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MANILA (Reuters) - For Vida Samadzai, it has been a long journey from underneath an all-encompassing burka in Afghanistan (news - web sites) to baring nearly all by a Manila swimming pool in a red bikini.

The first Afghan entrant in an international beauty contest for 30 years, and the first since the fall of the hardline Islamic Taliban government in 2001, joined more than 50 other women at a posh hotel in the Philippine capital this week to fight it out for the Miss Earth title.

The dark-haired Samadzai, 25, was born and raised in Afghanistan, but left for the United States in 1996 to escape the turmoil of civil war and the rise of the Taliban religious movement.


"I would like to make people aware that as Afghan women we are talented, intelligent and beautiful," Vida, posing in a revealing swimsuit, told Reuters.


"We are one of the people who can make a difference in this world."


The Taliban won notoriety for banning women from appearing in public without the burka, but such practices were not uncommon in the conservative country even before the religious zealots swept to power in the late 1990s.


Many Afghan women still wear the garment.


The only other Miss Afghanistan was Zohra Daoud, who joined the Miss Universe (news - web sites) contest in 1972.


Whether she ends up with the winner's tiara or not, Vida plans to take her message of female liberation back to Afghanistan later this year, hoping to raise money for womens' schools.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Waiter, there is something worse than a fly in my soup.

   

A California woman who found a condom in her bowl of clam chowder has sued the upscale restaurant that served it to her -- saying she has suffered depression and anxiety from the shocking discovery.


But an attorney for McCormick & Schmicks Seafood Restaurant in Irvine, California, says the eatery has no idea how the condom got into Laila Sultan's food.


Sultan, 48, and her three companions are suing the restaurant for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress in a case that is expected to go to trial early next year.


"I thought it was calamari or shrimp or something so I chewed one more," Sultan told local KCAL-TV on Monday. "It felt rubbery. I told my friends, 'My God, there's something in my mouth.'"


Sultan said she spit the offending object into a napkin and at first thought it was a latex glove. Then her friend realized what it was.


"I said, 'Oh, my God' and ran into the bathroom with another friend of mine and I started throwing up," she said. "I threw up everything I ate there, every single thing, I threw up in the bathroom."


But Patrick Stark, an attorney for McCormick & Schmicks, told the Los Angeles Times that its staff had no idea how the condom got into the chowder, adding: "It's as big a mystery to us as it is to anybody else."


"We are going to argue at trial there is absolutely no evidence to suggest the restaurant was the source of the condom," he told the paper. "Either it came from (the four women) or it was thrown in as a practical joke by another patron at the restaurant."

ELVIS CAB DRIVERS!!!!

Associated Press

Seattle-

The City Council voted Monday to approve legislation that would allow drivers to sport rhinestone capes, blue suede shoes or whatever other appropriate costume they wish.


"Uh, a-thank you verrah much," cabbie Dave Groh, an Elvis Presley impersonator, said after the vote.


It was Groh's case that prompted the change to the city's 1997 taxi dress code. Adopting an Elvis look after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in hopes of bringing some levity to the city, Groh pleased many passengers, but drew the ire of taxi inspectors. He was fined $60 last spring for not wearing the required black pants and a crisp shirt.


After losing an appeal of the fine, the 37-year-old cabbie filed a lawsuit, which he has now agreed to drop.


Under the new law, any driver choosing to wear a costume must pick a "readily identifiable and generally well-known public figure, personality or fictional character."


Outfits can't include masks, can't depict police officers or firefighters, and can't be skimpy. They also have to be approved by the cab association for which the driver works, and drivers have to post photos of themselves inside their cabs in and out of costume.


The legislation will take effect unless Mayor Greg Nickels vetoes it; his spokeswoman was not immediately able to say what he planned to do.


Groh, who has been driving since 1999, said he doesn't worry about whether the change in the law will result in competition and that he wouldn't be surprised to see some cab drivers dressed as Santa Claus in the coming weeks.


"That would be wonderful," Groh said. "It's all about having fun."

 :twisted: