BEIJING (Reuters) – An incensed Chinese couple, videotaped hugging and kissing on a subway platform, plan to sue the subway’s operator after the video was uploaded to Youtube and other Web sites, attracting thousands of hits.

The three-minute video of the couple in their 20s was shot in September and uploaded to Youtube and Chinese video-sharing Web sites last week, Tuesday’s China Daily reported, citing a local newspaper.

It drew more than 15,000 hits in two days, it said.

“A mocking voice can be heard in the background of the video. It has extremely embarrassed the couple,” the paper said.

The couple had hired a lawyer in the interests “of all passengers traveling on metro trains in Shanghai,” the paper quoted the unnamed man in the video as saying.

“Now every time I walk into a metro station I feel uncomfortable,” the man said.

The subway’s operator, Shanghai Metro Operation Co Ltd, was investigating and had promised “severe punishment” if employees were found to have misused the video, the paper said.

Authorities have credited the installation of hundreds of thousands of closed-circuit security cameras in large Chinese cities for helping to reduce crime in recent years.

But Chinese legal experts and scholars have called for more robust privacy legislation to regulate the use of video footage and impose penalties on its abuse.

ROME (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people are expected to take part in a giant New Year’s kiss in front of Saint Mark’s Basilica in the romantic Italian city of Venice, the authorities said Friday.

“New Year 2008 in Venice will become the New Year of love,” the Venice municipality said on its website.

Willing kissers are expected to gather from around 10 pm (2100 GMT) Monday in Saint Mark’s Square where they will kiss at midnight “to begin the New Year with a gesture of love, peace, brotherhood, and passion,” according to the website.

Some 60,000 people are expected to join in the “Love 2008″ event, according to Italy’s ANSA news agency.

MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – A self-professed art lover stood trial on Tuesday accused of kissing a $2-million (986,000 pound) painting while wearing red lipstick and damaging the canvas.

The deputy prosecutor in the southern French city of Avignon accused the defendant, Sam Rindy, of “savagery” for having left a lipstick smear on the work by U.S. artist Cy Twombly, and demanded the court fine her 4,500 euros (3,117 pounds).

The picture’s owner, Yvon Lambert, wants $2 million in damages and a further 33,400 euros that he says is needed to pay for the restoration work.

Rindy, an artist of Cambodian origin, has said she was “overcome with passion” when she saw the painting hanging on a gallery wall in July 2007.

“This woman is profoundly upset. She was overcome by an emotion that she could not tame,” her lawyers, Patrick Gontard Jean-Michel Ambrosino, told the court, describing the kiss as an “act of love”.

Lambert’s lawyer rejected this line of defence, saying: “In love, there need to be two consenting people.”

Rindy, who is in her 30s, told reporters earlier this year that she thought her lipstick had improved the white, untitled painting.

The court will deliver its verdict on November 16.

TUZLA, Bosnia (Reuters) – Close to 7,000 couples smooched late on Saturday in the Bosnian town of Tuzla in an bid to break the world simultaneous kissing record.

With fireworks, a giant TV screen, confetti and heart-shaped red balloons as the backdrop, the crowd kissed for at least ten seconds at 1100 p.m. local time (10 p.m. BST).

“We broke the record, it’s great,” said Kristina Gligorovic, the event’s public relations officer. She said the record should be recognised after they submit video footage and documentation showing 6,980 couples locked in simultaneous kiss.

The organisers of the so-called Love Revolution hope to take over the crown from Hungary where 6,400 couples set the current Guinness World Record for the total numbers kissing simultaneously in June this year.

Tuzla’s Islamic community protested against the event, saying that public exposure of love was contrary to Islamic tradition. Muslims make up roughly a half of the town’s population.

“The people who took part in this event spread sexual immorality in our society. The organisation of such an event ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan is an expression of disrespect to Islamic feelings,” it said in a statement.

But Tuzla Mayor Jasmin Imamovic said the event was aimed at promoting the town and its multi-ethnic community.

“We cherish the philosophy of love and not hatred. Let the love revolution start from here,” he said.

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.

WATERBURY, Conn. – A criminal defense attorney has been arrested on a disorderly conduct charge involving kissing as a crime.

Ralph Crozier, 55, of Southbury was arrested Thursday for kissing a female judicial marshal at Waterbury Superior Court on Dec. 22.

Crozier said state police investigators told him the marshal did not invite him to kiss her, which was why criminal charges were filed.

“This is the biggest baloney I’ve ever seen in my life,” Crozier said Thursday. “How many tens of thousands of people in Connecticut wished their co-workers and friends `Merry Christmas’ the day before Christmas?”

The incident was captured on security video.

Crozier said the video will prove he meant nothing sexual by the kiss, which he described as a peck on the cheek. He says the incident is an example of political correctness run amok.

“It was a Christmas greeting. I had no intention to annoy or harass anybody,” Crozier said. “Every one of us knew we were on camera. This was a peck on the cheek. That was the extent. There was nothing here that was weird or sexual.”

The arrest warrant affidavit is sealed until Jan. 24, when Crozier is scheduled to be arraigned at the Waterbury courthouse. He is free on a $10,000 bond.

BHOPAL, India (Reuters Life!) – A kissing scene from a movie starring Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan has irked a lawyer who has filed a criminal case against them, accusing them of obscenity, he said on Sunday.

Shailendra Dwivedi of Indore, near Bhopal, the capital of central Madhya Pradesh state, said the scene from the movie, titled “Dhoom 2,” lowered the dignity of Indian women and gave an obscene message to youth.

“Bollywood actors are conveying vulgarity in the society,” Dwivedi told Reuters. “These films cannot be watched with our families, they are so vulgar at times.”

A local court accepted Dwivedi’s petition to punish the actors and said it would hear the petitioner on December 11.

The Indian censor board, which certifies all films, released the movie with a “parental discretion” certificate.

A majority of Indians frown upon intimacy in public.

CAIRO (AFP) – Two young Egyptians caught in the act of kissing in public in Cairo during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan have been fined 100 pounds (175 dollars) each, newspapers reported.

A court in Kasr al-Nil district found the pair guilty of offending public morals when they kissed in broad daylight on the banks of the Nile.

The man, aged 25, argued in his defence that his 21-year-old friend was a colleague whom he regarded as a “sister” and with whom he would exchange a kiss every time their paths crossed.

The holy month of Ramadan is a time for abstinence and religious reflection during daylight hours.

MISSOULA, Mont. – A Sentinel High School teacher, charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly giving a student a hickey, has resigned.

Missoula County Public Schools said Dan Kucera, a business teacher, resigned several weeks ago.

Kucera was suspended in January. Police said Kucera put a 17-year-old male student in a head lock and sucked on his neck, causing it to bruise.

Kucera told KPAX television on Wednesday that he made a stupid mistake.

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) – Serial kissers at Brazil’s racy Carnival parades can now swap saliva with even more revelers thanks to a mouth spray designed to fight germs, just one of many weird products companies have launched to profit from traditionally libidinous revelry.

The spray was launched by a local company for Carnival celebrations this weekend in Salvador, the heart of Brazil’s African culture, and Sao Paulo, its biggest city. French kissing among strangers is rife during Carnival.

Its slogan was “Kiss a lot, kiss pleasurably, kiss safe.”

“Beije,” or “Kiss,” is made with propolis, or bee hive glue. Though propolis has long been used in natural medicine, many health experts disagree about its positive effects.

Still, propolis extracts from tropical Bahia state have special qualities that fight microorganisms and boost the immune system, Brazilian researchers say.

A 35-milliliter bottle of mouthspray will sell for 5 reais ($2.35) and the local Naturapi company hopes to sell more than 100,000 bottles during the bash.

Other companies or groups are selling revealing costumes, flavored condoms, drag costumes and even small patches of glitter to cover genitalia during the celebrations.

The government is distributing 25 million free condoms during Carnival this year to promote safe sex as part of its acclaimed anti-AIDS program, which provides free antiretroviral drugs for all HIV-positive Brazilians.