Snowmail: dozens killed in suicide bombing of Islamabad hotel

Hi there - your regular weekend Tomomail service courtesy of Channel 4 News...

And it's a busy day; particularly with the foreign agenda. A large bomb - looks like a suicide job but it's not clear just now - has detonated outside the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

Looks like the hotel's going up in flames as I write. Already around 20 people confirmed killed but there will, I fear, be more by the time we are on air.

All this so soon after the new leader of the country pledges to crack down on Islamic militants (as all such leaders do) and crack down equally on America's new policy of bringing its war in Afghanistan into Pakistani sovereign territory in pursuit of its "war on terror".

What a position to be in. This hotel very much a prestige target in the country's seat of government. I've stayed there many times and I can tell from the area of blast damage that this was a very big blast indeed.

Mbekie agrees to step down

Even so, it might not be our top story today because South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki has agreed to step down.

The metaphorical pistol having been put to his temple by his own party the ANC. His position, it seems, untenable after a long-running battle in and out of the law courts with his arch-rival Jacob Zuma.

Brown will do 'whatever it takes

Here, 13 of his MPs have publicly questioned his leadership, but the prime minister insisted today that he was the right person to steer Britain through the current financial crisis.

On the first day of a crucial Labour conference, Gordon Brown defended the action the government had taken to prop up Britain's banks and said he'll do "whatever it takes".

After a series of setbacks, he finally received some welcome news in the form of a million pound donation to the Labour party from the Harry Potter author JK Rowling. Our political editor Gary Gibbon reports from Manchester.

Also tonight...

Lots more around today: after all the fanfare the Cern hadron collider will be out of action for at least another two months. Magnet troubles, apparently; veterans from England's World Cup-winning rugby team turned out at Twickenham today to raise a million pounds for troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the families of victims of knife attacks have come together to demonstrate that enough is enough.

All that plus a round-up of all the day's main sporting action - with things looking slightly better for the European Ryder Cup team in Kentucky, but not so good for Britain in the Davis Cup tennis match with Austria. And, of course, anything which drops between now and six o'clock.

See you then.

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