Miss France punished for racy photos

PARIS, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Miss France has been barred from competing in future beauty pageants as a punishment for appearing in a published series of suggestive photographs.

As a part of her punishment, Valerie Begue will not be allowed to compete in either the Miss World or the Miss Universe beauty pageants, Britain's Sky News reported Friday.

Begue, 22, will not be stripped of her title, which she won on December 8. She described the sanction as "a compromise which satisfies all parties."

The pictures published in Entrevue magazine included one of her in a bikini lying on a cross in a swimming pool.

Entrants to the Miss France competition have to sign a contract stating that they have never been photographed fully nude or in compromising positions.

In 2005, the then-Miss France was stripped of her crown after she posed nude for a magazine.