Thousands of animals are being culled as foot-and-mouth disease spreads across the UK. Click on your region for more details.

Three Royal Parks are closed to protect deer herds from the foot-and-mouth virus.

Record-breaking British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur is saluted as she sails up the River Thames.

The wobbly  Millennium Bridge could remain shut for another eight months according to a senior engineer.

The men allegedly trying to steal diamonds from the Dome planned to use stink bombs to scare staff and visitors, the Old Bailey hears.

The government is accused of 'mishandling the sale of the Dome' by the attraction's former chief executive Pierre-Yves Gerbeau.

The sale of the Dome moved a step nearer last night after it emerged that controversial bidder Legacy is close to securing the support of a major backer.

Legacy, headed by Labour donor Robert Bourne, is nearing agreement with Quintain Estates, a quoted property company, to take a stake in its consortium, which now includes the contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, Treasury Holdings and the Bank of Scotland.

The Duke of Westminister - Britain's second richest man - is also believed to ready to take a stake through his private company, Grosvenor Estates.

The move will bolster Legacy's credentials among senior Ministers and ease the fears that its bid is unviable. But a decision on whether Legacy will be allowed to buy the Dome, expected this week, will now be delayed for another month.

Ministers meet on Thursday to decide the next step. A source close to the negotiations said: 'Either both parties will be deemed miles apart and the deal will be pulled or there'll be an announcement saying there is recognition that legal paperwork is not ready for exchange but everything else is in order.'

Senior Ministers are desperate to offload the mothballed attraction before the election campaign begins in earnest and it is expected that Quintain will be officially unveiled as a Legacy shareholder this week.

The company, which controls property assets worth more than £600 million, owns a 14-acre parcel of land next to the 63-acre Dome site. If Quintain joins Legacy, it will increase the commercial viability of Legacy's hi-tech business park vision for the Greenwich peninsula.

Potential bidders for the Dome, including the former Millennium Experience chief Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, and Stanhope are on stand-by if Legacy's bid fails. 'We've got no idea what's going to happen,' said one Stanhope insider. 'We're all waiting to see what happens next week.'

But one potential Dome bidder has ruled itself out of the running.  Canary Wharf, which owns the office complex opposite the Dome on the north bank of the Thames, said last week that it is unlikely to try to buy the Dome should the Government reject Legacy.

Government fears that Legacy's plan to rent out the giant tent to hi-tech start-ups was not viable have been partly soothed after it was revealed that Oxford Innovation, a consultancy which runs a network of centres that house fledgling companies, wants to rent up to 40,000 sq ft of the 1m sq ft Dome.

The consortium claims that it has received inquiries from more than 100 companies interested in taking space in the complex.

But Government officials are concerned that they could make £300m by levelling the Dome and selling off the land as a cleared site. Legacy will pay £125m.

Meanwhile, more than half of the 6,516,874 visitors to the Dome, which cost more than £800m of National Lottery money, gained entry free or at a discount.

The British Museum in London agrees to help Iraq to recreate the earliest library of the ancient world, but UN sanctions may hinder the project.

Reopening on 10 February, after a short closure for maintenance work, during the long winter nights the Eye offers the best view you'll ever get of London after dark. It closes at 6pm, so book for the last hour to see the bright lights of our biggest city.

You'll see less than you would on a clear day, but the floodlights on the major landmarks make them stand out in sharp relief against the more mediocre buildings surrounding them. As your pod rises slowly above the Thames, you'll see Big Ben and the  Houses of Parliament glowing by the river. Nelson lit up on top of his column. Victoria perched on her throne outside Buckingham Palace. St Paul's Cathedral looking as magisterial as it must have looked a century ago, before it was hemmed in by ugly office buildings.

But there's beauty in the new, too: Richard Rogers's  Lloyds Building casting a blue glow across the city,  Canary Wharf drawing your eye towards a Docklands skyscape that is starting to look like the waterfront of Hong Kong. You can see traffic snaking slowly along Regent Street, tourist boats and water buses busy on the Thames below, and take in an illuminated model railway as the trains come in and out of  Charing Cross station. For 35 minutes, you can escape the congestion, pollution, the crowds and the sheer frustration of getting around the capital, and simply enjoy its teeming vastness.

For couples who want to enjoy this spectacle without sharing it with strangers, the Eye has a Valentine's offer - £250 will get you a private pod. The view is all you'll enjoy, though, since a member of staff will be on hand throughout to pour drinks and presumably check you don't steam up the windows.

For more information, call 0870 500 0600