Hopes for the Copenhagen climate summit in December have been boosted after it emerged that more than 60 presidents and prime ministers plan to attend.

There is concern that no legally binding treaty will emerge from the 7-18 December talks in Copenhagen.

But observers say the presence of so many leading government figures will radically increase expectations.

The annual UN climate change talks are usually conducted by countries’ environment ministers. Delegations from 192 countries will be attending the summit, which will attempt to draw up a new global climate treaty to supplant the UN’s 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said the involvement of heads of state and government was “crucial” to the success of the summit.

“That is why we are encouraged that already more than 60 heads of state and government have confirmed they will participate, and just as important that many more have also been positive,” he told a meeting of his Liberal Party on Sunday, according to a spokesman.

Talks ‘very tough’

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who will be attending, has said a new deal will be more likely if heads of governments put their own reputations on the line.

Kevin Rudd on Copenhagen hopes

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who will be a key negotiator at the summit, has said he believes those involved in the summit are capable of reaching a non-binding political agreement that would be codified sometime next year.

“I believe there is a strong and high degree of political resolve from many of the leaders around the world to land a Copenhagen agreement,” he told the BBC.

But he said reaching what he called an “operational framework agreement” was “not inevitable” and that the negotiations will be “very tough”.

Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and has the highest per capita emissions of any developed nation, but Mr Rudd has said he wants to be part of the solution.

He says every nation will be entering the talks with dirty hands so that should not stand in the way of an agreement.

The leaders of China, the US and India – some of the world’s biggest polluters – are so far not on the list to attend the Copenhagen meeting.

But the BBC’s environment correspondent Roger Harrabin says the increasing number of senior leaders planning to make the journey undoubtedly increases the political stakes.

‘Violated’

The news comes as a row continues over e-mails between climate scientists which were stolen from a British university computer.

Climate sceptics say the e-mails, stolen by a hacker from the University of East Anglia, show that important data behind the climate change debate has been manipulated.

A Sudanese woman was found guilty of indecency and fined on Monday for wearing trousers in a case that has attracted worldwide attention, but she will be spared lashes, an official who attended the trial said.

The woman, Lubna Hussein, was arrested at a party in July with 12 other women and had faced the possibility of 40 lashes for wearing trousers deemed indecent. The court ordered her to pay a fine of 500 pounds ($209) or face a month in jail.

Hussein’s case was seen as a test of Sudan’s Islamic decency regulations, which many women activists say are vague and give individual police officers undue latitude to determine what is acceptable clothing for women.

A former reporter who was working for the United Nations at the time of her arrest, Hussein has publicized her case, posing in loose trousers for photos and calling for media support.

Reached by telephone after the verdict, Hussein said she would refuse to pay the fine: “I will not pay the money, and I will go to prison.”

Defense lawyer Nabil Adib Abdalla has previously said the law on indecent dress was so wide it contravened Hussein’s right to a fair trial.

“She was found guilty, but we know she is not guilty … This is a clear violation of the constitution, of women’s rights, and the peace agreement,” said Yasser Arman, a government official who attended the trial and is also a senior member of the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement.

Ten of the other women arrested with Hussein have pleaded guilty and have been whipped, Hussein previously said.

PROTESTS AT COURT

Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan, where there is a large cultural gap between the mostly Muslim and Arab-oriented north and the mainly Christian south. The cases prompted scores of women to gather near the court ahead of the verdict to lend support to Hussein.

Hussein argued her clothes, a pair of green slacks that she also wore to her first court appearance, were respectable and that she did not break the law.

“Lubna has given us a chance. She is very brave. Thousands of girls have been beaten since the 1990s, but Lubna is the first one not to keep silent,” protester Sawsan Hassan el-Showaya told Reuters before the verdict.

But scuffles erupted at the protest before the court session even began between the women and Islamists, who shouted religious slogans and denounced Hussein and her supporters as prostitutes and demanded a harsh punishment for Hussein.

Riot police quickly cleared the scene, beating some protesters with batons. Around 40 women protesters were detained.

Hussein has said she resigned from her U.N. job to give up any legal immunity so she could continue with the case, prove her innocence and challenge the decency law.

U.N. officials have said the United Nations told Sudan that Hussein was immune from legal proceedings as she was a U.N. employee at the time of her arrest. But the case was allowed to proceed after Sudan’s foreign ministry advised the court that Hussein was not immune.

LAHORE: Pakistan Sugar Mills Association put up a defiant attitude by refusing to sell suar at Rs36/kg, Geo News reported Saturday.

Addressing a press conference here, Sugar Mills Association Punjab Chairman Javed Kiani said they would not flinch back and as a last resort, close down the mills even if they are arrested.

He said the government gave incorrect statistics to the court.

Under the circumstances, the sugar crisis is expected to rage on, Kiani said adding the mills are already suffering from financial slump and would not be able to pay out to the cultivators and banks.

Javed said an appeal would be filed as soon as the court’s signed ruling is received; but, they cannot provide sugar at Rs36/kg, warning to government to plan beforehand for sugar, as there would be less sugar yield next year.

The government is harassing the inventors, and in this harrowing condition, nobody would set up mills here, he warned.

KARACHI: The ICC World Twenty20 win will augment expectations from the Pakistan side and they have to perform well in the upcoming Champions Trophy, feels new vice-captain Shahid Afridi. ‘Carrying the tag of Twenty20 champions, there are a lot of expectations from us in the Champions Trophy,’ Afridi, who has recently been appointed as deputy to Younus Khan for the eight-nation tournament, said.

‘The way we won the World Twenty20 means we have the ability to win the Champions Trophy. The only thing we have to develop is mindset to handle pressure,’ he said.

‘The vice-captain is there to support his captain and only become effective when the captain is not available. So at the moment my focus is to continue my good form as a player.’

He termed the Champions Trophy as one of the toughest tournaments in international cricket.—PPI

COLOMBO: Daniel Vettori’s New Zealand recorded their second Twenty20 success over Sri Lanka in three days with a 22-run victory on Friday that helped them sweep the two-match series. The Kiwis, who won the first match on Wednesday by three runs, piled up 170-4 after winning the toss and then restricted the World Twenty20 finalists to 148-8 under lights at the Premadasa stadium.

Fast bowler Shane Bond led the Black Caps charge with 3-18 in four overs, while seamer Kyle Mills and off-spinner Nathan McCullum claimed two wickets each.

The 2-0 win helped the Kiwis overcome the disappointment of losing both the preceding Test matches and boosted their confidence ahead of a tri-series, also featuring India, that opens here on Tuesday.

New Zealand’s innings revolved around an explosive opening stand of 84 in 10.2 overs by Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder after Vettori called correctly for the second time in a row.

Left-handed Ryder smashed three sixes and as many fours in his 52 off 37 balls, while McCullum hit a 34-ball 49 with two sixes and four boundaries.

Martin Guptill and Jacob Oram further boosted the total with a 43-run stand for the fourth wicket in 27 balls, before Guptill was bowled by Lasith Malinga off the final ball of the innings.

Sri Lanka, chasing a target of almost nine runs an over, made a disastrous start when they were reduced to 2-2 off the first seven deliveries and slid to 11-3 soon after.

Bond removed the in-form Tillakaratne Dilshan with his fifth ball, caught at deep square leg, before Kyle Mills dismissed Mahela Udawatte and Sanath Jayasuriya in successive overs.

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara and former captain Mahela Jayawardene put on a brisk 67 for the fourth wicket when Nathan McCullum hit back with two wickets in his first over.

The off-spinner, elder brother of Brendon McCullum had Jayawardene caught at backward point by Ryder off his third delivery for 41 off 30 balls.

He then removed new batsman Angelo Mathews with the final delivery of the innings to make Sri Lanka 80-5 in 11 overs.

Sangakkara gave Jacob Oram a return catch after making 69 before Bond sealed New Zealand’s win with the wickets of all-rounder Gihan Rupasinghe and tailender Nuwan Kulasekara.

Earlier, McCullum and Ryder bulldozed the Sri Lankan attack for the first 10 overs, racing to 83 runs without being separated.

Jayasuriya broke the stand in the 11th over when he beat McCullum in the air and the batsman offered a simple return catch.

Ryder took over after McCullum’s departure, striking two sixes and a boundary in the 12th over sent down by Dilshan which yielded 20 runs.

Jayasuriya finished with 2-22 and Ajantha Mendis took 1-21, while pace spearhead Kulasekara went for 40 runs in four wicketless overs.

LONDON: Mitchell Johnson took three wickets as Australia edged England by four runs in the first of seven one-day internationals at the Oval here on Friday.

England, needing 13 off the last over from Nathan Bracken to reach their victory target of 261, saw Adil Rashid miss the first ball after Australia had flirted with a six-run penalty by almost failing to bowl their overs in time. Rashid pulled the next for four before taking a single. But Ryan Sidebottom missed the next ball and took two off the next.

That meant the left-hander had to hit six off the last ball but instead he could only manage a single as England finished on 256 for eight under the Oval floodlights.

Rashid, whose 10 overs of leg-spin cost just 37 runs, was 31 not out off 23 balls with four fours.

Left-arm quick Johnson, who finished with figures of three wickets for 24 runs, took three for five in 13 balls as England suffered a middle-order slump. Owais Shah was keeping England on course with 40 off 48-balls until he was unluckily out hit wicket, his back foot dislodging a bail as he faced Johnson, to leave England 161 for four in the 38th over.

Luke Wright tried to rescue the situation with 38 off 27 balls, including a six and four fours, before he was run out by wicketkeeper Tim Paine off a Brett Lee no-ball.

Together with Rashid he put on 46 off 34 balls but his exit left England 224 for seven in the 47th over.

England, after Paul Collingwood had been brilliantly caught by a leaping Shane Watson at mid-wicket off Johnson, needed 93 off the last 10 overs and next ball Wright lofted Watson straight for the match’s only six.

Earlier, man-of-the-match Callum Ferguson’s career-best 71 was the centrepiece of Australia’s 260 for five.

Ferguson surpassed his previous best of 63 against South Africa at Cape Town in April, during a composed 75-ball innings featuring five fours, while Cameron White made 53 before he was run out.

It was two of England’s slower bowlers who checked Australia’s progress after the world champions started briskly against the quicks.

Rashid and medium-pacer Collingwood, who took two for 47, applied a break after England’s Ashes-winning captain Andrew Strauss won the toss.

England, in reply, suffered a setback when fast bowler Lee dismissed Strauss for 12 with the aid of a sharp slip catch by White.

However, Ravi Bopara – who’d averaged just 15 in the Ashes before being dropped for England’s series clinching 197-run win here at the Oval last month – steadied the innings.

Together with Matt Prior (28) he put on 61 before the wicketkeeper reverse-swept off-spinner Nathan Hauritz to Johnson at short third man.

Hauritz then dismissed Bopara one short of a fifty when he had him stumped by Paine.

After Paine was run out for nought by Collingwood, Watson (46) and White compiled a 56-ball fifty stand.

Collingwood separated the duo when Watson’s leading edge gave him a gentle return catch.

Clarke, captain in the absence of the resting Ricky Ponting, and Ferguson shared a stand of 79 off 109 balls.

But Clarke exited for 45 when he sliced a drive off Collingwood to Shah at cover, in an unusually subdued 72 balls with just three boundaries to leave Australia 190 for four.

Australia though still managed to score 82 runs in the last 10 overs. The second match of this series takes place at Lord’s on Sunday.—Agencies

The Pakistan squad for ICC Champions Trophy is undergoing training in Lahore.

LAHORE: Crackdown against sugar hoarders has been kicked off across Punjab following Lahore High Court (LHC) ruling, setting per kilogram sugar price at Rs40 meanwhile, heavy police contingents have been deployed on sugar mills, Geo news reported early on Saturday before dawn.

Provincial government has commenced carrying out raids on sugar mills across Punjab province in order to comply with LHC verdict, sources said.

At least 2,91,305 sugar pouches have been taken under government authority from Phalia Sugar Mill meanwhile, its sugar stock has been sealed, sources maintained.

3,50,000 sugar sacks stocked in Patoki sugar mill are being monitored while over 3,00,00 sugar sacks have been taken into custody following police raid on stockroom of Rajanpur Sugar Mill.

Police troops have been deployed on most of sugar mills throughout Punjab to stop sugar hoarding, provincial sources concluded.

DAMASCUS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the Israeli people not to support their government, which he described as “genocidal” on Friday, the second day of his trip to Syria.

Chavez is on an 11-day trip to Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran, Belarus, Russia and Spain in what he is describing as a bid to build a multi-polar world and decrease U.S. influence in the region.

The Venezuelan president has singled out Israel for criticism during his visit to Syria, slamming it for mistreating the Palestinians and being an agent of U.S. imperialism.

“The state of Israel has become a murderous lackey at the service of imperialism,” Chavez said. “It’s a genocidal government. I condemn that Zionist government that persecutes the heroic Palestinian people.”

Chavez, whose remarks were broadcast by state television in Venezuela, added that “the people of Israel shouldn’t support a genocidal government.”

Chavez spoke in front of about 10,000 people who gathered at a football stadium in the city of Sweida, some 110 kilometers south of Damascus, near the Jordanian border.

More than 200,000 people from the Sweida area carry Venezuelan citizenship and most are members of Syria’s Druse sect, who immigrated to Venezuela in the past century.

Chavez later inaugurated a public garden in the city, naming it after 19th century Latin American independence leader Simon Bolivar.

The firebrand Latin American leader has built close ties with Iran, Syria, Cuba and other countries while his relations have grown tense with Israel.

Chavez strongly criticized Israel’s war against Gaza in December and January and said the Jewish state should return to Syria the strategic Golan Heights that it captured in 1967 Mideast war.

Chavez also called for Israel to “take its hands off Latin America also. Because there the U.S. empire is trying to turn Colombia … into the Israel of Latin America.”

Venezuela and Colombia have been feuding for weeks over negotiations between the Colombian government and Washington that would allow the U.S. military to increase its presence at seven Colombian bases through a 10-year lease agreement.

Chavez calls the pending deal a threat to Venezuela. Colombia says it’s necessary to more effectively help fight drug traffickers and leftist rebels.

Later Friday, Chavez arrived in Tehran and praised Iran for standing up to he said were “western forces” attempts to destabilize it after the elections there.

The Iranian opposition alleges the country’s June 12 election was rigged in Ahmadinejad’s favor and that pro-reform challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi was the true winner.

After the election, Iranian security forces, including the Revolutionary Guard and pro-government Basij militia, crushed mass street protests against Ahmadinejad’s re-election in a heavy crackdown that prompted heavy criticism from the West.

LAHORE: Police have raided two houses and workplaces of actress Meera with a view to arrest her following a Lahore resident Ateeq-ur-Rehman lodged a theft case against her and four family members meanwhile, Meera, along her family members, has gone in hiding to escape arrest, Geo news reported.

According to police sources, police raided many times her two house located in Defence Lahore and workplaces to arrest her but could not succeed as Meera has gone in hiding but police arrested her four servants from residence but shortly released them after preliminary investigation.