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A girl of 16 has received 50 lashes in Sudan for wearing an "indecent" skirt - even though it was below the knee.

Silva Kashif is a Christian from the south of the African country. But authorities in the north - who enforce strict Islamic law - decreed she be punished on the spot after she was arrested while visiting a Khartoum market last week.

She now plans to sue over the public morality "error", which follows the high-profile case of journalist Lubna Hussein, whose 40 lashes sentence for wearing trousers was eventually cut to a fine.