The ugly truth about Brit women

Whatever happened to good old-fashioned chivalry? Men who took part in a worldwide survey to find the planet's ugliest women decided those in Britain were among the worst; Brits finished second in the ugly list, beaten only by the Afghans.

There will, of course, be those who say British men are nothing to write home about either - but more than 10,000 women took part in the survey and they rated Brit males as the world's sexiest.

More than 49,000 men participated in the global poll by men's magazine FHM.

India claimed tenth place, a statistic Miss World organisers would no doubt agree with - the country has won the annual beauty pageant more times than any other country in the past decade.

Other countries whose women were considered better looking than ours included the US, China, Russia, Albania, Turkey and France.

Perhaps home-grown beauties such as Kelly Brook, Liz Hurley, Catherine Zeta Jones and Rachel Stevens were far from the minds of the online voters. Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins and Julie Christie also seem to have been ignored.

It could be that those who took part were fickle, disloyal or just plain confused - in the same survey, British women were also voted among the best-looking. Those from the US came top, followed by Sweden, Italy, Brazil - and Britain.