A 21-year-old Thai was named the most beautiful transsexual in the world in an extravagant pageant held at the famed tourist destination southeast of Bangkok. Tanyarat Jirapatpakon went home with the Miss International Queen 2007 crown, beating 23 other stunning hopefuls.

Italian parliament's first transgender MP has been barred from being witness at a cousin's wedding. Vladimir Luxuria, born Wladimiro Guadagno, is a 42-year-old former drag queen.

Inmates from a prison in Cebu, the Philippines, have become instant stars after videos of their synchronized dances have received over a million views on the popular website YouTube. The abs-cbnnews. com reported that the zombie dance performed by more than 1,000 inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center to the tune of Michael Jackson's pop hit 'Thriller' has given the criminals instant celebrity.

A previously unrecorded portrait miniature of Britain's Queen Elizabeth I is expected to fetch nearly $157,776 at auction. The portrait by artist Nicholas Hilliard will go under the hammer at London auction house Christie's on June 5. Hilliard is thought to have painted the image between 1595 and 1600, during the final years of Elizabeth's reign.

Yoko Ono tasted a corgi kebab Tuesday night as part of a protest against the British Royal Family's treatment of animals. Controversial performance artist Mark McGowan cooked and ate the dead dog - the same breed as the queen's favorite pets - on a London radio show on which John Lennon's widow was also a guest. Following his performance on London's 104. 4 Resonance FM, McGowan said: "It's really, really disgusting. It's stinky, it's not like any meat I've seen.