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Iraqi Beauty Queen Resigns

Iraq`s newly crowned beauty queen, Tamar Goregian, has decided to step down just four days after her election, after receiving threats by a group of religious extremists who referred to her as "the queen of infidels" for participating in the contest.

Pageant organizers had hoped to pass the crown to the runner-up, or "Maiden of Beauty," Mona Hilmi, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim. However, the second and third runners-up also withdrew from the competition for security concerns. They had not received specific threats.

This was the first time since the U.S.-led war against Iraq that the pageant was held on Iraqi soil. Also, for the record, Tamar Goregian is neither a Sunni nor a Shiite Iraqi, but instead an Armenian Iraqi.