ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605200071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 NATL/INTL EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS
SOURCE: Associated Press
Smiling and waving to the crowd, a white-gowned Miss Venezuela, Alicia Machado, was crowned Miss Universe 1996 on Friday night, beating out 78 contestants from around the world.
She succeeds Chelsi Smith, a 22-year-old college student from Deer Park, Texas, who won the Miss USA title last year.
This year's Miss USA, Ali Landry, of Breaux Bridge, La., was one of the 10 finalists, along with Taryn Mansell of Aruba, Milena Mayorga of El Salvador, Lola Odusoga of Finland, Sandhya Chib of India, Vanessa Guzman of Mexico, Natali Sacco of Peru, Ilmira Shamsutdinova of Russia and Annika Duckmark of Sweden.
Co-hosts for the 45th annual event were ``Entertainment Tonight'' weekend host Bob Goen and Marla Maples Trump. It was telecast on CBS.
The international event took a diplomatic shot Tuesday when Indonesia's minister for women's affairs criticized the pageant, saying her nation's dominant Muslim religion forbids public exposure of most parts of the body.
Alya Rohali, a 19-year-old student from Jakarta University, won the Miss Indonesia title in a competition that emphasized culture, education and intelligence, with contestants wearing long dresses but no swimsuits.
But she wore a swimsuit for the Miss Universe pageant and was unperturbed by the flap, said Wendy Schwartz, a pageant spokeswoman.
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Machado.by CNB