Beauty comes first at Chogm

Beauty will come before brains at this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Uganda as a beauty pageant is held ahead of the main event.

The pageant will crown a Miss Chogm-Uganda shortly before the meeting of leaders in November.

However, according to reports, a row has broken out over who will run it. Devine Model Agency claims to have won the rights but Chogm publicist Kagole Kivumbi said that was not the case and a professor known as Richard Kisawuzi - who was behind Miss OAU (Organisation of African Unity) in 1975 - would organise the pageant in October.

According to the Monitor newspaper, Professor Kisawuzi said Miss Chogm would focus on "intellectual power" while the modelling agency was focusing on beauty.

Prime Minister Helen Clark is planning to attend the gathering.

A beauty pageant in 2002 caused controversy when it was held in Nigeria where a woman was sentenced to death by stoning. Miss World New Zealand Rachel Huljich decided to compete in the contest despite pressure to boycott it.

- NZPA