After an uproar over the swimsuit competition, organizers of the Miss World contest decided Wednesday to move next year's pageant out of India.
Indians' threats to stage protests - even suicide attacks - against the pageant already had prompted the pageant to move the swimsuit portion of this year's contest to the Seychelles.The Seychelles offered the pageant a $5.3 million guarantee to relocate there entirely in 1997, and organizers decided to cut short what was to be a two-year run in the southern city of Bangalore.
Indian authorities, meanwhile, have assured the pageant officials "all protection" for this year's contest, organizer Manohar Arcot said.