Every afternoon, TheJournal.ie brings you 5 things you need to know by 5 o’clock.

1. # WIKILEAKS: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail today after appearing in a court in London – however he will not be freed from custody immediately as Swedish prosecutors have said they intend to appeal the court’s decision.

Swedish prosecutors have two hours to lodge an appeal.

If Assange is granted bail, it will be on the condition that he wears an electronic tag and surrenders his passport. He would then return to court on 11 January to faces extradition to Sweden over sex crime allegations.

The latest: According to ABC’s Jim Sciutto, the Swedish team will not appeal. More soon.

2. # STATE OF THE NATION: One in three businesses in Ireland is on the verge of collapse, according to credit information group Experian.

The group said that a total of 45 per cent of Irish firms were showing signs of either significant risk or a “very high risk” of collapse. Experian Ireland’s Jim Kennedy added, however, that while the first two quarters of 2010 were difficult, there were “subtle signs of improvement” in the third quarter.

3. # BLOODY MARY: Louise Minihan, the Dublin City Councillor who was arrested after squirting red paint on health minister Mary Harney, appeared in court yesterday to face charges of assault and criminal damage.

She faced charges of common assault and damage to Harney’s dress after she sprayed the minister with red paint from plastic bottle when Harney attended a sod-turning ceremony for a new unit at the Cherry Orchard Hospital.

Minihan was remanded on bail until 10 January.

4. # COURTS: A man has been sentenced for the manslaughter of a man in Westmeath 23 years ago.

Colin Pinder, 47, was given a nine-year jail term for his part in the death of Bernard Brian McGrath on a date unknown between 10 March and 18 April, 1987. Pinder, who was engaged to the victim’s daughter at the time, said that he had struck McGrath and participated in attempts to dispose of his body.

The presiding judge described the treatment of McGrath’s body after he had been killed as “savage, depraved and barbaric”, RTÉ reports.

The victim’s wife Vera McGrath, 61, was found guilty of murder earlier this year.

5. # ITALY: Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has managed to narrowly win a parliamentary vote of confidence today.

The 74-year-old won the vote by a margin of just three, following the motion going to both the senate and the chamber of deputies. But despite Berlsuconi emerging with his government intact, his narrow margin of support will mean his party will struggle to pass legislation.