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First Miss Landmine CrownedAgusta Urica, 31, was crowned the world's first Miss Landmine
April 3 in Luanda, Angola, beating out 17 other women who have lost
limbs to landmines in this African nation, according to the
Associated Press (AP). In addition to the crown, Urica will be
fitted with a new prosthesis.
"Now she is a famous person here," organizer Morten Traavik said
of Urica. "She will be the face and the ambassador of this group of
people, for disabled people in general and landmine-disabled people
in particular."
Urica, who is unemployed and represents the capital, Luanda,
also won $1,000, a motorbike, clothes, a weekend in a luxury hotel,
and a variety of domestic appliances. Traavik, a Norwegian theater
director, devised the pageant to raise awareness of the plight of
landmine survivors. Though Angola's civil war ended six years ago,
as many as 8 million landmines remain buried throughout the country
and an estimated 80,000 amputees live there.
The next Miss Landmine pageant will take place in Cambodia in
2009. 
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