SYDNEY, Nov. 9 -- AsiaNet INCREASE VOLUME... BOCA RATON: Wall Street Stock Market Alert, specialists for tech and medical companies, has developed a system for creating volume for public companies. http://www.ereleases.com RETAIL DEVELOPMENT... BLOOMFIELD HILLS: Taubman Centers announced Tuesday that it has entered into discussions and signed a letter of interest with Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds and Gale International. http://www.taubman.com http://www.newsongdocity.com COMPANY AGREEMENT... RALEIGH, N.C.: The HR-XML Consortium announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with its first international chapter, the HR-XML Consortium Japan. http://www.hr-xml.org http://www.hr-xml.org/europe http://www.hr-xml-jp.org 3G HANDSET... SEOUL: Telian, a leading Korean handset design manufacturer, today announced the availability of the U-300, a UMTS/GSM/GPRS handset. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030211/PRAIRIELOGO SATELLITE IMAGERY... LONGMONT: DigitalGlobe announces that the Department of Urban Services in Canberra, Australia uses QuickBird satellite imagery in its Internet mapping service, called Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Locate. http://www.gim.act.gov.au http://www.skmconsulting.com http://www.digitalglobe.com FANNIE MAE... WASHINGTON, D.C.: Fannie Mae will redeem the principal amount of 1 securities issue amounting to a total of US$25 million on Nov 18 at a redemption price equal to 100 per cent of the principal amount redeemed plus accrued interest. http://www.fanniemae.com COMPUTER GAMES... LONDON: Gizmondo Europe Ltd, subsidiary of Jacksonville, Florida-based Tiger Telematics Inc, announced Monday the signing of a contract with Microsoft Game Studios to bring killer gaming titles to this powerful handheld console. http://www.gizmondo.com http://www.tigertelematics.com / GRAPHICS PROCESSORS... SANTA CLARA, Calif.: NVIDIA Corporation, a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, announced Tuesday the GeForce(TM) Go 6800 graphics processing unit (GPU). http://www.nvidia.com/ NOTEBOOK VENDORS... SANTA CLARA: NVIDIA Corporation announced Monday that the leading notebook vendors have selected the NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 graphics processing unit (GPU) for their performance notebook solutions. http://www.nvidia.com/ RETAIL SALES... LONDON: The Bloomberg Retail Purchasing Managers' Index PMI), a monthly survey indicating economic conditions in the Eurozone retail sector one month ahead of government figures, showed a third successive monthly decline in sales value figures in October. www.bloomberg.com COMPANY FINANCING... LONDON: Inpharmatica, the selective drug discovery company, is pleased to announce the successful completion of a GBP13.9m (USD25m) third round financing led by Reed Elsevier Ventures. http://www.inpharmatica.com CREDICARD ANNOUNCEMENT... SAO PAULO: The controlling shareholders of Credicard Banco S.A., Orbitall, and Redecard, which are in equal parts, ITAU, Citigroup, and Unibanco, have decided to take different steps as regards their interests in the Credicard Conglomerate. http://www.itauir.com/ COMPANY ACQUISITION... SYDNEY & MARKHAM: Iconic Australian sports and activewear company Rip Curl Australia Pty Ltd. has purchased product lifecycle management (PLM) software from Geac(R) to help manage its increasingly complex global operations. www.sedar.com http://www.geac.com ECONOMIC OUTLOOK... SINGAPORE: Due in large to a region-wide economic upswing, employers are reporting a more positive outlook for salary increases in 2004, and projections for 2005 indicate this trend will continue. http://www.hewittasia.com http://www.hewitt.com TAIWANESE SALARIES... HONG KONG: The average overall salary increase budget in Taiwan ranged from 3.7 per cent to 4.8 per cent in 2004. While many respondents predicted a further raise next year, an increasing number also projected pay freezes. http://www.hewittasia.com http://www.hewitt.com GLOBAL SURVEY... HONG KONG: The International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)2 and global industry analyst firm IDC announced Monday the results of the first major study of the global information security profession. www.isc2.org (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies distributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwide clients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)