﻿Miss Universe 1994 title to Sushmita Sen

An 18 year old Indian model, Sushmita Sen, caused a surprise on Sunday in Manila
when winning the Miss Universe 1994 title ahead of two South-American beauties, Miss
Colombia, Carolina Gomez Correa, and above all Miss Venezuela, Minorka Mercado, who
appeared as favorite in the competition.
The young Indian, a brown beauty, hazel eyed and 1.75 meters tall, is the first candidate
of her country to win this title. She succeeds to Miss Porto Rico, Dayanara Torres, 22,
who gave her her crown in front of a television audience estimated to six hundred million 
people all over the world. Among the six finalists also appeared Miss United States,
Frances Louis Parker, Miss Philippines, Charlene Gonzales, and Miss Slovak Republic, Silvia
 Lakatosova. The new miss was chosen among a group of ten finalists that also included
the representatives of Italy, Greece, Sweden and Switzerland.
A few hours before the ceremony, a man was killed by the explosion of an appliance
he carried, at about one kilometer from the Congress Center where the beauty competition
was being held, in front of the Manila bay. The police was not immediately able to establish
if this incident was in relation with this competition.
On Thursday, a weak-power craft bomb had exploded in a garbage can of the congress
center without any damages.
The new Miss Universe, who won more than 150,000 Dollars in different prizes,
declared that she intended to do theater, publicity or writing. However, her most cherished
wish, she assured, was to meet Mother Teresa because she was "a perfect example of a
person totally devoted, unselfish and completely involved".
During the election, about a hundred feminists demonstrated pacifically in front of
the Congress Center to denounce the competition, stating that it promoted sexual tourism
in Philippines.