Miss World Pageant Denies Blame for Deaths
LONDON (Reuters) - Angry Miss World organizers and contestants said Monday they had been made scapegoats for religious rioting in Nigeria in which more than 200 people died.

After plans to stage the show in Nigeria sparked Christian-Muslim riots in the north of the country, the organizers decided to move the competition to Britain but flew into a storm of protest at home too, with media and lobby groups accusing them of having blood on their hands.

Organizer Julia Morley said the deaths had nothing to do with the beauty pageant but were the work of a sole newspaper journalist who enraged Muslims by saying the Prophet Mohammad would probably have married a Miss World contestant.

"I am very sorry about the riots but also very sorry that we have become involved and it is not our fault," a frustrated Morley told Reuters in London.

While many of the contestants said they were happy to be in England, their welcome was not as warm as they may have hoped.

Oscar-winning actress turned parliamentarian Glenda Jackson led calls for the contest to be halted: "The best thing to do after such fratricide and blood-letting is to cancel the whole competition," she said.

Australian feminist Germaine Greer said the prospect of staging the contest in London was "horrifying" while writer Muriel Gray said: "These girls will be wearing swimwear dripping with blood."

Morley said she was still calculating the cost of moving the show and accepted it was likely to be high although "not in the millions." She said it would still go ahead on December 7 as planned but that a London venue had still to be finalized.