A panel of nine judges Friday chose Miss Puerto Rico out of 79 contestants to become the 42nd Miss Universe before a worldwide audience estimated at 600 million.
Daynara Torres, 18, a dark-haired, blue-eyed odon-tol-ogy student from Santurce, will collect about $250,000 in prize money and gifts for winning the title.Second place was 21-year-old Paula Betancourt of Colombia and third place went to 19-year-old Milka Chulina of Venezuela.
The other seven semifinalists were Miss Australia, 18-year-old Voni Delfos of Gold Coast; Miss Brazil, 21-year-old Leila Schuster of Sao Paulo; Miss Czech Republic, 19-year-old Pavlina Baburkova of Novy Bor; Miss Finland, 22-year-old Tarja Smura of Helsinki; Miss India, 22-year-old Namrata Shirodkar of Bombay and Miss USA, 22-year-old Kenya Moore of Detroit.
Friday's event was witnessed by an estimated 600 million television viewers worldwide.