Valentine's Day kissing contest breaks record.

Seven couples locked lips for more than 33 hours to celebrate Valentine's Day in the southern Thai beach resort town of Pattaya in what organizers claim is the longest recorded kiss in history.
The previous record — 32 hours seven minutes and 14 seconds — was set in 2009 by a couple in Germany, according to Guinness World Records.
Fourteen mostly Thai pairs entered the contest when it kicked off Sunday morning at 6 a.m. local time. By Monday afternoon, half were still smooching away on the white-marble corridor in a shopping mall, where tourists gawked and smiled at the spectacle, snapping pictures with glowing mobile phones behind a red rope.
"We didn't think we would find anybody that could break the record," said Somporn Naksuetrong, the manager of Pattaya's Louis Tussaud's Waxworks museum, which organized the competition. That seven couples apparently did so, he said, "is amazing."
The last couple left kissing wins a diamond ring worth 50,000 Thai baht (about $1,600), and a 100,000-baht ($3,200) cash prize.

Point of View:

According to the rules, the lovebirds' lips cannot part at any time. They are allowed to drink water, coffee, milk or juice — but only through straws while continuing to kiss.
They also have to remain embraced during bathroom breaks possible every three hours — accompanied by contest monitors.
The harshest rule: no sitting or sleeping. One woman participating with her boyfriend fainted after just half an hour after it began Sunday.
Despite its reputation for having one of the biggest sex industries in the world, Thailand is still a conservative nation where kissing in public — even a small peck — is frowned upon. Participants had to show proof they were either married or truly a couple — a letter from both parents or a marriage certificate was acceptable.
"We want to show that love is meaningful and powerful," Somporn said.
"It's not easy to stand there and kiss for that long," he said. "They really have to help each other and support each other."
The couples who took part were mainly Thai and ranged in age from 21 to 51. There was one German man with a Thai woman, and also a gay couple.
The record for the longest kiss was set by Nikola Matovic and Kristina Reinhart in Germany in February 2009, according to the Guinness Book of Records, whose officials will have to verify the latest milestone for it to become official.

Body found in north Edmonton

EDMONTON -An autopsy for a woman’s body found yesterday in north Edmonton has been scheduled for Monday afternoon.

Police were called to the Lago Lindo neighbourhood just after 11 a.m. on Sunday after a resident discovered the body in an alley behind a small bungalow at 91A Street near 180th Avenue. Police are calling the death suspicious and are not releasing the identity of the woman.

The results of the autopsy, scheduled for 1:30 p.m., will help police determine whether the death is considered a homicide or non-criminal.

On Sunday, yellow tape cordoned off the alley where the body lay, covered by a white tarp. The body appeared to be hunched on its side, the purple soles of running shoes visible.

A resident of the bungalow called 9-1-1 after she went to take the garbage out and discovered the dead body, her husband said.

“She found the body when she took out the garbage,” he said. “We’re a little shook up.”

The body was found just three properties south of three homes destroyed June 20, 2010, when a massive explosion struck the neighbourhood. The blast damaged more than three dozen homes and left four people dead. Three of the deaths were later ruled homicides: Jeanne Cathleen Heard, 47; Craig Donald Huber, 29; and Bradley Warren Winter, 26. Dwayne Richard Poirier, 46, was also killed, though his death was deemed non-criminal.

Nearly eight months later, the neighbourhood is still largely uninhabited. Many of the homes on 91A Street are boarded up or under renovation, others are for sale. Just a few houses away from the scene, neighbours were busily pulling out insulation and damaged framework from their home. They were working at their home until 8 p.m. on Saturday night, but hadn’t heard anything.

The crime scene is remote. The west side of the alley is bordered by an empty field, with a townhouse complex about 50 metres away. The development is on the northern edge of the city.

A resident of one of the townhouses was walking her dog in the area Sunday morning when she was stopped by police. She said she had walked in the same alley the day before. She didn’t give her name, but said the field is often strewn with liquor bottles from loud, late-night parties.

“I moved here two years ago because it’s supposed to be safe,” she said, “First, the explosion, and now this?”

If the death is ruled a homicide, it will be the eighth of 2011, just seven weeks into the new year. In 2010, Edmonton didn’t reach eight homicides until June 6.

Southern Alberta winds gust up to 140km per hour.

It's been a weekend of wild weather in southern Alberta with winds gusting up to 140 km per hour in some areas, falling trees, damaged farm building, collaped grain bins and blowing straw bales through fields were reported in the Claresholm area.