Snowmail: Mugabe and Tsvangirai pledge to work together

Last Modified: 21 Jul 2008
By: Jon Snow

In tonight's show.

Just occasionally history jumps up and surprises us and today is one such day. As I write, pictures are coming through from a hotel in Harare of a truly remarkable moment: the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe and his political foe Morgan Tsvangirai seated at the same table and announcing they've signed a document.

This is believed to be the first meeting between the two for a decade, and I note that they're not exactly alongside each other, seated as they are, one on either side of the South African President Thabo Mbeki.

The document will commit the two to work together over a very short period of time to deliver some kind of way out of current impasse in Zimbabwe. It doesn't specifically detail or describe a possible powersharing agreement, but sketches out the very beginnings of a process that might lead to that position.

It obviously leaves Mbeki looking slightly better than he was (he brought the meeting about) but it feels as if the opposition have been heavily leaned upon and are signing very reluctantly. Mr Mugabe meanwhile has issued the ZWD100bn bill, apparently not worth much more than a can of Coke. It's hard to see where all this is going to leave things but Nick Paton Walsh will be doing his best.

McCanns to be cleared

News is breaking from Portugal that the police investigation into the case of Madeleine McCann has been shelved, and that her parents Kate and Gerry McCann are no longer regarded as official suspects, as there is insufficient proof to pursue a case against them.

And likewise for Robert Murat, who also had been regarded as an official suspect. There are no details as yet on what lies behind this announcement. There's been much speculation about whether the forensic tests (carried out in Britain) which had played a key part in the police questioning of the McCanns may or may not be a factor.

It's expected that later the McCanns may appear at a press event in their home town of Rothley, Leicestershire. Their spokesman has already given their response as 'relief' but with 'no degree of celebration'.

None of this takes us any nearer to discovering who did what and what happened to Madeleine. It is a further milestone in this sad and unresolved drama that has attracted interest and hysteria in equal measure across the developed world.

Major welfare reforms put forward

The secretary of state for work and pensions James Purnell is on his feet in the Commons enunciating a radical new green paper that will attempt to put large numbers of able-bodied people drawing incapacity benefit back to work. The Tories are claiming most of the ideas are theirs but either way neither party has ever taken such radical steps before. Gary Gibbon is on the trail.

New incinerators bad for recycling

Tom Clarke, our science correspondent, has an excellent report about the 30 more waste incinerators that could soon be dotted around Britain. The allegation is that they are too big and that they impact badly on recycling.

Channel 4 apology over climate change documentary

The broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, has made serious criticisms of a Channel 4 documentary which challenged the consensual theory within the scientific community that human activity is the prime cause of global warming and climate change.

The regulator has found The Great Global Warming Swindle, which was aired last year, failed to meet obligations to be impartial and to represent a range of views, and was 'unjust and unfair' in the way it treated and represented individuals. But, concludes Ofcom, the programme did not mislead audiences 'so as to cause harm'.

Obama pledges to pull out of Iraq

Obama is in Baghdad, as I have learnt myself from briefings I've been getting over the last few weeks, the American who wants to get forces out fastest is rapidly being overtaken by the Iraqis themselves. They want major departure and no residual bases left by the end of 2010 and that's even quicker than Obama himself.

Not all doom and gloom for the British economy

And finally the good news about the British economy. Cinema is making money in this time of malaise, not least with the new Batman movie and a hotel chain is to invest £150m in building 30 new hotels in 30 British seaside resorts. Emily Reuben is on the case.