Sudan:Frantic efforts were under way last night to secure the release of the British teacher imprisoned in Sudan after her class named a teddy bear Muhammad.
Two British Muslim peers shuttled backwards and forwards from their base at the city's Hilton Hotel as hopes rose of an early release.
Baroness Sayeeda Warsi and Baron Nazir Ahmed said they remained confident of bringing home Gillian Gibbons (54).
"We wouldn't have come if we didn't believe we had a good chance," said Lord Ahmed. He added that they had spent the day meeting government officials and religious leaders and expected to carry on late into the evening.
They are expected to have an audience with President Omar el-Bashir this morning and will ask him to offer a pardon.
A diplomatic source said there would be few signs ahead of any deal. "I'd say it was about 50-50," he said.
The two peers, who have funded the trip from their own pockets, are seen as the best chance of bringing Ms Gibbons home from a country that has difficult relations with Britain.
Analysts say President Bashir faces opposition within his government - from the powerful Ministry of Interior and state security apparatus - if he is seen bending to western pressure.
A deal with two British Muslims may be more acceptable to his opponents.
Ms Gibbons was arrested last Sunday after a secretary at Unity High School complained that she had named a teddy bear after Islam's holiest prophet. However, teachers said parents had known about the name since September without anyone taking offence.
However, Ms Gibbons was convicted of insulting Islam at the end of an eight-hour hearing on Thursday and sentenced to 15 days detention.
She had faced 40 lashes or up to a year in prison.
Rather than the overcrowded conditions of Omdurman Women's Prison where her defence lawyers expected her to be sent, Ms Gibbons is being held at a government villa.
Khartoum's dusty suburbs hide dozens of anonymous single-storey, whitewashed bungalows surrounded by high walls usually reserved for high ranking opposition leaders under arrest.
There she has a bed, not normally provided in Sudan's cockroach-ridden jails where prisoners sleep on the floor.
In a statement released through her lawyers at the weekend, Ms Gibbons said she was being well looked after.
"I want people to know I've been well treated and especially that I'm well fed. I've been given so many apples I feel I could set up my own stall," she said.
Elteyb Hag Ateya, director of Khartoum University's peace research institute, said the Sudanese government was keen to limit damage from the affair.
"Whenever I speak to anyone in government, they say it's nightmare and they don't want to hear about it again.
"They don't want any aftermath like the lady going home and holding a press conference complaining about conditions."