PANAMA CITY, Panama (<a href=thestar.com.my>AP) - Three Latin American contestants were among the 10 finalists competing Tuesday before judges and an estimated 600 million television viewers for the 2003 Miss Universe title.

Among the favorites chosen from the field of 71 contestants were representatives of South Africa, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

The winner will replace Justine Pasek of Panama, the first runner up last year who took the crown after the Russian winner surrendered the title voluntarily.

Many here are already betting on Miss Dominican Republic, a tall aspiring singer named Amelia Vega, 18, whose uncle is well-known merengue singer Juan Luis Guerra.

Vega is following in the family footsteps in more than one way: her mother represented her country in the 1980 Miss Universe pageant.

Miss Venezuela, Mariangel Ruiz, is the Cinderella of the contest: the 22-year-old almost couldn't come to the competition, because of financial problems in her home country. A donor finally turned up to meet the costs of her trip.

Cindy Nell, 21, is a bit of a departure among the favorites; a refined South African tourism promoter in a field dominated by Latin Americans.

The top 10 announced during the ceremony also included women from Trinidad and Tobago, the Czech Republic, Namibia, Canada, Brazil, Serbia and Montenegro and Japan.

Cut after making the top 15 were Miss USA, Susie Castillo, and Misses Greece, Panama, Angola and Peru.

One local favorite who dropped out earlier was Miss Colombia, Diana Mantilla, who had released a record of her songs here.

It's also showtime for Panama, which will have a few minutes of prime time to promote itself as a new tourist destination after decades of living under the shadow of the U.S. military that long protected the Panama Canal.

On December 31, 1999, the United States took its last soldiers home and handed Panama the canal administration.

The women arrived on May 15 and have visited schools and hospitals amid rehearsals for the finals.

"I am excited and anxious. I have been preparing for this for ten months,'' said Vega. "It is partly because of confidence and the personal pride of representing your country.''

Mantilla said the contest also has a social purpose, noting that the winner promotes the fight against AIDS. "It is not just a search for a pretty woman.''

Tuesday's finals were to be hosted by television personalities Daisy Fuentes and Billy Bush. Puerto Rican Pop singer Chayanne and Bond, were to perform.

This year's pageant is being held at a refurbished canal-side base abandoned by the Americans. Hotels, restaurants and a marina, as well as a US$10 million convention center now adorn what once was U.S. Fort Amador.

Panama wants to show the world it is a changed country since last hosting the pageant in 1986 under the military dictatorship of Gen. Manuel Noriega and with U.S. troops guarding the Panama Canal.

Last year, for the first time, Panama's annual income from tourism - US$678 million - surpassed revenues from the canal.

The government has done all it could to ensure a smooth pageant - and avoid protests.

It suspended classes in the national university and the National Technical Institute to discourage demonstrators such as those who caused traffic chaos last Thursday.

On Tuesday, Panama City Mayor Juan Carlos Navarro presented the keys to the city to real estate developer and investor Donald Trump, the half-owner of the Miss Universe parent organization.

"Panama is a great country, and I'm going to come back,'' said Trump. - AP

Paul Webster in Paris Wednesday June 4, 2003 The Guardian

There were eight Corsicans in the dock at a special Paris assize court yesterday, accused of complicity in a political murder that changed the course of the island's history.

But the focus was on the absent figure of the alleged assassin, a shepherd who has made a mockery of police for the past five years.

According to the prosecution it was Yvan Colonna, 30, the son of a former socialist MP, who walked up behind the central government's senior official on the island on the night of February 6 1998 and murdered him with three bullets in the head.

The killing of the prefect, Claude Erignac, 60, who had tried to stop 25 years of pro-independence violence, set off a series of manhunts through the wild Corsican maquis to catch Mr Colonna, portrayed locally as a modern Robin Hood.

Despite the mobilisation of hundreds of gendarmes it is still not known whether he is on the island or has been helped to escape abroad. His presence has been reported in a dozen countries, from Gabon to Venezuela.

His eight alleged accomplices, who staked out the streets of Ajaccio as Erignac walked to a concert hall, are being tried with three other men accused of terrorist attacks on the mainland before France conceded additional self-rule measures.

All the accused deny the allegations.

Seven judges will sit for five weeks without a jury.

The socialist interior minister at the time of the attack, Jean-Pierre Chevènement - who subsequently resigned in protest at the proposal to give Corsica more autonomy - said that the assassination team had achieved its political goal.

"The murderers wanted to force the state to bend and abandon firm policies," he said. "The assassination was the work of a violent clandestine movement [Corsica Nazione] which wanted to bring the government to the negotiating table."

JORGE RUEDA, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, June 3, 2003
(06-03) 17:52 PDT CARACAS, Venezuela <a href=www.sfgate.com>(AP) --

Two former army captains who allegedly held President Hugo Chavez in custody during a brief coup last year left the country Tuesday for exile in the Dominican Republic.

Supporters of the two brothers, Alfredo and Ricardo Salazar, cheered and pounded on their car as they left the Dominican Embassy in Caracas for their flight out.

They later arrived in the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, where they made no immediate comment.

The brothers and other soldiers allegedly held Chavez at a military base after rebel officers ousted him on April 12, 2002, blaming him for the shooting deaths of 19 people during a clash involving opposition marchers, Chavez supporters and security officials. Loyalist troops, backed by thousands of civilian protesters, restored Chavez to power two days later.

The officers, who faced charges of engaging in "despotic and vulgar" behavior toward the president, had sought asylum at the embassy, saying they had received death threats.

The Dominican Republic granted the brothers asylum on April 30, and Venezuela's government granted them safe conduct on May 27.

Several other Venezuelans have fled abroad after facing rebellion charges filed by Chavez's government. They include Pedro Carmona, a businessman who became interim president during the coup and now lives in Colombia.

Carlos Ortega, a labor leader who led a general strike earlier this year to demand Chavez's resignation, is in exile in Costa Rica, fleeing charges of rebellion and treason.

Chavez was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2000 to a six-year term. His opponents are seeking a referendum on his presidency later this year, accusing the former army lieutenant colonel of trampling democratic institutions and ruining the economy.

Chavez counters his efforts to help Venezuela's majority poor have been sabotaged by an elite trying to overthrow a democratically elected president and restore power to corrupt political parties that ruled for 40 years.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Executive Vice President, former journalist Jose Vicente Rangel has lashed out at the Inter American Press Society (SIP)  as "one of the most shameless,  hypocritical and false bodies in the region." 

Recalling press censorship during the Fourth Republic, Rangel, himself a journalist and TV presenter, accuses the SIP of not lifting a finger despite closures of magazines, media sources, arrests, tortures and expulsions of journalists. "The SIP kept quiet and therefore, has absolutely no moral authority to take about press freedom." 

Answering questions about the closure of the Police Detective Branch (CICPC) press room, Rangel says he understands that the CICPC director moved the press office from its current place in Parque Carabobo to the HQ in Avenida Urdaneta.

Meanwhile, www.aporrea.org  reports that the United Nations Committee for non-government organizations (NGOs)  has recommended suspending the Reporters Without Borders consultative statute for a year after Cuba complained that the organization had create disturbances at the opening session of the UN Human Rights Commission on March 17 in Geneva.

Venezuelan Infrastructure (Minfra) Minister Diosdado Cabello has told TV stations to tot up their tax accounts to avoid problems but admits that the law allows the channels time lapses to meet administrative requirements. "Some TV channels have not added up properly and it is up to us to take action ... if people get their balances wrong, then they tend to look for any excuse ... TV channels must balance their books properly to avoid problems with the taxman."

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Fiery Primero Justicia (PJ) National Assembly (AN) deputy, Liliana Hernandez  has resurfaced calling on the opposition to undertake street agitation to promote the recall referendum against President Hugo Chavez Frias. 

In what seems to be an internal opposition shouting match to gain maximum brownie points, Hernandez proposes the appointment of an impartial National Electoral College (CNE)  ... "the CNE  should not consist of political party quotas but of people with merit." 

Calling President Chavez Frias "a man without democratic values," Hernandez says it is not a fight on equal terms because Chavez Frias has everything stacked in his favor ... "I'm not saying we should go out and force Chavez Frias out at rifle point but we are trying to generate street action because without pressure from the street, there will never be a recall referendum."

Meanwhile, the National Electoral College (CNE) has ordered the suspension of a Proyecto Venezuela (PV) advertisement on TV stating that the recall referendum is on August 19. CNE director, Romulo Lares says it leads to confusion and is inexact in content. The PV spot has been shown 38 times over the last three weeks.