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