The storm over the Miss World Beauty pageant continued raging yesterday across the seas. In Nigeria, the Federal Government officially opposed the "death sentence" pronounced by the Zamfara State Government on This Day newspaper's reporter, Isioma Daniel, whose article it perceived as insulting to Prophet Mohammed and Islam. The article became the lightning rod for the violent protest against the contest. The Federal Government said that the "death sentence" passed will not be executed. Information and National Orientation Minister, Prof. Jerry Gana, reacting to the verdict already announced by Zamfara's Deputy Governor Aliyu Shinkafi, said the Nigerian constitution is the supreme law of the country and does not provide for such verdicts. Gana described the judgment as "null and void" and promised that it would not be enforced. "The Federal Government under the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will not allow such an order in any part of the Federal Republic... The constitution is the supreme law of the land and the laws do not provide for anyone who has done something like what This Day has done to be killed," he said.

Aliyu Shinkafi had earlier told religious leaders in the state capital, Gusau: that: "Like Salman Rushdie's (the British author who was once adjudged guilty of blasphemy on account of his book Satanic Verses), the blood of Isioma Daniel can be shed... It is binding on all Moslems... to consider the killing of the writer a religious duty." His speech was broadcast on local radio in Zamfara State, the first state in Nigeria to introduce Islamic law.

A fatwa is a legal statement issued by an Islamic religious leader. But the Zamfara State Commissioner for Information, Umar Magaji, argued that any leader could issue a fatwa and that the decree had been in response to pressure from Islamic associations in Zamfara.

In London, a Labour MP and former contender for Lord Mayor of the city said the contest was "an antediluvian concept" which "has become utterly irrelevant" and should be cancelled. Jenny Tonge of the Liberal Democrats accused Julia Morley, the organizer, of "extreme insensitivity" for trying to hold the pageant in a "politically, religiously and tribally divided country" like Nigeria. Ms Caroline Spelman, International Development Secretary for the Conservatives, said Morley is partly to blame for the violence and pledged to press her Labor Party counterpart, Clare Short, to review Britain's links with Nigeria, to prevent a similar disaster in future. The pageant moved from Abuja to London following riots that resulted in the death of more than 200 people.

Speaking with reporters at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Mrs. Obasanjo said: "We stand the risk of our democratic rights being eroded. We also stand to lose potential foreign investors... We have harmed our image, which we only just started rebuilding at the beginning of this administration. But by the grace of God we hope to be able to rebuild it again." The President's wife was optimistic that Nigeria would have another opportunity to host an event of such magnitude in future.

The organizers' decision to relocate the competition to London might have been taken hastily. Some stakeholders in the beauty pageant were not informed. Speaking, in Abuja, a senior official of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that despite last week's riots in Kaduna and Abuja, the ministry did not expect that the disturbances, which it thought had no political undertone, would necessitate a change in venue. The minister only got to know about the relocation when the girls had left the country.

The Committee for Defence of Human rights (CDHR) condemned the arrest of Mr. Simon Kolawole, Editor of This Day, The Saturday Newspaper, and called for his immediate release. Kolawole was arrested after the allegedly offensive article in his paper. CDHR claimed that his arrest in a country that claims to protect fundamental human rights is not only reprehensible but shows an inclination towards fascism and dictatorial tendencies.

The Kaduna State Government arraigned 1,000 people over the Kaduna riots. To ensure that justice takes its course, 350 Moslem fundamentalists suspected of involvement in the disturbances were arraigned before an Upper Sharia Court on Daura Road, Kaduna, while 650 more were. arraigned before a Magistrates Court on charges of looting, curfew breaking, arson and homicide. The mass burial of those killed in the riot was held in a forest, while those who could be identified were interred at Kabala cemetery.

As part of the efforts to reduce tension in the state, the Deputy Governor, Mr. Stephen Shekari held a closed-door meeting with leaders of the Northern Christian Elders Forum and leaders of the state's chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN). Governor Ahmed Makarfi held a similar meeting with leaders of the Jamatu-l-Nasir Islam, other Islamic leaders and traditional rulers in an attempt to estimate the losses caused by the devastation of churches, mosques and private buildings.