Puerto Rico

Miss Russia is Miss Universe

Oxana Fedorova of Russia won the 2002 Miss Universe crown Wednesday night, telling a roaring audience that she blushes when she says the wrong thing.

All of the final five contestants were asked the last interview question, “What makes you blush?”

Miss Panama, 22-year-old Justine Pasek, was first runner-up; Miss China, 19-year-old Ling Zhuo, took second runner-up; Miss South Africa, 22-year-old Vanessa Carreira, won third runner-up; and Miss Venezuela, 19-year-old Cynthia Lander Zamora, was fourth runner-up.

Contestants are judged in three categories swimsuit, evening gown and the interview. The pageant was in San Juan.

Washington, D.C.

Levy jewelry pieces sought

Washington D.C. police said Wednesday that they plan to check pawnshops for Chandra Levy’s missing 14-karate gold pinkie ring and a gold bracelet she may have been wearing when she was killed.

Levy’s parents helped her design the ring, which has two diamond chips and bears her initials “CL.” It was made by a jeweler in Modesto, Calif., and was given to her as a college graduation present in 1998, sources said.

The two items were the only pieces of jewelry missing from Levy’s apartment, law enforcement sources said.

Virginia

American-born prisoner can meet with an attorney

A federal judge Wednesday gave the government 72 hours to allow the second American-born prisoner captured in Afghanistan to meet privately with an attorney.

Government lawyers had argued that such a meeting would be a risk to national security because it would interfere with the government’s interrogation of Yaser Esam Hamdi.

The government also maintained that as a captured enemy combatant, Hamdi can be held indefinitely and is not entitled to a lawyer, since he has not been charged with anything.

“That sounds idiotic, doesn’t it?” said U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar in Alexandria.

Doumar said that under the Constitution, a person being held has the right to see a lawyer. He gave the government until noon Saturday to appeal.

Los Angeles

Cable TV movie planned on American Taliban

A movie on John Walker Lindh, the 21-year-old Californian captured with Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, is being developed to air on the FX cable television channel in 2003.

Lindh was returned to the United States and indicted on charges of conspiring to murder U.S. nationals, providing services to al-Qaida and the Taliban, and using firearms during crimes of violence. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Aug. 26.

John Romano, writer and producer of the “Party of Five” TV drama, has been hired to write the Lindh script. Romano and others involved in the project said the film with the working title “American Taliban” would attempt to explain what motivated Lindh.