Snowmail: Tutu talks tough

I'm just sat down back in the newsroom after speaking to Archbishop Desmond Tutu about the situation in Zimbabwe.

You have to hand it to the man, ask him a straight question and you get a dead straight answer.

He describes the Mugabe as a man who has transformed from a star player to a Frankenstein. He says he should stand down and go, and go now.

In fact he begs him to go: "For God's sake, go!" he says.

And adds that if or when Mugabe goes to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the OAU should tell him to go and go now and he says if Mr Mugabe does not listen, then a real international blockade of the country should be put into place by Zimbabwe's neighbours, beginning with grounding its airline.

Wow.

And on Thabo Mbeki, the archbishop says his carrot approach was well-intentioned but has not worked and it is time to "tighten the screw" now and admit he has failed.

As I say, ask the archbishop a straight question...

We hope for more eyewitness reporting from inside Zimbabwe tonight.

MAN CLEARED OF MCCARTNEY MURDER

They'd taken their fight for justice to Brussels and Washington but today the sisters of Robert McCartney saw a man cleared of his murder in Belfast.

We talk to one of them live. Where do they go now with their high-profile campaign? Do they follow the route of Michael Gallagher, for instance, and the relatives of those killed in the Omagh bomb in terms of civil actions?

TESCO, BATTERY HENS AND 'ECO-TOWNS'

On the day of Tesco's stormy AGM and the TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall protesting about battery hen conditions, we look at how Tesco is entering the property market in a big way.

Turns out they are involved in one of the government's so-called "eco-towns" in south Cambridgeshire.

It appears to be in an area where the supermarket chain had tried and failed to get a store built.

So, if they won't let you build the shop then you build the town? We've been to find out...

MORE DIRE NEWS ON THE ECONOMY

Oil is hitting a new record of over $141 a barrel; Libya is threatening to cut production; scary numbers out on the amount of savings we have and with it all, some evidence that we are getting yet further into debt to finance spending. Yikes!

HILLARY AND BARACK UNITED?

After months of acrimonious exchanges, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are tonight staging a joint rally in the New Hampshire town of Unity.

Funny coincidence, huh? So here endeth the slinging of mud? Perhaps.

FA STOPS UNDER-8 LEAGUES

New plans to stop the use of league tables because they are apparently traumatising our poor stressed out youth.

Well, that seems to be the way some at the youth-end of the FA see it.

I must say, whenever I'm in schools or with people who are under 18 they all seem supremely self-confident and generally splendid.

I mean, I seem to recall being a complete car-crash of a human at their age.

Yet the perceived wisdom seems to be that the "Modern Youth" are either totally lethal or utterly vulnerable.

Well, we'll find out what's behind the new PC approach to non-competitive footie.

THOUSANDS DUE FOR MANDELA AIDS GIG

And by then the 46,664th gig for Nelson Mandela will be underway as a host of stars, musos, luvvies, dovies and hangers on pay tribute to the man, but in particular the campaign he's spearheading to highlight HIV/Aids in Africa and engage the world in the fight against the pandemic.

The number refers to 466 his prison number on Robben Island and 1964, the year he got sent down for 27 more.

Lots more but no time to mention it as I have to get this off (and past the lawyer)

Cheers. AT.

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