The Manifesto Column:
*James Bidwell, Chief Executive of Visit London.
Further news:
*The International Atomic Energy Authority is concerned that a doubling in price of uranium has attracted so many miners to the sector that inspectors may not be able to keep track of the new supplies.
*Art investors will be in a pickle as major works begin to decay, according to Robert Hiscox, chairman of Hiscox Group (HSX.L).
*Tesco (TSCO.L) online sales soar by 30%.
*A majority of people in Britain, except for Scotland, now favour switching to double summertime, according to YouGov (YOU.L) poll.
*Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is looking for new private equity owners.
*Property developer Grant Bovey is set to appoint Collins Stewart (CSTL.L) to float his buy-to-let management company Imagine Homes early in the new year.
*Smokers, people with alcohol problems and the obese could be denied priority treatment on the NHS if they do not try to change their lifestyles.
*2006: the highs and lows of the year - inflation rears its head, mergers and acquisitions break all records and online gaming firms have a tough time.
*BT (BT.L) has saved more than £80 million in travel and other costs this year by arranging phone or video conference calls instead of sending its workers out on meetings.
*The number of trips made by Christmas Eve shoppers fell by 43% compared with last year, although restricted Sunday trading was competing with a Saturday in 2005.
*Shops had their busiest day of the festive period on Thursday, according to the Retail Footfall Index.
*Shoppers are expected to splurge more than £3 billion on bargains during the New Year sales which begin today.
*Holiday prices cut by half in battle for early bookings.
*Unions are preparing for a clash with government over pay rises for 15 million council workers.
*Iran has put exploration and development of 17 oil blocks on a tender deadline for June.
*Saudi Arabia has extended deadlines on bids for a third mobile licence and a second fixed-line licence by up to six weeks.
*China Banking Regulatory Commission gives permission for nine foreign banks to apply for retail licences.
*British soldiers captured and destroyed a rogue Iraqi police unit's torture HQ in Basra, freeing more than 100 prisoners.
*Ecuador's president-elect Rafael Correa signals a freeze in payments on $1.1 billion of sovereign debt.
*The embattled Somalian government and its Ethopian allies launched a series of assaults on positions held by hardline Islamic militias, including Mogadishu airport.
*Floods and landslides in the Aceh and North Sumatra provinces of Indonesia have killed at least 80 people.
*Every restaurant in the country is to be graded with a cleanliness rating in an offensive by the food standards watchdog.
*Charles Clarke believes that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have failed to spell out to voters why they should re-elect Labour for a fourth term.
*James Bidwell, chief executive of Visit London, plans to use the 2012 Olympic Games to redefine the capital's global image and boost the local economy.
*The London Stock Exchange (LSE.L) is to enhance the measures it has in place to prevent 'fat finger' trades which could give radical fluctuations to a company's share price.
*Britain warned to brace itself for another blast of freezing fog causing new year road and air travel misery.
*An Israeli study has found that those who inherit the gene CETP are twice as likely to have a sharp and alert brain when they are elderly.
Compiled in association with HB PLC and WH Ireland Ltd
