South Korean organizers of the Miss Asia-Pacific World pageant yesterday threatened to call in the police in their row with dethroned Burmese beauty queen May Myat Noe, demanding she return a gem-studded tiara from her home country.
Pageant founder Choi Youn accused May Myat Noe of absconding with the tiara, which media have said is worth US$100,000 and which she won in South Korea in May, becoming Myanmar’s first international beauty queen.
She was dethroned because she was ungrateful, untrustworthy and had lied, the organizers said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
“It is now a matter of national image and reputation and she should be held accountable for [the tiara],” Choi said in Seoul.
He said organizers planned to file a complaint with police.
May Myat Noe told a packed news conference on Tuesday in Yangon that she was still queen when she returned home with the tiara. It was only after arriving back home that she received a letter informing her she had been dethroned.
May Myat Noe added that she would give back the tiara only after receiving an apology from organizers who she said had spread lies about her that “damaged the integrity of my country.”
“Once such remorse becomes apparent, I shall return the crown willingly, without trace of reservation,” she said.
May Myat Noe accused the pageant’s organizers in Myanmar of falsifying her age from 16 to 18. She said organizers in South Korea attempted to coerce her into having breast augmentation surgery, but she refused.
Among other allegations, May Myat Noe said organizers told her she would need to “escort some business tycoons whenever they require my company” in order to raise money to produce her music CD.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the