h Spain’s Lalaguna wins Miss World title

h Spain’s Lalaguna wins Miss World title

SANYA, CHINA

Spain’s Mireia Lalaguna Royo was named the winner of the Miss World 2015 competition Saturday night in the southern Chinese island resort of Sanya, an event dogged by controversy over China’s refusal to allow Canada’s entrant to attend.

Sofia Nikitchuk of Russia was first runner-up, and Indonesia’s Maria Harfanti was second runner-up after a lengthy competition featuring 114 women.

The victory marked the first win for a Spanish contestant.

Lalaguna is a 23-year-old model from Barcelona with a degree in pharmacology. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in nutrition.

Not present was Miss Canada, Chinese-born Anastasia Lin, who had been prevented from boarding her connecting flight to Sanya from Hong Kong last month after China refused her a visa. Lin is an outspoken critic of Chinese religious policy and a follower of the Falun Gong meditation practice, which was outlawed by China in 1999.

FBI files: Military questioned Seeger’s wartime loyalty

ALBANY, N.Y.

As Army Pvt. Pete Seeger eagerly waited for a chance to fight for his country during World War II, military investigators quietly built a case that the young folk singer was “potentially subversive.”

In a security investigation triggered by a wartime letter he wrote denouncing a proposal to deport all Japanese-Americans, the Army intercepted Seeger’s mail to his fiancee, scoured his school records, talked to his father, interviewed an ex-landlord and questioned his pal Woody Guthrie, according to FBI files obtained by The Associated Press.

Investigators concluded that Seeger’s association with known communists and his Japanese-American fiancee pointed to a risk of divided loyalty.

The investigation, forwarded to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, is detailed in more than 1,700 pages from Seeger’s FBI file, released by the National Archives under the Freedom of Information Act.

The musician and left-wing activist known for such songs as “If I Had a Hammer,” “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and “Turn, Turn, Turn” died in January 2014 at age 94.

Actor James Cromwell arrested during protest

WAWAYANDA, N.Y.

Actor James Cromwell was among six people arrested at an upstate New York power plant that is under construction.

The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reported that the 75-year-old actor whose work includes “Babe,” “American Horror Story” and “L.A. Confidential” was arrested Friday after leading a chant among a group of protesters.

New York State Police say the six protesters who were arrested blocked an entrance to the construction site at the Competitive Power Ventures power plant in Orange County. They were arrested on disorderly conduct charges and ordered to appear in court in January.

Protesters have said they believe toxins from the plant may cause health issues and lower property value in the area.

Associated Press