In brief: Toynbee named most influential

A report published by Editorial Intelligence and the Reuters Institute names the Guardian's Polly Toynbee (pictured) as Britain's most influential newspaper columnist... Tamsin Dunwoody has been selected by Labour to fight her mother Gwyneth Dunwoody's former seat of Crewe & Nantwich in the May 22 by-election, called after the MP's death last month at 77... Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire who is ranked by Forbes as the world's second richest man, has bought a small stake in the parent company of the Independent... General Franco, the fascist Spanish leader, arranged for the voting to be rigged in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest, thus depriving Cliff Richard of winning with Congratulations, according to a new documentary... Singer Amy Winehouse has abandoned recording the theme to the latest James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Her producer, Mark Ronson, said she was "not ready to record any music" and that it would take "some miracle of science" to finish the track they had worked on...