SYDNEY, Oct. 21--AsiaNet/InfoQuest IX SERVICES... TOKYO: Equinix, Inc., the leading provider ofnetwork-neutral data centers and Internet exchange services,has announced that BBIX, a Softbank-funded carrier-neutralprovider of Internet exchange services in Japan, has selectedEquinix's Tokyo Internet Business Exchange center as the onlylocation outside of its proprietary exchange points to offerits IX Connect Service. GROUP BIDS... GREENWICH: Interactive Brokers Group, a technology leader inglobal brokerage services, has made a bid to purchase Refco'sentities engaged in regulated futures and commodities tradingactivities. www.interactivebrokers.com CALIFORNIA MICRO... MILPITAS: California Micro Devices has announced thatcumulative shipments of its chip scale packaged ApplicationSpecific Integrated Passive devices for mobile handsetsexceeded one billion units Wednesday. www.calmicro.com LOWER COMMISSIONS... GREENWICH: Interactive Brokers LLC, a technology leader inglobal brokerage services, is lowering commissions to tradefutures worldwide in response to a surge in new customers. www.interactivebrokers.com MAHJONG GAMING... MONTREAL: Homahjong.com, the world's only Internet sitedevoted exclusively to a cash-wager version of Mahjong will beofficially launched by Angela Ho, President of Ho Casinos, andAlbert Barbusci, Chief Executive of Events InternationalHolding Corporation at the annual Global Chinese FinancialForum in Toronto on October 22nd. FINANCIAL FORUM... VANCOUVER: ChineseWorldNet.com announces Global ChineseFinancial Forum (GCFF) Toronto Conference 2005 will be heldtoday and Saturday in downtown Toronto and Markham. GCFF is thelargest bilingual financial event in North America. www.gcff.ca www.cwnfn.com NEW FACES... LONDON: 21st century life style brand J.Lindeberg announcesDave Gahan of Depeche Mode and Alison Mosshart of The Kills tobe the new faces of their 21st Century Statements campaign forSpring Summer 2006, shot by cult photographer Steven Klein. www.jlindeberg.com CORONARY STENT... WASHINGTON: An independent analysis of a clinical trialcomparing the cost-effectiveness of the CYPHERSirolimus-eluting Coronary Stent vs. bypass surgery suggeststhat treatment with the CYPHER Stent offers a potentialcost-savings over bypass surgery. www.cypherusa.com CORONARY STENT... WASHINGTON: The most comprehensive and detailed analysisconducted to date of drug-eluting stent comparative trialsshows a marked difference in the rate of target lesionrevascularization and restenosis in patients who received theCYPHER Stent vs. the Taxus Stent in seven studies totaling4,214 patients. www.cypherusa.com QUANTUM DATA... ELGIN: Quantum Data, a leading provider of video testingproducts, has announced support for the latest 'C' revision ofthe Consumer Electronics Association's CEA-861 uncompresseddigital video standard on their 880-series video testinstruments. www.quantumdata.com www.quantumdata.com/products/882 STUDY FINDS... WASHINGTON: A detailed analysis of data pooled across fourdrug-eluting stent clinical trials finds that high riskpatients with long coronary blockages had better clinicaloutcomes with multiple, overlapping or non overlapping, CYPHERStents than those patients who received bare metal stents. www.cypherusa.com www.cordis.com TCS ACQUIRES... MUMBAI: Tata Consultancy Services has announced that it hasacquired Sydney-based Financial Network Services, a leadingAustralian core banking solutions vendor for approximatelyUS$26 million. www.tcs.com INTERNATIONAL LAUNCH... LIBERTYVILLE: Motorola, Inc. and MTV Networks International,a unit of Viacom Inc., have introduced Head and Body, the firsttime an entertainment series especially created for the handsethas been launched on a global scale. www.motorola.com www.headandbody.com www.hellomoto.com ENVIRONMENT PRIZE... SYDNEY: The Volvo Environment Prize 2005 is awarded to twooutstanding conservationists from the southern hemisphere whohave made extraordinary contributions to conservation. www.environment-prize.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.)