Ex-Miss N.C. flees riots
By DON SINGLETON DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Beauty has another ugly experience.

First, Rebekah Revels was kicked out of the Miss America Pageant. Yesterday, she was forced to flee Nigeria - along with more than 80 other Miss World contestants.

They were driven out by four days of rioting that killed more than 100 people as Muslims protested the pageant, which was to be held in the capital, Abuja.

On Friday, pageant officials switched the event to London.

Relieved beauty queens slipped out of their luxury hotel yesterday and piled onto buses taking them to Abuja's international airport for a flight to London, where the event has been scheduled for Dec. 7.

The riots broke out in the northern city of Kaduna after a newspaper published an article saying the Prophet Muhammed "would probably have chosen a wife" from among the contestants.

The violence then spread to Abuja, where contestants huddled in a Hilton hotel under police guard. It escalated yesterday with Christians attacking Muslim demonstrators.

'Never in any danger'

The bloody unrest - which left 4,000 people homeless - prompted the contestants to rush to the airport.

"They were never in any danger, but there are times you have to step back," said Miss World spokeswoman Stella Din.

She said the contestants were "miserable" about the riots, and some of them wept as they watched the violence on television.

"A lot of the girls didn't sleep that night, and usually they are a lively bunch," she said. "Miss Ireland was shivering with fright."

Miss Greece, Katerina Georgiadou, asked to be taken to a church so she could pray for those killed in Kaduna.

Two of the contestants fled before the pageant was moved to London, and others began buying one-way tickets out of the country, a contest official said.

Double whammy

The unscheduled exit marked the second time Revels had to change her plans for beauty queendom.

The 24-year-old teacher from St. Pauls, N.C., had been all set to go to Atlantic City as a Miss America hopeful when an ex-boyfriend threatened to sell topless photos of her.

State pageant officials forced Revels out and gave her title to Misty Clymer. Revels sued to get her title back, but Clymer represented North Carolina in Atlantic City. P.S. - Clymer lost.

The Miss World contest then invited Revels to represent the U.S.A. in this year's contest.

Normally, Miss World contestants are selected during preliminary pageants in their homeland, but the U.S. hasn't been active for several years.

This year's pageant has been embroiled in controversy from the start as several contestants boycotted the event to protest a court ruling allowing the stoning to death of a Nigerian woman convicted of adultery.

Revels was not among the boycotters but said she hoped the pageant would draw publicity helpful to the 31-year-old Amina Lawal, whose death sentence has been postponed so she can wean her child.

Earlier post: Miss North Carolina's surprising comeback