San Francisco, April 27: Breasts were big on Facebook on Monday as a female blogger called on women to prove wrong an Iranian cleric who preached that cleavage causes earthquakes.

More than 55,000 people were backing the official “Boobquake” page of Jennifer McCreight, a self-described “geeky, perverted atheist feminist” putting her D-cup breasts where her mouth is. Ms McCreight, who lives in the US state of Indiana, used the world’s leading social network and microblogging service Twitter to enlist women worldwide to test the cleric’s assertion that sexy women can make the ground shake.
“Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupting their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Mr Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi said last week. What started as a barbed poke at what she saw as bad science on the cleric’s part won a passionate following as it bounced around the Internet, and by Monday a pair of Boobquake rallies were planned. Ms McCreight, a university senior majoring in genetics, chose a titillating low-cut red blouse with spaghetti string straps for the day, posting a photo of herself at blaghag.com. “I encourage other females to join me,” she said on the Boobquake Facebook page.       —AFP

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Naval deal ratified amid chaos
Kiev, April 27: Fighting broke out and smoke bombs were thrown on Tuesday as Ukraine’s Parliament erupted into chaos as it ratified a bitterly controversial deal with Russia extending the lease of a key naval base.
The scuffles broke out after eggs were thrown at the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Volodymr Lytvyn, who then took cover behind two black umbrellas held by aides. The first smoke bomb was then thrown from an unknown source and the chamber filled with smoke, making it difficult to watch proceedings. Some deputies covered their noses or put on masks as alarms sounded. A second smoke bomb was thrown shortly afterwards, creating thicker smoke in the chamber as deputies nonetheless continued their rancorous debate, a correspondent in the chamber reported. The deputies in the notoriously fractious Parliament were taking part in a session debating a controversial deal last week to extend the lease on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet naval base in Crimea until at least 2042. The deal signed last week by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych had been slammed by the pro-Western Ukrainian Opposition as a historic surrender of sovereignty.     —AFP