Vietnam entrant in Miss World

Vietnam entrant in Miss World

VIETNAM: Vietnam will send an entrant for participation in the
Miss World competition for the first time in its history when the
pageant is staged in Nigeria next month, state media reported on
Wednesday.

Miss Vietnam, 18-year-old Pham Thi Mai Phuong, will travel to
Africa after the government approved her as its representative in
the world beauty competition, the Tuoi Tre (Youth) daily said.

Vietnam's participation comes amid protests and boycot threats
from other international beauty queens against the sentencing to
death by stoning handed down against an unmarried mother in
Nigeria.

But the Nigerian organizers of the prestigious beauty contest
said last week that all of them had dropped their boycott threats
after assurances from Nigerian federal authorities that the
sentence would not be carried out. --AFP