Update on ... beauty

A survey of recent developments in a topic of general interest.

In February, Sandrine Durant won a beauty contest in Belgium thanks to a speech on the merits of a single European currency.

In March, police in Brazil seized 38 jars of beauty cream that were on sale at a government charity bazaar and found that they contained bags of marijuana.

In Thailand in May, the title of Jumbo Queen was won by Valaya Tonsak of Bangkok - who weighed 70kg - ahead of a large field, some of whom weighed as much as 160kg.

In May, a Colombian drug suspect explained that he had undergone plastic surgery not to hide from the police but because he wanted to look good beside his wife, a beauty queen.