LAS VEGAS (AP) — The latest from the Miss Universe beauty pageant (all times local):
5:30 p.m.
Viewers of the Miss Universe pageant at home say the tuk tuk-inspired costume from Thailand’s Aniporn Chalermburanawong that featured flashing headlights and the front of the popular taxi is the winner in the parade of costumes.
As for the swimsuit competition, viewers voting online say contestants from the Philippines and Colombia wore their bikinis best.
The show is on stage inside the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
For the first time, viewers at home are casting votes making them equal to a fifth judge determining the final result.
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4:55 p.m.
Miss Universe is down to 15 contestants including the 24-year-old woman representing Mexico who had threatened not to participate after the pageant’s co-owner at the time, Donald Trump, made controversial comments about Mexican immigrants in launching his Republican bid for U.S. president.
Trump sold the pageant in September and Wendy Esparza of Mexico reconsidered saying on her Instagram account that “love and respect between individuals and countries will always be more powerful than hatred.”
The other 15 contestants still vying for the crown represent the United States, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Philippines, France, Curacao, Belgium, Japan, Venezuela, South Africa, Colombia and Thailand.
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4:40 p.m.
The 2015 Miss Universe competition inside the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip begins with an elaborate parade of costumes with each of the 80 contestants representing their home countries.
Among the costumes are an “Ugly Duckling”-inspired costume from Denmark, a Rubik’s Cube headdress and body suit for Hungary’s contestant and one designed to look like a tuk tuk from Thailand.
Flora Coquerel of France is wearing a redesigned costume featuring glittery peace signs. The 24-year-old will also be among the final 15 to compete for the crown. In a video interview for the telecast, she says she was inside the soccer stadium that was attacked by Islamic State terrorists on Nov. 13 describing it as “horrible, inhumane.”
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