Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Bill Miller, manager of the Legg Mason Value Trust, is about to beat the S&P 500 for a record 15th consecutive year.
- UK house prices rose for a fourth month in December, the Nationwide Building Society said, adding to evidence of a sustained pickup in the $6 trillion property market.
- Internet service providers in China, which already use software to monitor user behavior, will soon have to record which Web sites their users visit and what time they logged on, by law.
- Genentech filed for US marketing approval of its Lucentis treatment for age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness among the elderly.
- Venezuela’s IBC stock index fell the most among the world’s 78 primary equity benchmarks this year, plunging 32%, on concern President Hugo Chavez will divert profits from investors as he seeks to redistribute wealth to the country’s poor.

Wall Street Journal:
- European mergers and acquisitions activity should grow in 2006 as economic and financial conditions become more favorable, citing bankers.
- Wal-Mart Stores plans to offer employee health insurance through Sam’s Club to small business owners.
- NTP Inc., the patent-holding company involved in a dispute with BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, has obtained a 30-day extension from the US Patent and Trademark Office to file a defense for its claims.

NY Times:
- NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Joel Klein, chancellor of NY’s public schools, have convinced many private donors to donate more than $300 million for the city’s schools.

USA Today:
- As many as 56% of high-definition televisions’ purchasers haven’t bought the necessary special set-top box from cable or satellite providers that will enable the high-definition programming, citing surveys by Leichtman Research Group.

Financial Times:
- US legislation passed to encourage donations after Hurricane Katrina will probably make this year the best in history for US charities.

AP:
- The US Justice Department has begun an investigation into the leak of classified information about the National Security Agency’s domestic spy program to monitor overseas terror threats to the US.

NY Post:
- NY Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said yesterday that democratic sate Attorney General Eliot Spitzer should support an independent investigation into the claim by former Goldman Sachs Chairman Whitehead that Spitzer had threatened him.