jeremy says in the book released this month.

Jeremy, who trained to be a teacher, started out as an actor in New York in the mid-1970s but ended up in porn films to make some money after his girlfriend sent off some nude photographs of him to Playgirl. He never looked back.

But with more than 1,750 adult films to his name and turning 54 next month, Jeremy had few Hollywood directors knocking at his door.

Jeremy turned to reality TV, joining the second season of “The Surreal Life,” which features a group of low-level celebrities living in a mansion in Los Angeles.

“It increased my audience. A lot of women and children now know me from the show,” said Jeremy. “Now I’m getting more work.”

Jeremy, who was born Ron Jeremy Hyatt, can be seen in a spinoff of that series, “The Surreal Life: Fame Games,” and had a role in the comedy “Finishing the Game,” which screened at the
Sundance Film Festival in January.

In addition to his book, Jeremy is busy with other ventures — his adult film company, speaking on television and college campuses about sex and pornography, and promotional appearances for products that carry his name.

But more than ever, he is driven to seize those elusive Hollywood roles. “It’s a certain amount of ego,” he said. “In my little cloud, I still think I’m an actor.”

Would he like to do more reality television?

“To me, porn and reality TV are similar. I don’t mind being in them,” he said. “I just can’t stand watching them.”

PARIS (AFP) – After skirts, make-up and pantyhose for men, the corset, onetime symbol of women’s oppression, might be the next big thing for fashion-conscious males.

Young Parisian corset maker Sylvain Nuffer began cutting, stitching and boning corsets for men four years ago and now sells 30-odd standard models a year at 500 to 600 euros (650 to 775 dollars) a shot, 40 percent more when made to measure.

“I felt frustrated by the lack of choice of clothing for men,” he told AFP. “I made one for myself and they kind of multiplied.”

Wearing jeans with a gray silk corset of his own making over a shirt and tie, Nuffer, who learnt the complex trade with his corsetiere mother, stands tall, waist nipped in, shoulders wide, back straight.

Corsets for men have a history, he said, worn by medieval horsemen to protect the spine, adopted by bikers today for the same reason.

But the real inspiration behind Nuffer’s corset — laced up the back with a clip-open busk at the front — dates back to the heady days of the 1789 French Revolution.

Male followers of utopian philosopher and economist, Count Claude Henri de Saint-Simon, at the time adopted the corset precisely because it was impossible to lace up alone. Having to help each other with the ties symbolised the humanitarian helping-other ideals of the Saint-Simonien movement.

Critics derided Nuffer’s early creations, however, saying a garment stiffened with a multitude of bones and stays would be uncomfortable.

Not so, said one adept, Laurent Renaud, who teaches at a fashion school and wears his everyday. “I wear it over a shirt or under a sweater,” he said. “I use it as daywear or to go out at night.”

“The problem,” he added, “is you get so used to it keeping you straight that it gets difficult to go without.”

Hubert Barrere, the designer who created the corset for Madonna’s wedding dress in 2000, said in interview that “corsets for men are a bit like upgraded waistcoats.”

Military dress uniforms continued to be ribbed in the 20th century, said Barrere, a master corset maker who works with likes of Dolce and Gabbana and Stella McCartney while turning out made-to-measure personal numbers for Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Isabelle Adjani.

“I’m not over-enthused about corsets for men,” he added. “I prefer a woman’s body, I feel better highlighting a woman’s curves.”

Pulling from a box a gold python corset made for Alexander McQueen and worn by Naomi Campbell, Barrere waxes lyrical on what a corset can do for a woman.

“A woman who wears a corset offers herself to men differently, she is attractive,” he said. “Corsets constrain the body, either to protect or to display, and the richer and more powerful you are, the readier you are to wear clothing that constrains.”

Barrere, whose bespoke corsets cost over 2,000 euros a piece, uses spring or spiral steel rather than plastic to “change a silhouette, highlight feminine shapes, modify volumes.”

“I want corsets to be comfortable, delirious but comfortable.”

Whether as underwear or outerwear, the corset has seen difficult times.

Worn to gird and shape the torso, 16th-century models were so stiff women could not sit down. At mealtimes, wearers had to remove the wooden busk, or shaft, inserted at the front and lay it at the table by the cutlery. It was a breach of etiquette for a man to handle the busk.

In the 19th century, when waists were supposed to be no bigger than twice the circumference of the neck, there was an outcry over the harm of tight lacing to health and corsets fell out of favour as an instrument of women’s oppression.

They were gradually replaced, as underwear, by girdles and elastic bras while the corset, worn outside the clothing, was marginalised as an accounterment in the dusky subcultures of bondage, domination, sadism and masochism.

In the 1970s the garment came out of the closet, staging a comeback on the catwalks in a collection by Britain’s Vivienne Westwood inspired by historical garments.

She was followed a decade later by Thierry Mugler and Jean-Paul Gaultier, the designer who created Madonna’s famed pointy corset bra for her 1990 World Tour and then turned the shape into an iconic perfume bottle.

For Barrere, the corset story has come full circle.

“Corsets were long a wound for women,” he said. “But today if a woman decides to wear a corset it is a sign of empowerment, not of submission.”

NEW YORK (AFP) – New York authorities unveiled the country’s first city-themed condom to mark Valentine’s Day and National Condom Day, in a bid to reduce sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

The subway-themed condoms, which are being promoted with the slogans “New York we’ve got you covered,” and the provocative “NYC condoms. Get some,” are part of a drive by the city’s health department to increase condom use.

The one-size-fits-all condoms come in black packaging featuring colored circles that spell out “NYC Condom” in the style of the city’s subway. Other suggested designs had featured city skycrapers.

“Not enough condoms are being used,” Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said, unveiling the design. “This is about brands. Brands work, they increase use, they increase distribution,” he added.

The condoms even have their own website, with a .org address. “You can decide what the org stands for,” Frieden said.

The health department, which already provides 18 million free condoms a year, was to hand out 150,000 free condoms in the city on Wednesday alone.

Reaction to the new branding was mixed. “I think it’s a great idea,” said one 48-year-old man picking up a free sample on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, while another dismissed it as “kind of silly. It doesn’t take safe sex seriously.”

Both asked not to be named.

“It’s unbelievable. I think whoever thought this up has a great sense of humor,” said an anonymous 76-year-old man, pocketing a handful.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A male lawyer who appeared in court dressed in women’s clothes as a protest against what he said was New Zealand’s overly-masculine judiciary was suspended Wednesday after being found to be in contempt of court.

The High Court found Rob Moodie, a 68-year-old, balding man who appeared in court in dresses and toting a handbag, was in contempt for circulating suppressed documents outside the court in one of his cases.

Moodie officially changed his name to “Miss Alice” as part of his protest against the “old boys network” that he said runs the nation’s judiciary, and was granted an award for the most bizarre conduct by a lawyer in 2006 by London’s The Times newspaper.

The protest began after a coroner’s inquest largely blamed a farming couple for the collapse of a bridge on their property built by the army.

Moodie obtained documents apportioning much of the blame for the collapse to faulty wood used by New Zealand Defense Force engineers, and posted the report on the Internet despite a judge’s order it not be distributed.

The High Court on Wednesday found Moodie guilty of contempt of court, suspended him for three months, fined him and ordered him to pay costs.

Moodie announced after the ruling he would quit the law altogether, and end his cross-dressing protest because he no longer needed to appear “in a 19th-century Alice in Wonderland environment that allows pomp, self-importance and deference to the court to eclipse the truth.”

MUMBAI, Feb 9 (Reuters Life!) – This is India’s version of sex in the city.

A rare sex museum in Mumbai, the country’s teeming financial capital, is drawing hundreds of prostitutes and their regular clients who say they learn more about HIV/AIDS from its graphic exhibits than staid lectures on safe sex.

Antarang, which means intimate in Hindi, is a one-room exhibition of nude statues, models of the human anatomy and illustrations near a well-known red light district in Mumbai. And it is India’s only sex museum, according to its management.

Devoid of the glamour of sex museums of Amsterdam or New York, Antarang greets a visitor with a “lingam,” a Hindu phallic-shaped symbol worshipped as one of the representations of Lord Shiva, Kama Sutra verses and wooden and plastic models showing the act of conception, child birth as well as descriptions of various sexual diseases.

“A sex museum is a better place to learn about sex and everything related to it,” M.G. Vallecha, the chief of Antarang, entry to which is free, told Reuters.

The museum is run by the state government in an effort to combat HIV and AIDS in India. There are an estimated 5.7 million people infected with HIV, more than any other country, according to U.N. figures.

Experts say that number could quadruple by 2010 as many people are still reluctant to discuss safe sex openly.

Authorities all over India try various innovative ways, including street plays and “condom parties,” to spread awareness about sexual diseases.

Mumbai is not only India’s biggest and most cosmopolitan city, but it is also home to millions of migrants who leave their families in villages to search for jobs.

NO CONDOM, NO SEX

Antarang, whose floor tiles are painted to look like sperm, was opened in 2003. It became popular among prostitutes and some of their clients after health workers began taking them there.

“A major bulk of our thousands of visitors every year are sex workers and health volunteers,” Vallecha said.

Some sex seekers also visit. In India, many prostitutes act as mistresses for one regular client who pays for her upkeep. They can often develop close relationships and sometimes visit the museum together, officials said.

“At first, sex workers coming to the museum are shy. But slowly they discover new things about something they thought they knew all about,” said Manish Pawar, a health worker who has brought hundreds of prostitutes and their clients to the museum.

Many of the sex workers say the museum has changed their lives by teaching them about the need for safe sex.

“When they told us about AIDS and all we didn’t understand much, but now after visiting the museum it is much clearer to us,” said Jyoti, a middle-aged prostitute who gave only one name.

“Now we tell clients no condom — no sex.”

Authorities said they have few ordinary tourists.

“The area where the museum is located is stigmatized and even if they (tourists) want to come they don’t because they don’t want to be seen in a red light district,” said Nirupa Borges, who helps run Antarang.

“We have some school and college students, but we would like more members of the mainstream society.”

Authorities are planning to open another sex museum in a northern suburb, away from the red light district, to attract a wider audience.

“This museum is serving its purpose very well. We need more sex museums like this,” Borges said.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 11 (Reuters Life!) – As millions of revelers across Brazil prepare for Carnival festivities, the country’s health ministry began on Sunday its yearly safe-sex campaign and the distribution of free condoms.

The government will distribute 10 million free condoms in addition to the 15 million already sent to states in January in preparation for Carnival, which begins next Saturday and lasts for five days. The radio and television advertising began on Sunday with the official slogan “With condoms, the good feeling goes on after the party is over.”

“This slogan isn’t just a carnival message, it’s so that people are aware that with prevention they can have continued fun after Carnival,” Health Minister Agenor Alvares told journalists.

The campaign was launched in the famed Mangueira samba school in Rio de Janeiro, amid criticism from Catholic bishops against the distribution and church opposition to a government move to install condom machines in public schools. Brazil is the world’s largest Catholic country with some 150 million Catholics.

The safe sex campaign is part of Brazil’s AIDS prevention program, which also offers free medicine for patients and costs the government 1.4 billion reais ($663.8 million) a year.

Alvares said the government’s program to install condom machines in public schools in 2008 has received support from parents, students and teachers.

Cardinal Geraldo Majella, head of Brazil’s Catholic Bishops Council, condemned the machines on Friday.

LONDON (Reuters) – Men will be able to buy impotence treatment Viagra over the counter in Britain for the first time from Valentine’s Day, chemist chain Alliance Boots said on Sunday.

Three Manchester Boots pharmacies will sell the prescription-only medication made by U.S. drugs group Pfizer in a pilot program from February 14.

Men aged between 30 and 65 suffering from erectile dysfunction will be able to buy four Viagra pills for 50 pounds ($97) without having to get a prescription from a doctor first.

Instead, they will have a private consultation with a Boots pharmacist, when their medical history will be checked and measurements taken of their blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels.

On a return visit patients will see a private doctor to ensure they are suitable for a further supply of pills.

“By creating a service that is easily accessible on the high street we hope that we help many more men seek help for a very common condition,” said Boots Director of Healthcare Alex Gourlay.

He said it was estimated that only one in 10 men suffering from erectile dysfunction were currently being treated.

Boots already offers similar services for weight loss, hair retention and chlamydia treatment.

A national roll out of the Viagra service will be assessed later in the year.

DIJON, France (AFP) – One of France’s leading hosiery makers is launching a new line for men next month — pantyhose with a welcome front opening and big feet, available in thick mannish knit but also as sheer tights.

Gerbe, which is based in eastern France, said this week that the country’s first hosiery line for men would go on sale in March “due to increasing demand from male clients.”

The pantyhose comes with a larger belt than for women as well as an opening, with “Men opaque”, “sheer” or “satin” available in four models of tights, with and without feet, and three models of feel-good knee-high hosiery made to help drain toxins and massage tired limbs.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 6 (Reuters Life!) – There’s the flicking kiss, the ice-cream kiss, the vacuum kiss, the Hollywood kiss and another 50 or so smoochy variations.

Who said a kiss was just a kiss?

For everyone who’s ever wanted to pucker up like a movie star, French kiss like Johnny Depp, or simply add variety to their love life, help is at hand.

“In our culture, movies are a major way of transmitting romantic ideas and a lot of people get their romantic notions about kissing from love scenes in movies,” said William Cane, author of “Kiss Like a Star.”

“More kisses are being invented all the time. People kept asking me, can you put some pictures in so I can see how to do it? That is why movies are so good because you can watch them and get a whole bunch of ideas that you can try out with your partner.”

Cane uses close-up sequences from movies ranging from “Casablanca” to “Top Gun” and “Dirty Dancing” to illustrate in detail the techniques of more than 60 kisses.

Some, like the passionate, sweep-her-back embrace between Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind” are already famous.

One of the newer varieties — the “ice-cream kiss” from “The Notebook” in which Canadian actress Rachel McAdams pushes an ice-cream cone into the face of co-star Ryan Gosling and then kisses it off — won a 2005 MTV best kiss award.

And, some, like the “vacuum kiss” as seen in the little-known 1993 comedy “Coneheads,” need a bit of practice.

Yet teens, who might seem like the target audience for crucial tips on how to avoid bumping noses on that angst-ridden first kiss, are the least likely to be buying the book, said Cane, which is the pen name of former English professor Michael Christian who began writing about kissing 15 years ago.

His first book, “The Art of Kissing,” was released in 1991 and he has also written “The Art of Hugging.”

“A lot of young people are afraid to get my books because they don’t want their parents to see they are interested in kissing,” said Cane, who tours the United States speaking at college and universities about how, who and when to kiss.

Although practice, variety and imagination make perfect, Cane says you don’t need a partner to brush up your smooching skills.

“Make a little mouth with your left hand. Take your right thumb and put it through. You can actually practice a French kiss on your hand,” he said.

Or you can rent the 1990 movie “Cry-Baby,” and freeze frame Johnny Depp doing it.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. – Blame global warming. An Albany, N.Y., man is accused of riding nude in a gondola at Stratton Mountain Resort on Dec. 15. William N. Barrett III, 46, pleaded not guilty to felony lewd and lascivious conduct and misdemeanor marijuana possession Tuesday in Vermont District Court.

A witness reported to lift attendants that Barrett was nude and touching himself inappropriately while riding the lift.

Barrett, who was fully clothed when he reached the bottom of the hill, denied being nude. He told police he had taken off his jacket and shirt because of the nice weather.

He also was charged with marijuana possession. Police found a glass pipe and film canister containing marijuana in his pocket when they arrested him, authorities said.

SYDNEY (AFP) – Nudists competing in an annual sporting competition in southern Australia were warned to at least wear one thing, sunscreen, to counter the ill effects of sun exposure.

With the temperature in Adelaide heading towards 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), the 1,000 expected competitors at the Nude Olympics were warned that their birthday suits might not be enough to prevent sunburn.

“Everyone’s welcome to either come and watch or participate,” a Southern United Naturists spokesman told ABC Radio.

“If you are coming down we do encourage that you put on plenty of sunscreen and obviously put on a hat.”

The Maslin Beach event, which includes a sack race and a best bum contest, was cancelled two weeks ago due to torrential rain.

TOKYO (AFP) – A Japanese stand-up comedian has been given a stern warning by Chinese authorities for baring his buttocks in front of tourists on China’s Hainan Island, press reports said.

Ken Mitsuda, 47, was shooting a scene for an entertainment programme for Osaka-based Asahi Broadcasting Corp. when he took the action at a popular Buddhist temple on the island on Monday, the Jiji and Kyodo news agencies said.

The comedian pulled the stunt after gaining approval from a Chinese coordinator present there, the reports quoted television company officials as saying.

He and staff members, after being questioned by local police, deleted the scene from the recording and submitted a letter of apology the next day before returning to Japan on Wednesday, the reports said.

“We sincerely regret that a senseless act was committed by programme staff and performers,” Asahi Broadcasting said in a press statement without going into details of the incident.

“We apologise to people on the island and instruct our staff involved in the programme to be careful so that such an incident will never happen again,” it said.

A local newspaper in Hainan reported the incident in its Thursday edition, the reports said.

Mitsuda is known as Ken in the popular comedy duo “Tommys” based in Osaka.

MADRID (AFP) – A police officer in the northeastern Spanish region of Catalonia reportedly faces a fine and having to pay damages to a nudist he forced to cover up.

The officer appeared in a Barcelona court after telling Jacint Ribas Deix, chairman of the Association for the Defence of the Right to Nudism, he had to cover up while the latter was riding a bicycle in his birthday suit through the city, the Europa Press news agency reported.

Ribas made a complaint to the town hall before launching legal action and his lawyer Benet Salellas took up the case.

Salellas is calling for a 600-euro (750-dollar) fine and the same amount in damages for his client following the incident, which occurred in mid-2005.

According to Ribas, who Spanish media said had clocked up more than 12,000 kilometres (8,000 miles) riding in the buff, the officer told him: “You can’t go around like that.”

He reluctantly got dressed, fearing “he was going to put me in jail if I didn’t.”

Ribas, who accused the officer of “abusing his authority,” has chaired the nudist association for 10 years and once wrote to the Catalan regional parliament to complain of similar incidents involving other nudists.

On that occasion he pointed out local by-laws stipulated that nudism is not illegal in certain delineated zones of the city and he wanted to underline his “democratic” right to go clothes-free.

Salellas said 1997 legislation backed up his client.

“There is no law or legal precept allowing the policeman to stop Ribas from going around in the nude through the streets of Barcelona,” Ribas’ counsel said.

“As such, (the officer’s) action was clearly illegal.”

VATICAN CITY (Reuters Life!) – Smoke got in his eyes. Too much of it, so he asked the Roman Catholic Church to annul his marriage when his wife refused to kick the nicotine habit.

That is just one of the, well, hazy cases that wound up before the Vatican’s Sacra Romana Rota, a top court which hears the most complicated of marriage annulment requests.

Others included women who wanted annulments because their husbands were “mammoni” (mamma’s boys) who were not able to cut the psychological umbilical cord with their mothers even though they are in their 30s or 40s or beyond.

The cases have been reported in the Italian media since last Saturday, when Pope Benedict delivered an address to the court’s judges asking them to be more careful in granting annulments.

An annulment in the Roman Catholic Church is an official ruling that a marriage was never valid, that it effectively never existed.

Among other reasons, annulments can be granted because of psychological immaturity of one or both partners at the time of the marriage, a hidden factor not known to one partner, problems of consent, lack of sexual consummation and forced marriages.

In the case of the non-smoking husband, the health and physical fitness enthusiast asked his girlfriend to marry him on condition she would eventually quit smoking.

She said yes and after they tied the knot she tried her best but her addiction was stronger than her and the marriage went up in smoke — at least from the husband’s point of view.

A first diocesan marriage tribunal granted him the annulment but a second tribunal overturned that decision. They are still married in the eyes of the Church and the case is now before the Vatican’s Rota.

MAMMA BOYS

The odd cases that made it to the Vatican court were contained in an annual report prepared by the judges for their yearly meeting with the Pope.

Others included cases where one of the partners, usually the men, had a “morbid dependence” on their parents — a not uncommon occurrence in Italy where many men tend to stay at home until they marry even if they make top-dollar salaries.

One other case involved a man who asked for an annulment because his wife stopped taking care of herself and her looks after she got married and he considered himself “tricked” into marrying a person who turned out to be different.

Although divorce has been legal in Roman Catholic Italy for more than 35 years, it is still seen by many as a social stigma and some prefer to have their marriages annulled so they can remarry in Church.

Thousands of annulments are decided locally by diocesan tribunals around the world each year. The Vatican court rules on several hundred of the most complicated, many of them appeals.

In 1992 the Vatican granted an annulment to Princess Caroline of Monaco, which made her 1978 marriage to Frenchman Phillippe Junot never valid in the eyes of the Church.

The Church never recognized her divorce from Junot in 1980 or her civil marriage in 1983 to Italian Stefano Casiraghi, who was killed in an offshore boating accident in 1990.

LEEDS, Maine – A high school coach who told his players at halftime to reach into their pants to “check their manhood” before returning to the basketball court was fired.

Mike Remillard was confronted after Leavitt Area High School Principal Patrick Hartnett learned that the coach told his players that the Jan. 23 game against Mount Ararat “was about who had the biggest (male genitalia) in town,” Hartnett said in a statement.

“He then required his players to all stand up and put their hands down their pants and check their manhood,” Hartnett said. All but one player followed the coach’s instructions.

Hartnett’s statement was read by School Administrative District 52 Superintendent Thomas J. Hanson during Thursday night’s regularly scheduled school board meeting. The statement came a day after the coach was dismissed.

In the statement, Harnett said Remillard confirmed that the boys were asked to check their privates. Asked if that was an appropriate motivational tactic, the coach responded by saying “we won,” Harnett said. But the tactic also got him fired.

Remillard, who cites Texas Tech basketball coach Bob Knight as his role model, told the Sun Journal newspaper that having his players “check their manhood” is “normal locker room banter from Fort Kent, Maine, to San Diego, California.”

Nonetheless, he said he shouldn’t have done it.

“Was that tactic appropriate? No. And I’m paying the price for it,” he said. “I can pay that price because I accept my responsibility, and I’m being accountable.”

But he denied responding “we won” when asked about the tactic. “What I told him was, the tactic worked,” Remillard said. “We played like the young men that we were or could be. That’s what I said. I never said, ‘Well, we won.’”

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Self-conscious about what you wear while working out? A Dutch gym plans to introduce “Naked Sunday” for people who like to huff and puff in the buff.

Patrick de Man, owner of Fitworld gym in the town of Heteren, said he got the idea in part from two of his customers who are avid nudists.

“I heard that some other gyms are offering courses on ‘pole-dancing’ as a sport, so I thought: Why not bring something new to the market?” de Man said.

He said the response had been overwhelming — positive and negative.

The 70,000-member Dutch Federation of Naturists was curious to see if Fitworld’s plan would work, spokesman Bernd Huiser said.

“We recently conducted a large survey among our members, and most prefer to exercise with their clothes on,” he said. “The most popular activities (for nudists) are things you do outdoors, like walking on the beach, or swimming in a lake, or maybe gardening.”

De Man said the first question Fitworld customers were asking was whether it would be sanitary.

Nude exercisers would be required to put towels down on weight machines and to use disposable seat covers while riding bikes. All machines would be cleaned and disinfected afterward. “We clean them every day anyway,” he said.

The first “Naked Sunday” is scheduled for March 4.

ROME (Reuters) – The wife of Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi forced him to make a public apology on Wednesday for sexist quips that outraged her so much she published an open letter scorning him in a leading newspaper.

Berlusconi told some women at a TV awards dinner last week that “if I wasn’t already married I would marry you right away”, and “with you I’d go anywhere”, she said in the letter.

Veronica, Berlusconi’s second wife and mother of three of his children, said the comments belittled her and that she only decided to make her marital spat public after failing to win an apology in private.

“These are affirmations that I see as damaging to my dignity, affirmations that … cannot be reduced to jokes,” wrote Veronica, a former actress.

“To my husband and to the public man I therefore ask for a public apology, having not received one privately.”

The soap-opera enthralled the country, with Italians sounding off on whether they agreed with Veronica — and whether they thought Berlusconi, 70, would submit to his wife, 20 years his junior. Late in the day, Italy’s richest man did just that.

“Here I am, saying I’m sorry. I was recalcitrant in private, because I am playful but proud too. Challenged in public, the temptation to give in to you is strong. I can’t resist,” said Berlusconi, a media tycoon and former cruise ship crooner.

“So, I beg you, forgive me and accept this public display of a private pride that gives in to your rage as an act of love — just one of many.”

LESSONS TO HER CHILDREN

It was not the first time Berlusconi’s gaffes about women including his wife have got him in trouble.

In October 2002, he told a news conference with Denmark’s Anders Fogh Rasmussen the Dane was “the best-looking prime minister in Europe … He’s so good looking, I’m even thinking of introducing him to my wife”.

He found himself in the diplomatic doghouse in 2005 for joking that he used his masculine charms to persuade Finland’s female president to make Italy the site of an EU agency.

“I had to use all my playboy tactics, even if they have not been used for some time,” Berlusconi said.

Veronica said she had always tried to avoid “conjugal conflict” over the years, even when provoked. But Berlusconi had now left her little choice, she said.

“This line of conduct has a sole limit, my dignity as a woman,” Veronica said. “Today for my female children, already adults, the example of a woman capable of defending her own dignity in her relationships with men takes on a particularly significant importance.”

Beyond helping her daughters Barbara and Eleonora, she said standing up to Berlusconi publicly would also serve as a lesson to her son, Luigi “to never forget to keep among his fundamental values respect for women”.

KONIAKOW, Poland (AFP) – Faced with declining demand for their intricate doilies, the lacemakers of this Polish mountain community came up with a solution: sexy underwear.

The business-boosting idea has given a new lease of life to Koniakow’s 200-year-old cottage industry, but opponents say it is immoral and an insult to past customers such as the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II.

“Traditional lacecraft was too expensive, so it wasn’t selling anymore. We weren’t making a living. A friend jokingly said: ‘Why don’t you start making g-strings!’

“I took his word for it, and made one for myself and then for my friends. They were a hit,” said Malgorzata Sanaszek.

Thirty-something Sanaszek was a pioneer four years ago, and now runs a specialized company selling lace underwear over the Internet.

Whether black, red or decked with flower motifs, and however little they leave to the imagination, the g-strings are made using handicraft techniques stretching back some two centuries in southern Poland.

But they have some advantages over traditional table ware.

“Making a g-string is even easier than making a tablecloth,” said Krystyna Kaisar, an experienced lacemaker in her 50s.

A tablecloth can take between a week and six months to produce, depending on its size and detail. A g-string — which sells for about 25 to 30 euros (32 to 38 dollars), takes about a day.

“It also brings in more money,” said Kaisar.

The underwear revolution has unsurprisingly ruffled feathers in Koniakow.

Poland is a deeply Catholic country, and mountain dwellers have a particular reputation for piety.

When Sanaszek first set up shop, elderly residents in particular complained that the lacemaking tradition was being “profaned”, she recalled.

“I stopped going to the village church on Sundays. And when I walked into a shop, there was a deadly silence,” she said.

Some lacemakers also had doubts.

“The priest told me that a woman came to confession and asked him if it was a sin to make g-strings,” said Anna Barska, a 47-year-old lacemaker.

Many purists still remain angry.

“Our lace is well known in Poland. We have made it for John Paul II, for the Queen of England, for church altars. It’s shameful and humiliating for Koniakow that this very same lace is being worn on people’s backsides,” said Mieczyslaw Kamieniarz, whose family has been making lace for five generations.

It’s not just the moral issue which rankles: Kamieniarz gets particularly annoyed when tourists come to his shop asking for g-strings or even lace hot pants.

But the dust has largely settled in Korniakow, with most residents coming round to the idea that underwear is a money-spinner for many families in an area where unemployment remains a major problem.

“Elderly people may still produce g-strings in secret, but it’s clear that it’s better to make them than to steal to eat,” said Barska.

Sanaszek’s company is now a flourishing operation employing around 60 lacemakers aged between 17 and 76.

Besides making and selling g-strings, she also offers dozens of other models, including bras.

Koniakow lace now sells worldwide.

“We have customers in Africa, Asia, and across Europe. And even in Canada and the United States,” she said.

Customers can also buy made-to-order lace thongs for men.

“Everything is guaranteed as 100 percent traditional Koniakow lace,” said Sanaszek.

SYDNEY (AFP) – Foreign backpackers funding their Australian travels through illegal sex work are robbing the legitimate industry of profits and threatening clients’ health, a brothel lobbyist has warned.

Many young tourists to sun-soaked northeastern Queensland state were making a quick buck as black market prostitutes, undermining registered operators’ attempts to uphold health and safety standards, the Queensland Adult Business Association’s Nick Inskip claimed.

“Especially when you go up to northern Queensland, it’s not unusual for them to be working in the illegal escort industry,” Inskip said.

Having fewer overheads, they could often undercut the legal sex industry on price, making it harder for the state’s 23 legal brothels to make a profit, he said.

“They can charge less because they are not paying GST (goods and services tax), staff costs for managers and receptionists,” Inskip said.

The tax office, which recently began a drive to collect tax from the industry, was also hard pressed to keep tabs on their undercover activities, he said.

“No one asks to see their passports. If you go to a licensed brothel the first thing they do is ask for your passport and whether you are here legally.”

Although prostitution at registered brothels is legal in many parts of Australia, recent research suggests the taxman’s attempts to target the industry has sparked an exodus towards riskier illegal sex work.

Academics have also noted that the crippling cost of higher education in Australia has forced some foreign students to seek work as illegal prostitutes to make ends meet.