Miss Turkey named Miss World

London - Turkey's Azra Akin has won the 2002 Miss World crown at the controversial pageant, which was moved to Britain from Nigeria after deadly riots there.

The 2002 contest has been dogged by violence, boycotted by some of its own contestants, and is now faced with legal action.

Akin beat Miss Colombia Natalia Peralta and Miss Peru Marina Mora Montero, in second and third place respectively, to win the title at the competition broadcast to 142 different countries from London's Alexandra Palace.

Miss World 2001 Agbani Darego, from Nigeria, placed the crown on the head of Akin, who beamed and waved at the crowd.

"I hope I will represent the women of the world in a good way," Akin told reporters.

" I am very honoured to be Miss World," she said, wearing her Miss World sash over a red dress. "I think it is good for a woman to have this position, and I hope I can make a difference."

The new Miss World, who turns 21 on Sunday, was raised by her Turkish parents in the Netherlands, plays the flute and listed her passions as ballet and belly dancing.

The international pageant was forced to pull out of Nigeria last month after Muslim-Christian rioting left more than 200 people dead.

But organizer Julia Morley, whose late husband Eric launched Miss World in 1951, was undeterred and hastily moved the event to London, where it was hosted by Sean Kanan, an actor from U.S. soap "The Bold and The Beautiful."

Organizers say the show, whose motto is "beauty with a purpose," had a global audience of more than two billion. In Britain, however, where the pageant is widely seen as a quaint, kitsch spectacle, no television channel agreed to broadcast it.

Miss World is used to controversy.

In 1970, feminists threw bags of flour during the event, which was hosted by Bob Hope at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

In 1996, when the finals were held in the Indian city of Bangalore, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at rock-throwing protesters, and one man committed suicide by self-immolation.

Still, this was arguably the contest's most troubled year.

The controversy began when a number of contestants boycotted the competition after an Islamic court in Nigeria condemned a woman to death by stoning for having a child outside marriage. The Nigerian government promised the sentence would not be carried out, and Morley pressed ahead.

But violence erupted when a Nigerian journalist wrote an article claiming the Muslim prophet Muhammad would have approved of the contest and might even have taken one of the contestants as his bride. The result was the deadly rioting in the northern city of Kaduna.

Critics said the show should be abandoned. "These girls will be wearing swimwear dripping with blood," British writer Muriel Gray said.

Morley has remained adamant that her show was not responsible for the rioting, however.

"We had nothing to do with the violence, so it is quite ludicrous to suggest we are being insensitive by continuing with the competition," she said.

On Thursday the contest faced a new crisis, with a High Court judge ordering that Morley's assets be frozen.

Nigerian art dealer and promoter Angela Onyeador launched the legal action, claiming she is owed nearly $780,000 after agreeing to act as guarantor for the Miss World gala dinner at a London hotel last month.

The case is due to return to the High Court in London next week.

Brudirect.com