Miss Universe Asked to FARC Peace Talks

The Colombian rebel group FARC has asked the country’s newly crowned Miss Universe, Paulina Vega, to take part in two-year-old peace talks between the guerrilla group and the government, the BBC reported Sunday. In a statement on its website, the group said it was taking Vega up on her offer she made while competing for the crown to help in the peace talks. Vega has so far not responded to the request. The talks are deadlocked in Havana, with the Colombian government and the Marxist FARC unable to reach full agreement on a final peace deal. Should such a deal be reached, it would end the longest and deadliest insurgency in the Western Hemisphere, which has killed about 220,000 people since its beginning in 1964.