Nigerian officials celebrated as a planeload of beauty...

Nigerian officials celebrated as a planeload of beauty queens arrived for the Miss World pageant which had been threatened by a mass boycott over the country's Islamic stoning sentences.Colourful groups of traditional drummers and dancers were on hand as government ministers welcomed 82 contestants on their arrival from London to take part in a series of events leading up to the pageant in Abuja on December 7."There is no boycott," declared Ben Murray-Bruce, head of state-run Nigerian Television Authority, a co-sponsor of this year's pageant."This is the moment the whole world has been waiting for," Murray-Bruce told cheering contestants, among them representatives of at least five countries that had said they would stay away - Belgium, Canada, France, Kenya and Norway.In a desperate bid to save the biggest show business event ever staged by Nigeria, senior officials have said repeatedly that the government would not allow any Nigerian convicted of adultery under Islamic sharia law to be stoned to death.Stoning death sentences are hanging over two men and two women, including a 31-year-old mother whose sentencing to death by stoning for adultery sparked the Miss World boycott threats.Miss World organisers said a total of 92 contestants would eventually take part in the pageant.Nigerian Agbani Derago became the first black African woman to win the contest in 2001, giving her country the right to host this year's event.Nigeria hopes hosting the event will boost tourism in a country that depends on crude oil exports for more than 90 percent of its foreign earnings.Junior foreign minister Dubem Onyia told the beauty queens at the airport that Nigeria was determined to uphold human rights following the return of democracy in 1999 after 15 years of military dictatorship."No Nigerian has ever been stoned to death and the government will never allow any Nigerian to be stoned to death," he told cheering contestants, including those from the United States, Japan, Russia and China.Miss World organiser Julia Morley insisted that only four countries had boycotted the contest - Denmark, Switzerland, Panama and Costa Rica - and that they might yet return for the main event.