SYDNEY, Dec 28--AsiaNet/InfoQuestWATERFRONT RESORT... TOKYO: JAL Hotels Company, Ltd., which operates the NikkoHotels International group of luxury international hotels,announced today that it will assume management this spring of alarge urban resort hotel in Fukuoka, Japan. INTEGRATED CIRCUIT... MILPITAS: Sipex Corporation, a leading provider of highperformance, analog integrated circuits, today announced theSP8064, a new photo detector integrated circuit designed foruse in 16x DVD writers. www.sipex.com BUSINESS EXPANSION... OSAKA: Elecom Co., Ltd., a major PC peripheral equipmentcompany in Japan, on December 15 established an Italian salescompany, the firm's third sales company in Europe followingthose in the United Kingdom (established February 2003) andGermany (established October 2004). UKRAINIAN ELECTION... KIEV: A nation-wide Exit Poll conducted by two leading U.S.public opinion researchers have declared opposition leaderViktor Yushchenko the overwhelming winner in today's re-run ofthe heavily contested Presidential Election. FANNIE MAE... WASHINGTON, D.C.: Fannie Mae will redeem the principalamount of MTN securities issues amounting to a total of US$100million on January 3, 2005 at a redemption price equal to 100per cent of the principal amount redeemed plus accrued interest.Fannie Mae will also redeem US$80 million MTN securitiesissues on January 6, 2005. http://www.fanniemae.com SYDNEY-HOBART RACE... SYDNEY: Centrebet says that the 60th Sydney Hobart YachtRace is the most competitive ever with three big boats - KonicaMinolta (2.60), Skandia (2.60) and Nicorette (3.00) - vying forfavouritism. http://www.centrebet.com (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agenciesdistributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwideclients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)