Skip to main content

Arab-American Crowned Miss USA

A 24-year-old Arab-American won the title of Miss USA in the annual beauty pageant held Sunday night in Las Vegas.

Rima Fakih, a Lebanese immigrant, won the pageant after swimsuit, evening gown and interview competitions.
During the competition, she nearly fell while walking in her gown, but she made it without a spill and went on to beat out contestants from all of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Fakih, who moved to the United States as a baby, is believed to be the first Arab-American and Muslim to hold the title of Miss USA.

She told pageant organizers that her family celebrates both Catholic and Muslim holidays.

Fakih represented the state of Michigan. According to pageant officials, she is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. After completing her reign as Miss USA, Fakih plans to attend law school.

The Miss USA pageant is not affiliated with the annual Miss America pageant.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ASEAN pushes for resumption of N. Korea nuke talks

ASEAN and friends: Foreign Ministers from left, Vietnam's Pham Gia Khiem, South Korea's Kim Sung-hwan, Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto, Indonesia's Marty Natalegawa, and China's Yang Jiechi, hold hands during a group photo at the opening session of ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday. (AP/Dita Alangkara) Associated Press, Nusa Dua | Thu, 07/21/2011 2:19 PM Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations are calling for a speedy resumption of talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia had been negotiating since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle the program in exchange for aid and other concessions. The North pulled out of the talks about two years ago after being censured for launching a long-range rocket. It has indicated a willingness in recent months to return to the table. The 10-member Association of Southeast As...

US Stocks Surge to Highest Level of Year on Housing News

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...