Beauty contestants from L–R, Miss Panama Justine Pasek, Miss China Ling Zhuo, and Miss Russia Oxana Fedorova. PHOTO – REUTERS

A Palestinian mother carries her baby in Shuafat refugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem during a security operation by Israeli army and police May 30, 2002. Israeli forces seized four Palestinian militants in a brief raid on the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday as senior U.S. and European officials pursued fresh diplomacy to defuse Middle East violence. PHOTO – REUTERSSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Miss Russia, raven-haired Oxana Fedorova, won the Miss Universe 2002 title at a glittering ceremony in Puerto Rico on Wednesday night, sweeping away a field of 74 other candidates with her elegance. In second place was Miss Panama, Justine Pasek, while Miss China, Ling Zhuo, finished third. China, the world‘s most populous nation, had never sent a contestant to the glitzy pageant before. The winners were announced at the end of a gala night of parades in figure-hugging swim suits and shimmering evening gowns in San Juan, capital of the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico. Crowned with a diamond and pearl-encrusted crown and smiling hugely, 24-year-old Fedorova walked the catwalk before a cheering crowd.

At the end, the result was clinched by how each of the leading five women in the contest responded to a series of questions, ending with one they all had to answer — „what makes you blush?“ „When I say the wrong things, „ said law graduate Fedorova, to the laughter of more than 6,000 festive pageant-goers in the packed Robert Clemente Coliseum. Fedorova, from the city of Pskov, is a post-graduate student in law in the Russian Ministry of the Interior who says she wants to own her own law firm. A volleyball enthusiast, her evening gown was a floating white creation that wafted loosely behind her.

But organizers shun the idea that they are just looking for big smiles and curves in the right places and say they seek talent and ambition in their Miss Universe.

Fedorova wins a year‘s salary, use of a riverside apartment in New York as well as travel and public engagements around the world that include fund-raising for AIDS research. Puerto Rico‘s Denise Quinones won last year‘s contest, also held in San Juan, to the joy of many on this island of 3.8 million people. A show business perennial launched by a swimsuit company 51 years ago, the event draws a global television audience that organizers estimate at 600 million people in 176 countries.

The annual extravaganza is run by the Miss Universe Organization, jointly owned by property tycoon Donald Trump and CBS Television. The contestants had been in San Juan for three weeks, practicing for the competition and taking part in preliminary rounds that narrowed the field down to just 10 of the 75 contestants. Then those 10 were winnowed down to five women, who faced a test of quick wits and steel nerves to answer questions in a matter of seconds – and show a bit of style at the same time.

But Wednesday night‘s result was a surprise — and something of a disappointment for many in the audience, who had favored Miss Dominican Republic, the bubbly beauty Ruth Ocumarez, or their own Miss Puerto Rico, Isis Marie Casalduc. Neither of them made it to the final 10 contestants.

Reuters

JERUSALEM Reuters – Israeli forces seized four Palestinian militants in a brief raid on the West Bank city of Hebron on Thursday as senior U.S. and European officials pursued fresh diplomacy to defuse Middle East violence. On the Israeli political front, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon emerged stronger from a coalition crisis when the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which he had dismissed for rejecting an austerity package, agreed to back it and rejoin the government. Israel has intensified raids into West Bank cities after suicide bombings it blames on Yasser Arafat. The tensions have raised fears that international efforts to revive peacemaking could be derailed. The cabinet row between Israel‘s army chief of staff Lieutenant-General Shaul Mofaz and Sharon accompanying debate on whether to reoccupy Palestinian-ruled areas, signalled pressure on Sharon to retaliate harder for renewed suicide bombings in Israel 20 months into a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation.

In Hebron, troops in 30 to 40 tanks and armoured personnel carriers left the southern West Bank city after dawn, several hours after sweeping in and launching house-to-house searches. A Reuters cameraman said the detained men included senior Islamic Jihad militant Mohammed Sider.

At least 1,375 Palestinians and 486 Israelis have been killed in the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000. William Burns, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer planned meetings with Sharon and Arafat. The United States is considering setting a timetable for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in what would be a policy shift likely to be more welcome to the Palestinians than Israel. Violence flared again on Israel‘s volatile border with Lebanon when Hizbollah guerrillas fired at Israeli jets. There were no reports of injury or damage.

Reuters