Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela Miss Universe At The Miss Universe Pageant.

Miss Universe 2007 Riyo Mori of Japan crowns Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela Miss Universe at the Miss Universe pageant.

Miss Venezuela Dayana Mendoza, a former kidnapping victim, has beaten 79 of the world's most beautiful women to be crowned Miss Universe 2008.

Mendoza, 22, was once kidnapped in her homeland and she told reporters that experience taught her to keep cool under pressure, news agency Associated Press reported.

She told the Miss Universe website: "I was once kidnapped in what in my country is known as an express kidnapping. It was a very hard experience.

"I learned to remain calm in a very stressful situation and to try to reach to the human part of our abductors."


The pageant was held in the seaside town of Nha Trang, Vietnam, and was hosted by Spice Girl Mel B and talk show host Jerry Springer.

It was marked by a bad fall by Miss USA Crystle Stewart, who tripped and fell during the evening gown section of the competition.

Miss New Zealand Samantha Powell failed to make the semi-finals.

The 15 semi-finalists named at the beginning of the show were from Venezuela, Kosovo, Mexico, Vietnam, South Africa, Australia, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Colombia, Russia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, the United States and Spain.