Miss Italy broadens rules to women of foreign parents

(ANSA) - Rome, April 28 - The Miss Italy beauty pageant is opening its entrance requirements to competitors born in Italy to immigrant parents, even if they do not have citizenship, organizers said Monday.
    The event, to be broadcast in September on television network La7, opens the contest to women whose parents have lived in Italy for at least 18 years continuously but for bureaucratic reasons, do not yet have citizenship.
    The changes come on the 75th anniversary of the competition, which in the early days was a radio broadcast, later saw its rules relaxed to include married women and mothers, and saw its first black winner in 1996.