Any problems? The southbound lane of the Blackwall Tunnel is closed, and severe delays are reported on the Metropolitan and Piccadilly lines. See the right sidebar for tube updates.

DLR: No problems reported on the network.

River: All clear.

Road: An obstruction by debris has caused the closure of the southbound lane of the Blackwall Tunnel.

WEST Ham have denied they are in any financial danger despite chairman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson's Icelandic bank going into receivership.

Mr Gudmundsson is a major shareholder in Landsbanki, Iceland's second biggest bank, which went into receivership today.

ISLE of Dogs parents are planning public action in a bid to block the return of a headteacher accused of shutting a child in a store cupboard.

Cubitt Town Infants School head Nikki Daly is making a "phased return" to her post after an internal inquiry was completed into last March's incident.

She was arrested in May last year after a complaint by one mother, but the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to pursue the case. Now a group of parents are planning to picket the Manchester Road school on Wednesday in a bid to force Ms Daly's removal.

COMEDY
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (15)
3/5

According to the old Transylvanian saying, you can make a vampire less dangerous by filing down its teeth, but then it’d just be a guy who stays up late.

IT'S time to begin the scramble for tickets to this year’s BFI London Film Festival.

A suicide bomber loose in London? A police force caught between the twin demands of liberty and civic protection? Foreigners in our midst with mischief on their minds?

The themes in Joseph Conrad’s 1907 novel The Secret Agent are so keen that this new theatrical interpretation could have been commissioned by the Relevance Board, funded by Relevance UK from a brief by Relevant & Relevant.

Any problems? No problems on the Tube. The only difficulty is on the road.

DLR: DLR is running fine.

River: No river-based problems.

Road: The southbound bore of the Blackwall Tunnel was closed while repairs to a manhold cover were carried out. It seems to have reopened but tailbacks are reported at 4:30pm.

A FUTURISTIC project overlooking Poplar Dock will be considered on Thursday.

Fast food giant McDonalds and Trafalgar Way Ltd are hoping to get planning permission for the Helix-London scheme, having already failed with a bid for a 397-unit scheme in May.

CANARY Wharf Group has upped its contributions to get the green-light for a hotel.

Subsidiary South Quay Properties is keen to build a 37-storey hotel dubbed Newfoundland to the west of the estate.

But Tower Hamlets Council deferred its application in August, asking for more cash for local services.
Newfoundland would feature 150 rooms, and 78 serviced apartments.

The company has now raised its Section 106 contribution from £915,284 to £1,115,284, including an additional £100,000 donation to the Isle of Dogs Community Foundation.

THE credit crunch is forcing housebuilders to do more and more to entice buyers.

The market has become so tough that major housebuilder Barratt Homes is offering to pay buyers’ mortgages until 2010 if they agree to purchase an apartment at one its Maple Quays or Elektron developments.

Adam Lawrence, regional managing director of Barratt London and Thames Gateway said: “Our customers have told us that they are worried about getting a mortgage and the wider economic picture."