SYDNEY, March 1--AsiaNet/InfoQuest SERVICE AWARD... SINGAPORE: Frost & Sullivan's recently published study, AsiaPacific International Data Services Pricing and Analysis, hasselected MCI as the recipient for the Most ComprehensiveService Award. This award recognizes MCI's uncompromisingdedication in offering a wide array of IP and data services inthe Asia Pacific region. http://www.mci.com http://www.frost.com 2005 AWARDS... WASHINGTON, D.C., The American Society of LandscapeArchitects has released its 2005 Awards Call for Entries. Theprogram features five categories of professional and studentawards. http://www.asla.org/awards/2005/rules_entries/index.html AGREEMENT SIGNED... ANDERSON: Remy International, Inc., today announced that ithas signed a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of UnitParts Company, based in Oklahoma City. The transaction isexpected to close in March, 2005. http://www.remyinc.com SERVICE ESTABLISHED... VIENTIANE: MoneyGram Payment Systems, Inc. today inauguratesits service in Laos with Banque pour le Commerce Exterieur Lao(BCEL) and Thai Military Bank (TMB), Laos branch. MoneyGram,together with BCEL and TMB will continue to expand morelocations in Laos and to provide MoneyGram services for theLaotian people worldwide. http://www.moneygram.com CONFERENCE CALL... SAO PAULO: Banco Itau Holding Financeira S.A. is pleased toinvite you to participate in its conference call about theassociation announced to the markets on February 28, 2005. http://www.itau.com http://www.itau.com.br http://www.itauir.com INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR... HOUSTON: Spectral Genomics, Inc. the leading supplier of BACclone microarrays for Comparative Genomic Hybridizationannounced today the appointment of GE Healthcare as itsexclusive international distributor to the research market forSpectral Genomics products outside the US and Canada. Spectralwill continue to sell its products to certain clinicaldiagnostic customers outside North America. http://www.spectralgenomics.com NEW COMPANY... SAO PAULO: Lojas Americanas S.A. and Banco Itau HoldingFinanceira S.A. announce an association for the purpose ofcreating a new financial institution. ITAU, through companiescontrolled by it, and LASA will constitute a new company , afinancial institution with operations to be duly authorized bythe Brazilian Central Bank, which will engage in thestructuring and sale of financial products and services and thelike for customers of Lojas Americanas, Americanas Express andAmericanas.com on an exclusive basis. http://www.itau.com http://www.itau.com.br RESULTS ANNOUNCED... HONG KONG: Telecom Communications, Inc. the Total SolutionsProvider, is offering Integrated Communications NetworkSolutions and Internet Content Service in universal voice,video, data web and mobile communication for interactive mediaapplications. The Company announced results and detailedstrategies for growth at its annual shareholders' meeting onFeb 28th 2005 in TsimShaTsui, Hong Kong. http://www.ICStarMMS.com PRICE NEGOGIATIONS... RIO DE JANEIRO: Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the world'slargest iron ore producer, concluded iron ore pricenegotiations for 2005 with Shanghai Baosteel Group Corporation,the largest Chinese steel maker. As an outcome of thesenegotiations, iron ore prices for Carajas and Southern Systemfines, FOB Ponta da Madeira and Tubarao, respectively,increased by 71.5% relative to 2004. http://www.cvrd.com.br ACQUISITION COMPLETED... PURCHASE, N.Y.: PepsiCo announced that it has completed theredemption and acquisition of General Mills' 40.5 percentownership interest in Snack Ventures Europe for $750 million.This ends the Snack Ventures Europe joint venture, and itsoperations are now wholly owned by PepsiCo. This transaction,originally announced December 13, 2004, was funded withavailable cash. http://www.pepsico.com MESH NETWORK... LOS GATOS: Firetide, Inc., a leader in wireless meshnetworking, announced the HotPort high performance meshnetwork. The HotPort system allows standard voice, video anddata applications to operate both indoors and outdoors over ahigh capacity wireless mesh backbone. http://www.nomadix.com http://www.firetide.com ENERGY TECHNOLOGY... MOUNTAIN VIEW: Synopsys, Inc., a world leader insemiconductor design software, and ARM, announced the jointlydeveloped low-power reference methodology for implementing ARMIntelligent Energy Manager (IEM) technology in silicon. The twocompanies have proven that IEM technology, when used with theARM Artisan low-power library, can reduce the ARM processorenergy consumption by up to 60 percent. http://www.arm.com www.sec.gov http://www.synopsys.com FANOUT BUFFERS... SAN JOSE: Micrel Inc., an industry leader in Power, Connectand Protect IC solutions, rolled out two new high-performance,low jitter LVPECL and LVDS fanout buffers. The ultra-low jitterand low skew Precision Edge SY89112 LVPECL is availableimmediately with the SY89113 LVDS available later in thequarter. http://www.micrel.com DROP-OFF STORE... CARSON CITY: QuikDrop International announced that HuatianCao will open the first QuikDrop eBay drop-off store on 26 Jing6th Road in ZhengZhou, China on March 7. Mr. Cao has owned andoperated a successful retail pharmaceutical company inZhengZhou for over 12 years. http://www.quikdrop.com PEPPERCORN AG... ZWICKAU: Peppercon AG a leading provider of embeddedKVM-over-IP modules and subsystems for remote server managementhas announced the first advanced embedded KVM-over-IP solutionthat adopts AMDs Open Platform Management Architecturespecification. www.peppercon.com http://www.raritan.com SUPPORT ANNOUNCED... TOKYO: Raritan Computer Inc. a leading provider of solutionsfor managing IT infrastructure equipment and themission-critical applications and services that run on it hasannounced its support for the Open Platform ManagementArchitecture specification. http://www.raritan.com http://www.amd.com (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies distributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwide clients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)