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Officials: Miss Uzbekistan a fraud

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TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The Uzbekistani government says the Miss World contestant competing as Miss Uzbekistan is nothing but a beautiful liar.

Officials with the Uzbek Culture and Sports Ministry and the national committee on women told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Rakhima Ganieva, 18, who is entered to compete in this month's Miss World competition in Indonesia, was not dubbed Miss Uzbekistan in a July 20 competition as she claims in a video, ABC News reported Thursday.

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A representative of the Pro Models modeling agency, which once represented Ganieva, accused her of "choosing to build a career on lies."

"Rakhima Ganieva never passed through any special selection process in Uzbekistan," said Zhavlon Komolov of Pro Models. "If there had been a process to choose a young lady for this competition, I can assure you that a much more beautiful model would have been chosen."

A Miss World spokeswoman released a statement to ABC.

"We get around 100,000 entries a year worldwide," the spokeswoman said. "Some countries hold auditions in order to find their finalists, some countries operate a reality-style program and others use a more traditional system of local heats leading to finals. Many of the competitions are nationally televised."

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Ganieva could not be reached for comment.

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