SYDNEY, Oct. 5 -- AsiaNet AGREEMENT SIGNED... SINGAPORE: Singapore Telecommunications Limited has signed an agreement with Virtela Communications Inc., a global network solutions company, to provide seamless IP network services. This will improve enterprise network reach for customers of both companies. http://www.singtel.com http://www.optus.com.au . http://www.virtela.net ECONOMIST APPOINTED... LONDON: ING Financial Markets today announces the appointment of Rob Carnell as senior economist and director to its 25-strong Global Economics team, with effect from 18th October. He will have responsibility for covering developedeconomies and markets, with particular emphasis on the Eurozone and Japan. Based in London, he reports to Mark Cliffe, global head of economics and strategy research. DTCP-IP STREAMING... TOKYO: Digital 5, Inc. a leading software provider enabling streaming of multimedia content throughout the connected home, today announced it has successfully implemented streaming of DTCP-IP for secure access of protected content. http://www.digital5.com OMEGA AMBASSADOR... BIEL: Prestige Swiss watch brand Omega today announces that Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman is to join the brand's family of ambassadors for its important markets in the Far East. LICENSE AGREEMENT... SAN FRANCISCO: OpenTV Corp., one of the world's leading interactive television companies, and Austar United Communications , a leading subscription television provider in Australia, have signed a network license agreement allowing OpenTV to continue to supply its broad range of interactive television applications and products, and in addition, will develop and license a suite of broadcast associated applications. www.sec.gov http://www.austarunited.com.au http://www.opentv.com AFFILIATION AGREEMENT... LONDON: Interval International and the Beijing Jin Lu Xiang Vacation Development Corporation Ltd (part of the Royale Marketing Group) have entered into an affiliation agreement for the Chinese-based company's newly launched Absolute Private Residence Club. www.resortdeveloper.com www.R-M.biz QUARTERLY DIVIDEND... HAMILTON: W.P. Stewart & Co., Ltd. announced today that it has declared a regular quarterly dividend of US$0.30 per common share. The dividend is payable on 29 October 2004 to shareholders of record as of 15 October 2004. http://www.wpstewart.com FIRST PRODUCTS... MILPITAS: California Micro Devices today announced the availability of the CM1406 and CM1407, the first products in a new family of packaged electromagnetic interference filter arrays with electrostatic discharge protection. http://www.calmicro.com LONG-DISTANCE CONNECTIVITY... MINNEAPOLIS: CNT, the global expert in storage networking solutions, today announced that CNT's extension products have completed qualification with Hitachi's new TagmaStore Universal Storage Platform. http://www.cnt.com OPTIMISATION SOLUTION... MOUNTAIN VIEW: Bytemobile, the company dedicated to delivering pure, optimised access to network operators, service providers and enterprises, today announced that NTT DoCoMo has deployed Bytemobile's optimisation solution in its core network to enable faster end-user access and more cost efficientdelivery of applications such as web browsing and email. http://www.bytemobile.com MICREL ANNOUNCEMENT... SAN JOSE: Micrel Inc., an industry leader in Power, Connect and Protect IC solutions, today announced the MICRF506, a true single chip FSK transceiver solution designed to operate in the unlicensed 433MHz ISM band. http://www.micrel.com SOLAR TOWERS... MELBOURNE: Cornerstone investment secured from China into US based Solar Tower developer, SolarMission Technologies, Inc has been finalized in a push to develop Solar Tower power stations in China. www.solarmissiontechnologies.com www.enviromission.com.au SURVEY RESULTS... LONDON: The September Bloomberg Retail Purchasing Managers Index Eurozone survey results will be released on Wednesday, 6 October 2004. http://www.bloomberg.com ETHERNET NETWORKS... HONG KONG: Lucent Technologies and Riverstone Networks today announced that they have reached an agreement to partner to deliver complete carrier-class Ethernet solutions for new and existing carrier networks. www.lucent.com/riverstone http://www.lucent.com DRUGSTORE SHOW... TOKYO: Every year, the Japan Association of Chain Drug Stores holds the "Japan Drugstore Show," a prodigious exposition of the grandest scale in the industry. This year marks the fifth year of the Drugstore Show, which grows in scale each year. And the momentum of incoming applications this year is even more intense than it was last year. During the three days, 100,000 visitors are expected. http://www.jacds.gr.jp (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)--