SYDNEY, Jan 11--AsiaNet/InfoQuest BEAR POLICY... LONDON: A cross-party written declaration calling for theChinese government to end the horrific practice of bear bilefarming is now official European Parliament Policy after morethan 370 MEPs, from across Europe, signed the declaration.www.europarl.eu.int/decladoc/document/2005/P6_DCL(2005)0052/P6_DCL(2005)0052_EN.doc AIDS TREATMENT... NEW DEHLI, India and LOS ANGELES: AIDS Healthcare Foundation(AHF), the largest AIDS organization in the United States, andthe Asian Harm Reduction Network, have announced agroundbreaking new partnership that will bring life-savinganti-retroviral therapy (ART) to HIV infected non-injecting(NIDUS) and injecting drug users (IDUS) throughout Asia. http://www.aidshealth.org http://www.ahrn.net MICROSOFT COMMITMENT... SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: MSFT) MacintoshBusiness Unit (Mac BU) Tuesday announced at Macworld Conference& Expo 2006 a formal five-year agreement that reinforcesMicrosoft's plans to develop Microsoft Office for Mac softwarefor both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. http://www.microsoft.com/mac http://www.microsoft.com http://www.microsoft.com/presspass http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx COOPER-STANDARD AQUISITION NOVI: Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. announced that it hascompleted the acquisition of a 20 per cent equity interest inGuyoung Technology Co., Ltd. in accordance with a CooperationAgreement and related agreements entered into betweenCooper-Standard and Guyoung in the fourth quarter of 2005. GOLD-MINES PURCHASE... VANCOUVER: Mr. Walter H. Berukoff, chairman and CEO of LaMancha Resources Inc. is pleased to announce that Red LionManagement Ltd. has been selected by a French energymultinational as the preferred purchaser of all the assetscomprising the vendor's gold business unit. FILMMAKERS AWARD... NAPA: In a toast to the cinematic arts, Rosemount Estate,the Prestige Wine of Australia, and the Jackson Hole FilmFestival announced a call-for-entries for the 2nd annualRosemount Diamond Award, an international film competition foremerging filmmakers to submit original works to the JacksonHole Film Festival. http://www.jacksonholefilmfestival.org QUIC FINANCING... VANCOUVER: QuIC Financial Technologies, Inc., a leadinginnovator in enterprise-wide risk management and financialanalytics solutions, announced Tuesday that it has securedUS$10 million in Series B Equity financing with JMI Equity, aprivate equity firm exclusively focused on investments in thesoftware and business services industries, leading thefinancing round alongside existing investors Ventures West,GrowthWorks and Springbank. http://www.quic.com http://www.jmiequity.com http://www.ventureswest.com EMPLOYMENT STATISTICS... LOS ANGELES: The first of the year is the best time for ajob seeker to look for a new position, according to 41 per centof recruiters who completed the eighth edition of the quarterlyExecutive Recruiter Index, released today by Korn/FerryInternational (NYSE: KFY). http://www.futurestep.com http://www.kornferry.com ETT-VIRTELA PARTNERSHIP... LONDON and DENVER: ETT, the independent integrator oftailor-made data communications solutions for multinationalorganizations, and Virtela, a global network solutions company,Tuesday announced a partnership that will enable ETT to expandits network service offerings and extend global reach for ETTcustomers through Virtela. http://www.et-t.net/ http://www.virtela.net VIRTELA COVERAGE... DENVER: Virtela, a global network solutions company, Tuesdayannounced that the company is delivering managed global DSLconnectivity to its private network via an unparalleledindustry footprint of more than 120 countries. Virtela hasalready provisioned and provides ongoing management ofbusiness-class DSL services for more than a thousands customersites worldwide. http://www.virtela.net/ AXIOM-WIPRO WIN... LONDON: Axiom Systems and Wipro Tuesday announced that theleading telecommunications company in the Nordic and Balticcountries, TeliaSonera, has extended their investment in theAXIOSS Suite, choosing it for the roll out of Layer 2 and Layer3 IPVPN services. http://www.axiomsystems.com http://www.wipro.com http://www.wiprocorporate.com http://www.wipro.co.in (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agenciesdistributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwideclients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)