April 17, 2007	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1428

NEW DELHI, April 16: Angry protesters in cities across India burned effigies of actor Richard Gere on Monday after he showered Bollywood starlet Shilpa Shetty with kisses at an AIDS awareness event, officials said.

Right-wing Hindus burned effigies of the 57-year-old Gere in India's entertainment hub of Mumbai and organised street rallies in the capital New Delhi one day after Gere's public display of affection, seen as taboo here.

“This is against Indian ethos... Don't touch our women,” the demonstrators screamed in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported.

Similar protests erupted in other cities like Benaras, Bhopal, Kanpur and Indore, with demonstrators demanding an apology from the silver-haired Hollywood actor, PTI said.

At an AIDS awareness function in New Delhi on Sunday, Gere embraced the 31-year-old Shetty -- winner of Britain's Celebrity Big Brother reality show -- and kissed her several times on the cheek in front of 4,000 onlookers.

“Such a public display is not part of Indian tradition,” said the spokesman for the opposition Hindu nationalist BJP party, Prakash Javadekar.

Security was beefed up around Gere, who has starred in Hollywood hits like “Pretty Woman”, “An Officer and a Gentleman” and “American Gigolo”, sources at India's home ministry said.

“Since he is a guest we have to provide him protection and it's for the police to judge whether he committed an indecent act,” a ministry source said.

Shetty called for calm, telling a news conference in Mumbai: “Richard called me three times to apologise, saying he is sorry if he has hurt the sentiments of Indian people.

“This is not how we treat our guests and it's my humble appeal to all my fans who have taken it very personally to ignore this.” Gere became an AIDS awareness campaigner in the early 1980s when a friend died of the disease, focusing his efforts on India, Russia and China.

India has the largest number of HIV-AIDS cases in the world, with 5.7 million people infected, according to the Geneva-based UNAIDS.—AFP