Thai Beauty Queen Resigns Under Social Media Fire

Miss Universe Thailand has resigned less thana month into her reign after being harshly criticised on social media over herpolitical comments and looks.

Weluree Ditsayabut, 22, tearfully announced she was givingup the title that would have allowed her to compete in the international MissUniverse pageant.

The actress and former talk show host said on Monday she wasinitially pleased to have won the title, but that the hail of brutal commentson social media blasting her outspoken political views and calling her fat hadhurt her family.

Weluree was criticised for comments she posted on Facebookattacking the "Red Shirt" supporters of the former government, whomshe accused of opposing Thailand's monarchy, and calling for the execution oftheir leaders.

"You Red Shirts, you get out of here," she wrotein mid-November, before winning her title. "Thailand's soil is dirtybecause of anti-monarchy people like you."

Weluree said that because of the criticism, "thehappiness we used to have disappeared totally."

"When I saw my mom not being able to sleep at night, Icouldn't either," she told a news conference. She didn't specify whichremarks she found most hurtful.

Weluree's comments struck at the heart of Thailand'slong-running political crisis, expressing the attitude of the country'seducated elite and royalists toward the government of then-Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra.

Yingluck, who was backed by many in Thailand's rural northand northeast, was forced to step down last month, and the military soonafterward staged a coup against the elected civilian government.

Thai society has been sharply polarised since 2006, whenYingluck's brother, then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted in acoup and subsequently fled into exile to avoid a corruption conviction. Sincethen until the recent coup, Thaksin's opponents and the Red Shirts stagedcompeting protests in an ongoing battle for political power.