Copying Garland theme to new theme names can't see new regions in template.php -- please help

the template.php is pretty much the standard except for the regions. It seems to be working in the default garland theme. But the regions don't get shown for other copied themes. All the content in those regions goes to the left sidebar for some unknown reason!! Here's the template.php if it helps.

thanks

<?php
/**
 * Sets the body-tag class attribute.
 *
 * Adds 'sidebar-left', 'sidebar-right' or 'sidebars' classes as needed.
 */
function phptemplate_body_class($sidebar_left, $sidebar_right) {
  if ($sidebar_left != '' && $sidebar_right != '') {
    $class = 'sidebars';
  }
  else {
    if ($sidebar_left != '') {
      $class = 'sidebar-left';
    }
    if ($sidebar_right != '') {
      $class = 'sidebar-right';
    }
  }

  if (isset($class)) {
    print ' class="'. $class .'"';
  }
}

/**
 * Return a themed breadcrumb trail.
 *
 * @param $breadcrumb
 *   An array containing the breadcrumb links.
 * @return a string containing the breadcrumb output.
 */
function phptemplate_breadcrumb($breadcrumb) {
  if (!empty($breadcrumb)) {
/*    return '<div class="breadcrumb">'. implode(' › ', $breadcrumb) .'</div>'; */
    return '<div class="new_breadcrumb">'. implode(' › ', $breadcrumb) .'</div>'; 

  }
}

/**
 * Allow themable wrapping of all comments.
 */
function phptemplate_comment_wrapper($content, $type = null) {
  static $node_type;
  if (isset($type)) $node_type = $type;

  if (!$content || $node_type == 'forum') {
    return '<div id="comments">'. $content . '</div>';
  }
  else {
    return '<div id="comments"><h2 class="comments">'. t('Comments') .'</h2>'. $content .'</div>';
  }
}

/**
 * Override or insert PHPTemplate variables into the templates.
 */
function _phptemplate_variables($hook, $vars) {
  if ($hook == 'page') {

    if ($secondary = menu_secondary_local_tasks()) {
      $output = '<span class="clear"></span>';
      $output .= "<ul class=\"tabs secondary\">\n". $secondary ."</ul>\n";
      $vars['tabs2'] = $output;
    }

    // Hook into color.module
    if (module_exists('color')) {
      _color_page_alter($vars);
    }
    return $vars;
  }
  return array();
}

/**
 * Returns the rendered local tasks. The default implementation renders
 * them as tabs.
 *
 * @ingroup themeable
 */
function phptemplate_menu_local_tasks() {
  $output = '';

  if ($primary = menu_primary_local_tasks()) {
    $output .= "<ul class=\"tabs primary\">\n". $primary ."</ul>\n";
  }

  return $output;
}


/*
 * added for new regions
 */

function newtheme_regions() {
  return array(
    'infocomment' => t('infocomment'),
    'above_content_l' => t('above content left'),
    'above_content_r' => t('above content right'),
    'above_content' => t('above content'),
    'below_content' => t('below content'),
    'left' => t('left sidebar'),
    'right' => t('right sidebar'),
    'content' => t('content'),
    'header' => t('header'),
    'footer' => t('footer')
  );
}