The troubled Miss World contest faced further controversy...

The troubled Miss World contest faced further controversy today after it emerged that 11 children in host nation Nigeria could have their hands amputated for petty theft.
Dozens of youngsters are understood to be imprisoned in the country's predominantly Muslim northern states for minor crimes, including pilfering food and clothing, for which the punishment under extreme sharia law is amputation.
Their ordeal was brought to light by Nigerian human rights activist Hauwa Ibrahim and casts a further shadow over the Miss World contest.
Mr Ibrahim said: "There have already been three amputations involving adults over the past year. We do not have statistics for how many children face the same fate but there are far more in prison than the 11 I know of."
Children facing amputations are thought to include 13-year-old Abudahar Musa, found guilty of stealing a cow, and Rabiu Bello, 15, convicted of stealing a shirt.
A Nigerian foreign affairs spokesman denied that children faced sharia punishments, saying: "Let them show evidence."
Buhari Bello, of the National Human Rights Council of Nigeria, said: "Saudi Arabia has similar laws and it is the darling of the West."