It's the Chinese Year of the Rat but it is unlikely the animal's status could be elevated above the sewer and loathsome level. Never mind that last year's hit film Ratatouille showed their humorous - and culinary - side and that Mickey Mouse and Tom and Jerry have been a long-time favorites.

Chinese couple caught on tape engaged in a torrid kiss is suing Shanghai Metro Co. for violation of privacy as their videotaped kissing engagement found its way to popular video-sharing websites such as YouTube. com. The video was shot at the Youyi subway station sometime in September and has received many 'hits' (15,000 in a couple of days) on the Internet, embarrassing the young couple immensely. In fact, the man in the video has resigned from his job after receiving many phone calls and snide remarks from relatives, friends and strangers alike.

A man from China got the shock of his life upon discovering a chicken he placed in the freezer for two days came out alive and crowing. According to Gan Shugen, of Chengdu City, he got the hen which was wrapped in a thick plastic bag with its legs bound as a gift from a relative.

ree press advocates in China are sounding the alarms after a Chinese man was beaten to death by officials after trying to film a confrontation between city officials and residents of Wanba village in Tianmen over the dumping of waste near their village. According to the report, 24 municipal inspectors have been detained so far for their involvement in the incident, in which 41-year-old construction company executive Wei Wenhua was beaten to death for trying to record a scuffle between city officials and village residents on his cell phone. The villagers were attempting to stop trucks from unloading waste near their homes when the fight broke out.

A cloned pig bioengineered by Chinese scientists to glow fluorescent green when exposed to ultraviolet light has produced two piglets that also glow in the same way. Liu Zhonghua, a professor overseeing the breeding program of cloned and genetically-altered pigs at Northeast Agricultural University in China's Heilongjiang Province, reported the birth of the special piglets in the school's website on Tuesday. The breeding program is aimed at developing technology to produce pigs whose organs will be transplanted to humans.