SYDNEY, Sept. 3 -- AsiaNet SPORTS WAGERING... ST. JOHNS, Antigua: SPORTSBETTING.COM, a recognized leader in Internet sports wagering, brings back the $500,000 Gridiron Pick'em -- a free prediction contest on this year's pro football season. http://www.sportsbetting.com SHARE SALE... HONG KONG and LOS ANGELES: LJ International, Inc. (LJI) Thursday announced that it entered into an agreement to sell about $3.55 million in common shares and 5-year warrants in a private sale to several institutional investors. http://www.ljintl.com ELECTION ROLL... CANBERRA: Electoral Commissioner Andy Becker Friday said it was not too late for Australians who had been living overseas for up to 3 years to enrol for the coming election. http://www.aec.gov.au COMPETITIVE BIDS... NEW YORK: Paulson & Co., Inc. Thursday announced that it has sent a letter to the Board of Directors of Neptune Orient Lines Limited [NOL], urging it to seek other competitive bids that may be higher than the price Temasek is offering for NOL shares. Q1 RESULTS... READING, Pa.: EnerSys, one of the world's largest manufacturers, marketers, and distributors of industrial batteries, will host a conference call to discuss the company's first fiscal quarter 2005 financial results and to provide an overview of the business. http://www.enersys.com WORLD PREMIERE... LOS ANGELES, Calif.: Preparations are underway for the world premiere of DreamWorks Animation's new computer-animated comedy "Shark Tale." TIGER APPOINTMENT... LONDON: Gizmondo Europe Ltd., subsidiary of Jacksonville, Florida-based, Tiger Telematics Inc. and Tiger, Thursday announced the appointment of Daniels & Associates as their exclusive investment banker. http://www.gizmondo.com http://www.tigertelematics.com http://www.danielsonline.com PEPSICO PRESENTATION... PURCHASE, N.Y.: PepsiCo, Inc. Thursday announced that Mike White, chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo International, will make a presentation at the Prudential Back-to-School Conference in Boston at about 11:15 am ET on Wednesday, September 8. http://www.pepsico.com CAPROCK ACQUIRES... HOUSTON, Texas: With the acquisition of Indonesia-based Telematika Java Duta, CapRock Communications continues its expansion in the Asia Pacific region and provides increased services to energy exploration, maritime, construction, mining, forestry and government customers. http://www.caprock.com INTERIM RESULTS... HONG KONG: Tongda Group Holdings Ltd, a leading component and accessory manufacturing group that designs, manufactures and distributes In Mould Decoration products for electrical home appliances manufacturers and for handsets manufacturers, Thursday announced its interim results for the six months ended 30th June 2004. http://www.tongda.com SOFTWARE SOLUTION... OSLO: Fast Search & Transfer (FAST), the leading developer of enterprise search and real-time alerting technologies, Thursday announced the release of FAST AdVisor, an enterprise-wide software solution that facilitates the introduction between buyers and suppliers for Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) verticals, online classifieds, and traditional publishers. http://www.fastsearch.com CEOCAST.COM INTERVIEW... HONG KONG: Web recording of the CEOcast.com Interview with Ricky Wong is available at http://www.ceocast.com. INKJET CARTRIDGES... SINGAPORE: Following the successful launch of the INKE HS-45 in Cebit, INKE Pte Ltd is pleased to make available 3 new series of automatic inkjet refill systems - INKE LX-70 to refill the Lexmark 70 (12A1970) and Lexmark 75 (12A1975), INKE LX-50 to refill Lexmark 17G0050 and Sharp AJ0C50B and INKE HS-29 to refill HP 29 (51629A), HP 20 (C6614DN) and HP 19 (C6628AN) cartridges. VIDEO CONVERTER... TAIPEI: Ulead Systems, Inc, a 15-year industry-leader in digital media software development, Thursday announced the release of Video ToolBox 2, the first PC video converter for editing and sharing video taken on 3G-enabled mobile phones. http://www.asiapac.ulead.com SHARE PURCHASE... BASEL: Novartis Thursday announced that it will offer a Direct Share Purchase Plan (DSPP) to investors in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France and the United Kingdom, marking the first time such a program has been offered by a Swiss company. http://www.novartis.com http://www.novartis.com/investors http://www.sag.ch/dspp/novartis (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies distributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwide clients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)--InfoQuest (PP)--