Archive for category true religion
Leaks create fresh doubt about Afghan – Rock Repub
Posted by admin in true religion on July 27th, 2010
“Someone inadvertently or on purpose gave the Taliban its new ‘enemies list,’” declared Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who said the White House indicated the disclosures compromised a number of Afghan sources.
The documents also report potential Iranian support of an Afghan terrorist group.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs emphasized that the documents covered the period before Obama ordered a major increase in U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan, and the administration denied they would cause any policy shift in the fight against Taliban insurgents.
The documents are described as battlefield reports compiled by various military units that provide an unflinching view of combat operations between 2004 and 2009, including U.S. frustration over reports that Pakistan secretly aided insurgents fighting U.S. and Afghan forces.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said the release of documents was just the beginning. He told reporters in London that some 15,000 more files on Afghanistan were still being vetted by his organization.
The leaks come at a time when President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan war strategy is under congressional scrutiny and with polls finding that a majority of Americans no longer think the war there is worth fighting. Still, the leaks are not expected to prevent passage of a $60 billion war funding bill. Despite strong opposition among liberals who see Afghanistan as an unwinnable quagmire, House Democrats must either approve the bill before leaving at the end of this week for a six-week vacation, or commit political suicide by leaving troops in the lurch in war zones overseas.
Indeed, despite the furor over the publication of the reports on the WikiLeaks whistleblower website, the information did not reveal any fundamentally new problems in the war effort. Military officers, current and former, described the documents as mostly tactical spot reports, including hunches about possible suspects and bomb plots that couldn’t be verified. Some of the reports contain errors; others appear to be based on flimsy evidence.
Still, much of the material is anything but encouraging.
Col. Dave Lapan, a Defense Department spokesman, said the military would probably need “days, if not weeks” to determine “the potential damage to the lives of our service members and coalition partners.”
In Islamabad, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the leaked documents “misplaced, skewed and contrary to the factual position on the ground.” And it said that U.S.-Pakistani counterterrorism cooperation against “our common enemies” will continue.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley argued that there is a “new dynamic” in the U.S. relationship with Afghanistan and Pakistan since the period covered by the leaked documents. He acknowledged, however, that the U.S. remains concerned about weaknesses in the relationship, including the problem of corruption in the Afghan government.
“These documents highlight issues we’ve long known about,” Crowley said.
WikiLeaks, a self-described whistleblower organization,Rock Republic, posted the reports to its website Sunday night. It did not say who provided the documents.
Crowley said it was unclear whether the leak was related to a U.S. military intelligence analyst who is being held in Kuwait, on charges of mishandling classified information on military computers in Baghdad.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said the documents released so far “reflect the reality, recognized by everyone, that the insurgency was gaining momentum during these years while our coalition was losing ground.”
The Taliban’s resurgence led Obama to announce in December 2009 a major increase of forces to Afghanistan as part of a new civil-military strategy, Lieberman pointed out.
Shortly after the documents were posted on the Internet, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they raised questions about whether the U.S. was pursuing a realistic policy with Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said they showed the urgency of making the “calibrations” necessary “to get the policy right.”
Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the leak disturbing.
“The damage to our national security caused by leaks like this won’t stop until we see more perpetrators in orange jump suits,” Bond said.
The military has detained Bradley Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst in Baghdad, for allegedly transmitting classified information. But the latest documents could have come from anyone with a secret-level clearance, Lapan said.
___
Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Anne Flaherty and Andrew Taylor in Washington, Raphael Satter in London, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed to this report.
The material portrays Pakistan as playing a double game when it came to the struggle against Afghan militants, with security officials secretly providing insurgents with aid. Both the U.S. and Pakistan say that view is outdated, but one American analyst said it probably is correct.
Underscoring the difficulties the U.S. faces, the documents include the first publicly released indication that the Taliban has used portable surface-to-air missiles against U.S. helicopters. One report on a June 2005 incident said a Black Hawk helicopter used evasive measures to avoid getting hit east of Kandahar by what its crew chief identified as a portable missile.
“The Pakistan government gave up claiming that it could control its intelligence agencies around the time they invented them. I don’t think they even try,” said Paula R. Newberg, director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.
The Pentagon also was looking at possible damage on the ground in Afghanistan.
They said that on Jan. 30, 2005, Iranian intelligence agencies brought the equivalent of $212,D&G,800 in Afghan currency across the Iranian border and transferred it to a 1990s-model white Toyota Corolla station wagon occupied by members of Hizb-i-Islami, a Taliban-allied insurgent group led by former Afghan Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The money trail was lost.
The torrent of more than 91,000 secret documents, one of the largest unauthorized disclosures in military history, sent the Obama administration scrambling to assess and repair any damage to the war effort, either abroad or in the U.S. The material could reinforce the view put forth by the war’s opponents in Congress that one of the nation’s longest conflicts is hopelessly stalemated.
The White House called the disclosures “alarming.”
WASHINGTON – The monumental leak of classified Afghan war documents threatened Monday to create deeper doubts about the war at home, cause new friction with Pakistan over allegations about its spy agency and raise questions around the world about Washington’s own ability to protect military secrets.
Home sales surge in June with inventory at 42 – Se
Posted by admin in true religion on July 27th, 2010
Each of the three major U.S. stock indexes gained 1 percent for the day,Seven, with the Standard & Poor's 500 at 1,115.01 — just a fraction of a point shy of the break-even point for the year. The Dow Jones industrial average is back in the black for the year. The Nasdaq, which edged back into positive territory for the year on Friday, is now up 1.2 percent for 2010 so far.
FedEx, regarded as an economic bellwether, said more packages were flowing through both its air and ground networks.
Ford Motor Co Chief Executive Alan Mulally said he agreed, telling NBC's "Today" show: "I think that we're going to have good, steady growth here."
But downward revisions to sales estimates for April and May in Monday's report left in place a picture of a weak housing market and perceptions that economic growth moderated somewhat in the second quarter.
ACTIVITY SLOWING DOWN
New home sales account for only a fraction of the total U.S. housing market.
Separately, a gauge of factory activity in the Texas region extended its decline this month, suggesting a pullback in manufacturing continued in July.
Recent data have implied the U.S. economy's recovery from its longest and deepest recession since the 1930s slowed in recent months, but economists do not expect a renewed downturn.
Manufacturing has been the main engine of growth.
The percentage increase last month was the largest since May 1980, and it partially unwound May's historic 36.7 percent drop as the U.S. housing market was roiled by the expiry of a popular tax credit that boosted sales. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales rising to a 320,000-unit pace last month from May's previously reported 300,000 units.
Moderation in growth was signaled by a measure of national economic activity released on Monday. The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank said its national activity index fell in June for the first time since February, dropping to minus 0.63 from a positive 0.31 in May. A reading above zero indicates the economy is growing above trend.
The report,Ralph Lauren, together with package delivery and business services company FedEx Corp's upgrading of its quarterly and full-year earnings forecasts, prompted a rally on Wall Street.
Safe-haven U.S. government debt eked out slim gains, while the dollar fell broadly.
"We can't take too much joy in one month's figure. The roadblocks to a healthy housing market are high, the most important one being the still high jobless rate," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of new homes rebounded strongly in June from May's record low, pushing the number of houses on the market to the lowest level in nearly 42 years.
The government is expected to report on Friday that growth in gross domestic product slowed to a 2.5 percent annual rate in the April-June period from a 2.7 percent pace in the first three months of the year.
Sales of new single-family homes vaulted 23.6 percent to a 330,000 unit annual rate, the Commerce Department said. Still, the sales pace last month was the second lowest since records started in 1963.
While economists expect weak housing activity to act as a drag on growth for much of the year, they do not believe this would be enough on its own to trigger a double-dip recession.
"It's not going to affect the economy that much. It's more the economy affecting the housing market. What we need is for the economy to start creating jobs," said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Data last week showed home construction fell to an eight-month low in June, while sales of existing home were the lowest in three months.
Housing's share of the economy has shrunk in recent years and residential construction accounted for about 2.4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in the first quarter.
The impact of a 10 percent drop in home construction has about one-third the impact now as it did in 2006, according to economists at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch.
The Commerce report suggested the housing market may be close to working through the distortions following the end of a popular home-buyer tax credit in April, an incentive that brought forward sales.
Last month's surge in sales saw the supply of new homes available for sale dropping to 7.6 months' worth from 9.6 months' worth in May. The number of new homes on the market dropped 1.4 percent to 210,000 units, the lowest level since September 1968.
"Progress is being made in reducing the excess inventory, which is crucial for the outlook for prices," said Paul Dales, a U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.
"However, new home sales make up just 5 percent of all sales. And the post-tax credit fall-off in activity has yet to fully show up in existing sales. Total home sales have, therefore, yet to hit rock bottom."
The median sale price for a new home fell 1.4 percent last month to $213,400. In the 12 months to June, prices dipped 0.6 percent, the smallest drop since November 1987.
House price have stabilized on a year-ago basis.
The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index likely increased 4.0 percent year-over-year in May following a 3.8 percent rise in April, according to a Reuters survey. The report is due on Tuesday.
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For a graphic on June sales of new U.S. homes see:
http://link.reuters.com/fyt59m
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(Editing by Jan Paschal)
Review How Do I Look – Laguna Beach
Posted by admin in true religion on July 3rd, 2010
–JOHN GRIFFITHS
Air Date: Saturday 7/10
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A Jersey girl gets a much-needed makeover in the fashion show’s 11th round opener. Host Jeannie Mai and her cohorts advise sassy makeup artist Alicia to ditch the teased hair and retro leggings. Voilà: a definite improvement! (Style, 8 P.M.)
Mexican masks, retro futuristic suits – Calvin Kl
Posted by admin in true religion on June 29th, 2010
Standout looks included a Buster Keaton lookalike in a razor-cut gray suit and a little, flat straw hat and a jumpsuit worn with briefs in fish-printed silk.
YVES SAINT LAURENT
The French heritage house looked to the 1950s for a collection of crisp, belted pantsuits and high-waisted shorts paired with jaunty toques and sensible sandals.
Designer Pilati sent out beautifully tailored blazers in nubby brown and oatmeal fabrics, cinched tight at the waist with patent leather belts or obi belts that looked like misplaced cummerbunds. Short shorts, cut high through the waist and with generous front pleats, were worn with thin, short-sleeved sweaters.
Some of the models, with slicked back hair and horn-rimmed sunglasses, wore bizarre but somehow compelling swaths of leopard print knit around their midriffs. Jaunty little toques, like shrunken fezzes, and sandals that looked like they’d be grandpa’s Florida pool-side favorites, topped off the looks.
ROMAIN KREMER
France’s Romain Kremer was lost in space with a retro-futuristic collection of colorblock shorts, skirts and briefs that looked like they could outfit the crew of the original Star Trek. Microfiber culottes were fitted with elastic bands at the waist that conjured a back brace; orange crosswalk guard vests were paired with lame Speedos. The show closed with models in wide-brimmed straw hats hung with full-body veils in iridescent fabrics and worn over tiny leotard to resemble futurists beekeepers in scuba gear.
CERRUTI
For his second menswear collection at Cerruti, designer Borjesson delivered clean, classic suits in somber microfibers, paired with leather jackets and overcoats. It was a cool, confident collection that looked sure to please professionals casting about for something they really could wear to work.
FRANCK BOCLET
Frank Boclet, who recently left his post as menswear designer at foundering Paris label Emanuel Ungaro, launched his own signature line, a mix of dandified suits and separates with a rocker edge. Boclet, a Frenchman who cut his teeth at suitmaker Smalto, served up classic blazers with a twist — like metal piping along the lapel or a detachable flap that winds around the front for an edgy twist. Boclet said he plans to sell the line at multi-mark stores, starting in France, Russia and Ukraine.
The show was held inside a former bank on Paris’ tony Place Vendome, a windowless vault of a space that with the warm weather and crush of bodies turned into a sauna. Makeup dripped down faces that had taken hours to prepare as the audience of fashion editors,Calvin Klein, stylists and journalists melted as they waited for the show to begin.
Paris’s menswear shows move into their second-to-last day on Saturday with displays by Kenzo, saddlemaker Hermes and emerging talent Damir Doma.
At John Galliano, the stars of silent film walked again. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton lookalikes emerging from the innerworkings of a giant clock to strut the catwalk in urban variations on “The Tramp’”s black suits.
JOHN GALLIANO
PARIS – Who says menswear is boring? Paris designers on Friday challenged that notion, fielding retro, futuristic and kinky spring-summer 2011 men’s collections featuring skorts, jumpsuits and even Mexican lucha libre masks that completely enveloped the models’ heads.
Emerging French designer Romain Kremer fielded retro-futuristic suits worthy of the cast of the original “Star Trek.” Jesper Borjesson’s second menswear effort at Cerruti was the tamest show of the day, with classic, well-cut suits sure to please professional men who can’t show up at work in intergalactic garb or leather S&M staples.
But as soon as the show-cum-spectacle started, all was forgiven. And when Galliano himself emerged from the inner workings of the timepiece, strutting his stuff in a wife-beater and bluejeans, the sweat-soaked crowd roared with approval.
Kris Van Assche paid homage to the working man with a collection that channeled blue collar professions from mechanic to butcher. The young Belgian will show another collection on Saturday for Dior Homme, where he designs menswear.
Tisci is still the king of kink.
Models in twitching faux mustaches and bowler hats sported urban interpretations of “The Tramp’”s black suits — microfiber jackets paired with drop-crotched pinstripe shorts. Rope belts, dangling pocket watches and dandified suspenders were the season’s must-have accessories.
Tisci, an Italian whose S&M aesthetic has won him critical acclaim, had edged away from his signature hardcore look in seasons past, delivering more ethnic-inspired collections. But Friday’s display, held in a gilded and mirrored hall in central Paris, put him firmly back in kinky territory.
Really, who besides Tisci could get away with pairing a razor cut black business suit with a face-shrouding leather mask fitted with bugged-out fly eyes?
Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci was on top of his subversive S&M game with head-to-toe leopard print and skort-cum-lacey blouse looks given an en extra dose of perversion by vertebrae necklaces and the leather lucha libre masks.
Yves Saint Laurent’s Stefano Pilati was all about the waist, fitting the ample ’50s-inspired suits with obi belts and strange, misplaced cummerbunds in leopard knits.
GIVENCHY
At Givenchy, cat men in head-to-toe leopard print suits and matching pointed shoes shared the catwalk with models in skorts with priest-collar vests. Tisci also delivered an elegant but subverted take on the jumpsuit, a hot item on Paris’ menswear runways,Abercrombie jeans, serving up onesies that looked as if they were channeling tuxedos.
Eclipse’s Ashley Greene I Don’t Do – Ed hardy h
Posted by admin in true religion on June 22nd, 2010
PHOTOS: See what Ashley Greene was like before Twilight
“I don’t do the diet thing anymore,Ed hardy hats,” Greene admits. “I’m a big believer in feeding your body what it needs. Deny yourself something and you’re going to end up shoving your face full of it.”
“And traditional planks tone your back so you don’t have that little bit of fat hanging over your bra,” Greene adds.
“A lot of people like to be supertiny, but I don’t want a child’s body,” she tells the July/August issue of Women’s Health. “I want a woman’s body that’s extremely fit. It’s so much sexier.”
But the 5-foot-5 star says that even though she’s an avid gym-goer, she isn’t one to count calories.
VIDEO: Find the perfect bikini for your body
The 23-year-old actress did “side planks for my obliques, which are one of my trouble areas” while gearing up for the action scenes (with co-star Kellan Lutz, left) in Eclipse.
Eclipse’s Ashley Greene admits that despite the pressure for actresses to be skinny, she doesn’t want a pin-thin frame.
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PHOTOS: See Greene and her co-stars at the New Moon premiere in L.A.
Lawyer Gary Coleman’s Ex-Wife Lied to Hospita – B
Posted by admin in true religion on June 5th, 2010
Perhaps the reconciled couple secretly remarried? “No one’s given me any evidence that they remarried,” Kester notes. “It would have been a very simple thing to do. So I have to wonder about why he didn’t remarry.”
Coleman, 42, and Price, 24, were legally divorced in August 2008, Coleman’s lawyer tells UsMagazine.com. ”I was the attorney” for the divorce proceedings, Randy Kester tells Us. “Out of a respect for Gary’s privacy, up until it became public, I didn’t want to say anything.” (Entertainment Tonight unearthed the divorce papers on Wednesday)
“Their relationship has been on-again, off-again,” Kester says. “I know that there were periods of time where she resided in the home with Gary, and there were periods of time where she didn’t.”
PHOTOS: Stars gone too soon
Kester muses that his late client and friend would be “sad that there’s all this controversy swirling around his death. It was certainly unexpected. For all the things he went through–he went through some tough times, legally, medically, socially– to have him be taken by a little slip and fall—it’s just devastating.”
This surprising new revelation also leaves Coleman’s estate unsettled, Kester says. Coleman’s estranged parents Sue and Willie Coleman may “file a probate action which will ask the court to make a determination as to who [Gary's] heirs are,” Kester adds.
Shannon Price was by Gary Coleman’s side at a Utah hospital on Friday, when she authorized doctors to take him off of life support. Since Coleman’s death that day, she has been making arrangements for his funeral. Yet despite what Price told the hospital, she and Coleman divorced almost two years ago — calling into question her authority to make a decision to “pull the plug.”
Complicating matters even more? “No one’s come forward with what appears to be a valid will,” Kester reveals. “No one’s come forward with anything that would indicate that his parents would not end up being his heirs.”
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The couple met in 2006 on the set of the film Church Ball, and wed in 2007. They appeared on a 2008 episode of Divorce Court in an effort to save their marriage.
PHOTOS: Child stars gone bad
PHOTOS: Look back on Gary’s life
Breaking News Warrant Issued for Lindsay Lohan’s
Posted by admin in true religion on May 26th, 2010
If bail is posted for the star, she will be forbidden from consuming any alcohol, must wear a "scram bracelet" (which measures alcohol in her system) and submit to Citizens of Humanity random drug testing at least once a week.
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Whenever Lindsay Lohan arrives back in California from Cannes, France, she’s headed straight for jail.
PHOTOS: How Lindsay Lohan’s face has changed
Lohan, 23, failed to appear in court Thursday, claiming she was stranded without her passport at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France. Judge Revel stated that the actress "may have violated her probation"; a formal probation hearing will be scheduled at a later date. Lohan was sentenced to three years probation and alcohol education classes after her second DUI conviction in August 2007.
PHOTOS: Look back on Lindsay’s life so far
Lindsay’s estranged father, Michael Lohan, appeared during the hearing; his attorney, Lisa Bloom, asked the judge to send his daughter to rehab, not jail. "She needs Citizens of Humanity treatment, and jail is not going to help her," Bloom told UsMagazine.com.
PHOTOS: Child stars gone bad
Her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley says that Lohan has a new temporary passport, and she hopes that she will be back in L.A. by Friday afternoon. However, Lohan is on the tip sheet for two parties Thursday night in France.
Steve Whitmore, spokesman of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, tells UsMagazine.com that Lohan may be arrested at the airport. The prosecutor says may face 180 days in jail.
On Thursday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel Citizens of Humanity issued a bench warrant for Lohan’s arrest. The bail was set at $100,000.
Even buying art is art with new financial product
Posted by admin in true religion on May 21st, 2010
Two investors, including one well-known collector, have reserved options already, on the proviso that they want to meet Saunders before signing cheques. The resulting work of art is unlikely to be as traditional as a painting — conceptual art focuses on ideas.
The process is covered by a legal contract, known as an emerging artist derivative contract — itself a work of art according to the artist and to murmurART, the company in east London that is staging his latest exhibition.
For 2,000 pounds ($2,884) now, you get the option of buying any Ralph Lauren piece of his work for one pound in 10 years’ time, according to London’s Times newspaper.
LONDON (Reuters) – In Renaissance Florence, the Medici used Ralph Lauren cash from their banking activities to back young artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Now art investors can buy their own derivative of an artist’s future.
But if his career crashes and burns, they will be protected by contract provisions that cover lack of production and death.
Even the most well-known conceptual artists often take a Ralph Lauren long time to achieve commercial success, because their works and ideas can take years to develop. Saunders is hoping to use money raised from his show to develop his career without worrying about commercial pressures.
"The biggest challenge was the human element of the contract and the need to define a constantly changing pool of artistic work to enable the option to be exercised and ensure enforceability of the agreement."
If Saunders turns out to be the next Marcel Duchamp, whose urinal sculpture has been voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century, or even the next Tracey Emin, investors can rub their hands.
"In terms of drafting, an option over an artist’s work is, in theory, no different from an option over a share," Rupert Beecroft, at Ferguson solicitors, which drafted the contract, told the Times.
Tom Saunders, 23, a conceptual artist who graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in London last year, is offering investors options on his future work.
Even buying art is art with new financial product
Posted by admin in true religion on May 19th, 2010
If Saunders turns out to be the next Marcel Duchamp, whose urinal sculpture has been voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century, or even the next Tracey Emin, investors can rub their hands.
"The biggest challenge was the human element of the contract and the need to define a constantly changing pool of artistic work to enable the option to be exercised Louis Vittion and ensure enforceability of the agreement."
The process is covered by a legal contract, known as an emerging artist derivative contract — itself a work of art according to the artist and to murmurART, the company in east London that is staging his latest exhibition.
But if his career crashes and burns, they will be protected by contract provisions that cover lack of production and death.
For 2,000 pounds ($2,884) now, you get the option of buying any piece of his work for one pound in 10 years’ time, according to London’s Times newspaper.
LONDON (Reuters) – In Renaissance Florence, the Medici used Louis Vittion cash from their banking activities to back young artists such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. Now art investors can buy their own derivative of an artist’s future.
Two investors, including one well-known collector, have reserved options already, on the proviso that they want to meet Saunders before signing cheques. The resulting work of art is unlikely to be as traditional as a painting — conceptual art focuses on ideas.
"In terms of drafting, an option over an artist’s work is, in theory, no different from an option over a share," Rupert Beecroft, at Ferguson solicitors, which drafted the contract, told the Times.
Tom Saunders, 23, a conceptual artist who graduated from Camberwell Louis Vittion College of Arts in London last year, is offering investors options on his future work.
Even the most well-known conceptual artists often take a long time to achieve commercial success, because their works and ideas can take years to develop. Saunders is hoping to use money raised from his show to develop his career without worrying about commercial pressures.
Arab-American from Michigan crowned 2010 Miss USA
Posted by admin in true religion on May 17th, 2010
Miss Virginia USA Samantha Evelyn Casey was the second runner-up, Miss Colorado USA Jessica Hartman was third runner-up, and Miss Maine USA Katherine Ashley Whittier was the fourth runner-up.
Woolard handled the night’s toughest question,Gucci about Arizona’s new immigration law. Woolard said she supports the law, which requires police enforcing another law to verify a person’s immigration status if there’s "reasonable suspicion" that the person is in the country illegally.
The competition, which is not affiliated with the Miss America pageant, was hosted by celebrity chef Curtis Stone and NBC correspondent Natalie Morales.
"I did it here, I better not do it at Miss Universe," she said. "Modeling does help, after all."
Fakih, an Arab-American from Dearborn, Mich., told pageant organizers her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths. She moved to the United States as a baby and was raised in New York, where she attended a Catholic school. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003.
"I believe that birth control is just like every other medication even though it’s a controlled substance," Fakih said.
The pageant aired live to East Coast viewers on NBC.
After 15 contestants strutted in swimsuits, five were eliminated. Another five were eliminated after the evening gown competition.
"That’s the same look that he gives them when he says, Gucci ‘You’re hired,’" on Trump’s reality show "The Apprentice," she said.
Fakih took top honors at the pageant at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip after strutting confidently in an orange and gold bikini, wearing a strapless white gown that resembled a wedding dress and saying health insurance should cover birth control pills.
Miss Nebraska USA Belinda Renee Wright won the Miss Congeniality award, roughly one week after her father was killed in a farm accident. Miss Alabama USA Audrey Moore won Miss Photogenic after an online fan vote.
The 24-year-old Miss Michigan beat out 50 other women to take the title Sunday night, despite nearly stumbling in her evening gown.
Most of the field of contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia were eliminated just after the pageant began and the entire group danced onstage to "TiK ToK" by Ke$ha.
LAS VEGAS – Lebanese immigrant Rima Fakih says Gucci it was a certain look from Donald Trump that tipped her off that she had won the 2010 Miss USA title.
She said she’s against illegal immigration but is also against racial profiling.
In a moment that was replayed during the broadcast, Fakih nearly fell while finishing her walk in her gown because of the length of its train. But she made it without a spill and went on to win.
Pageant officials said historical pageant records were not detailed enough to show whether Fakih was the first Arab American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, Calif.
Fakih replaces Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton and won a spot representing the United States this summer in the 2010 Miss Universe pageant. She also gets a one-year lease in a New York apartment with living expenses, an undisclosed salary, and various health, professional and beauty services.
A panel of eight judges, including NBA star Carmelo Anthony, Treasure Island casino-hotel owner Phil Ruffin and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, were judging the girls throughout the night.
"I’m a huge believer in states’ rights. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about America," Woolard said. "So I think it’s perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."
___
During the interview portion, Fakih was asked whether she thought birth control should be paid for by health insurance, and she said she believed it should because it’s costly.
"She’s a great girl," said Trump, who owns the pageant with NBC in a joint venture.
She told reporters later that she believed she had won after glancing at pageant owner Trump as she awaited the results with the first runner-up, Miss Oklahoma USA Morgan Elizabeth Woolard.
Fakih told reporters she sold her car after graduating college in Michigan to help pay for her run in the Miss Michigan USA pageant.