SYDNEY, Nov. 18--AsiaNet/InfoQuest FIRECOMMS UNVEILS... TOKYO: Firecomms Ltd. unveils the world's first MOST fiberoptic transceiver (FOT) based on a high-speed resonant cavityLED. Announced today at the MOST Interconnectivity ConferenceJapan, Firecomms' FCM011 MOST FOT pair delivers an additional8dB of optical power over the specification. www.firecomms.com KIWI PUNTERS... SYDNEY: Kiwi rugby union punters have taken Australianonline bookmaker Centrebet to the cleaners. Centrebet has paidout more than $100,000 to New Zealanders who gambled at longodds on their country beating Japan and South Africa in thecontest to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup. www.centrebet.com SOFTBRANDS PARTNERS... MINNEAPOLIS: SoftBrands Inc., a global leader innext-generation enterprise software for manufacturing andhospitality businesses, has expanded its presence in theAsia-Pacific market by partnering with Selatan TechnologyResources Sdn Bhd to sell SoftBrands' Fourth Shift Edition forSAP Business One. www.selatan.com.my www.softbrands.com BENCHMARK NOTES... WASHINGTON, D.C.: Fannie Mae is issuing US$3.0 billion in5-year TBD benchmark notes. The pricing date is November 22,2005, the settlement date is November 23, 2005 and the maturitydate is December 15, 2010. Payment dates are each December 15thand June 15th, beginning december 15, 2005. The CUSIP is31359MZL0. Application will be made to list the securities onthe EuroMTF market of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. www.fanniemae.com TIBOTEC ANNOUNCES... CORK: Tibotec Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has announced the openingof its pivotal phase III clinical trial program for itsinvestigational non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase, TMC125. www.tibotec.com UPS PILOTS... ATLANTA: The Independent Pilots Association has given UPSuntil December 23 to finalize the contract it began negotiatingwith its pilots in October 2002. ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS... TUNIS: The Angolan government has announced that it will bestarting implementation, by next year, of a project concerningthe identity & identification of citizens & the security ofelectronic communications www.presseportal.ch www.wisekey.ch TELETECH ACQUIRES... DENVER: TeleTech Holdings, Inc., a global provider ofcustomer management and business process outsourcing services,announced the acquisition of FinSource Inc., an emergingPhilippines-based business process outsourcing company. www.teletech.com EUROPEAN CAPITAL... PARIS: European Capital, S.A. SICAR has announced it hasinvested approximately euro 29 million in the One Stop Buyoutof Marco Polo Foods, the leading producer in the Europeancommercial sushi market. www.EuropeanCapital.com www.americancapital.com ICONIX PHARMACEUTICALS... MOUNTAIN VIEW: Iconix Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the leader inthe expanding fields of toxico-and chemogenomics, announcedthat it entered into a research and license agreement with EliLilly and Company. www.iconixpharm.com MEGA SHOW... HONG KONG: Hong Kong's renowned trade exhibition organizer,Kenfair International (Holdings) Limited, is pleased toannounce the tremendous results of its Mega Show Part 1 (TheHong Kong International Toys & Gifts Show and Asian GiftsPremium & Household Products Show), which was successfully heldon 20 - 23 October 2005 at the Hong Kong Convention &Exhibition Centre and the newly-added Tamar Site venue. www.kenfair.com FRAPORT AG... FRANKFURT: Effective December 19, Fraport AG - which tradeson the Frankfurt stock exchange and is a member of Germany'sMDAX - will also be listed on the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index andits corresponding Industrial Goods & Services "supersector"index. www.fraport.de WEALTH MARKET... SINGAPORE: In a stunning shift of the power balance inglobal wealth management, Asia-Pacific will likely become alarger private wealth market than continental Europe (whichexcludes Britain) this year. This is the forecast of JohnEvans, editor of Private Banker International, the leadingLondon-based wealth journal. http://pbiw.vrlpublishing.com TRANSTEL TENDERCO... CALI: Transtel Tenderco, Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary ofTranstel S.A., has announced that as of 5:00 p.m., New YorkCity time, on November 16, 2005, it had received the consentsof holders of more than 94 per cent of the outstanding Units inthe solicitation of consents to the matters for consentdescribed in the Offer to Purchase and Consent SolicitationStatement dated October 28, 2005. NEC ELECTRONICS... KAWASAKI: NEC Electronics has announced that its uPD161833Mand uPD161605M LCD driver ICs, based on its Mobile CMADSTM(Current Mode Advanced Digital Signaling) high-speed serialdata transmission method, will be employed in select NEC mobilehandsets from the fall of 2005. www.necel.com QUALCOMM ANNOUNCES... SAN DIEGO: QUALCOMM Incorporated, a leading developer andinnovator of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and otheradvanced wireless technologies, today announced its DMMX (DOMulticarrier Multilink eXtensions) and HMMX (HSDPA MulticarrierMultilink eXtensions) platforms to support the long-termroadmaps of EV-DO and HSDPA. www.qualcomm.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.)