Venezuela takes Miss Universe

For the second year in a row, a Venezuelan woman was crowned Miss Universe in the international pageant.

Stefania Fernandez, a teenager, will get a $100,000 scholarship to study acting, a five-day vacation in the Bahama, jewelry, a complete wardrobe and bragging rights for the next year. She also receives a monetary prize of undisclosed amount.

Last year, Dayana Mendoza, another Venezuelan, won the crown.

Last night's judges included actor Dean Cain and Andre Leon Talley, American Vogue's editor-at-large.

Read more about Miss Universe here.

Source and Photo: AFP

Daily Headlines: December 29, 2008

* Haiti: The above photograph of a child walking through a Haitian slum was named as UNICEF’s 2008 “Photo of the Year”.

* Mexico: Organizers of the Queen of Hispanic America pageant stripped the title from Laura Zuniga days after she was arrested in the company of suspected drug traffickers.

* El Salvador: According to government figures 19,701 Salvadorans have been deported this year from the U.S., an increase of almost 5,000 people compared to 2007.

* Venezuela: “We’re preparing a series of measures and initiatives to keep the crisis from whipping us,” said president Hugo Chavez who will continue social spending despite plummeting oil prices.

Image- Spiegel Online
Online Sources- AFP, LAHT, Bloomberg, Global Voices Online, The Latin Americanist

Daily Headlines: May 22, 2007

* Miss Jamaica Zahra Redwood (image) aims to go “against what (the general public) developed as a stereotype” of Rastafarians in the week before next Tuesday’s Miss Universe pageant.

* The U.S. needs to boost its military aid to the Americas according to a senior defense official.

* “Ethnic Democrats, wherever they are, are going to be attracted to Rudy (Giuliani).” Oh really?

* Sex workers in Peru want the government to regulate their industry due to safety and health reasons.

* Leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky gives his two cents on Venezuela in this interview.

Image- Jamaica Gleaner

Sources- Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters AlertNet, Gothamist, VenezuelaAnalysis.com

Follow-ups on Hugo Chavez, beauty queens, and more

The following are a list of follow-up articles on recently reported stories here on The Latin Americanist:

• Not content with nationalizing Venezuela’s oil and telecom sectors, President Hugo Chavez (first image) said that the government may take over the country’s banks.
• The FBI will launch a civil rights investigation into the violent conclusion of a May 1^st immigrants rights rally in Los Angeles.
• Record numbers of Haitian migrants keep trying to make it to the U.S.; earlier today the U.S. Coast Guard found a capsized boat in the Caribbean with 20 Haitians dead and over 60 missing.
• Miss Mexico isn’t the only controversial beauty queen from the Americas- Miss Peru was chosen behind closed doors and is the daughter of the president of the main sponsor of the Miss Peru contest.
• Peru’s mining strike enters a fifth day with more unions joining protesting laborers.
• After being released from a Buenos Aires hospital in early April, soccer legend Diego Maradona entered a mental health clinic yesterday to be treated for alcoholism.
• “DC Madam” Deborah Jeanne Palfrey apologized for the resignation of the former head of USAID; Randall Tobias quit last week after he revealed that he procured an escort service featuring Central American women.
• FIFA president Sepp Blatter (second image) took back comments made on Monday over the possibility of moving soccer’s 2010 World Cup to Mexico or the U.S.
• Despite his recent faux pas over the significance of the Spanish language, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich would be a favorite for the Republican presidential nomination should he choose to run.

Links- The Latin Americanist, International Herald Tribune, Living in Peru, Xinhua, Ireland On-line, news.com.au, WHBF, CNN, BBC News

Images- BBC News, Al Jazeera