SYDNEY--21 Apr--AsiaNet/InfoQuestNICKEL AGREEMENT... SYDNEY: Emerging Australian nickel mining company,Allegiance Mining NL has executed an agreement with China'slargest nickel company, Jinchuan Nickel Group Limited(Jinchuan) for the sale of approximately US$1.3 billion worthof nickel-in-concentrates that will be produced from theAvebury Nickel project. www.allegiance-mining.com.au GRAFF DIAMONDS... LONDON: Exclusive British jeweller GRAFF is the proudrecipient of its fourth Queen's Award For Enterprise. www.graffdiamonds.com UNIQUE ELEVATORS... FARMINGTON, Conn.: Otis Elevator Company, a unit of UnitedTechnologies Corp., was selected to design and installone-of-a-kind glass elevators for Washington D.C.'s Newseum,the world's first interactive museum of news. www.otis.com ALCAN ADVISORY... MONTREAL: Alcan Inc. will be holding its 104th AnnualMeeting of Shareholders on Thursday, April 27, 2006 in theAuditorium of Centre Mont-Royal, in Montreal. Dick Evans,President and Chief Executive Officer, Alcan Inc. will hold amedia briefing session following the meeting. Mediarepresentatives must RSVP by phone and sign-in, withaccreditations, at the media registration booth prior toattending the Annual Meeting and the briefing session. www.alcan.com RECALL ANNOUNCED... VANCOUVER: Brookdale International Systems Inc., based inVancouver, Canada, is voluntarily recalling the followingemergency escape smoke hoods: EVAC-U8 Emergency Escape SmokeHood and EVAC+ Emergency Escape Smoke Hood. www.evacsafety.com EXPATRIATE HEALTHCARE... PHILADELPHIA, PA.: CIGNA International Expatriate Benefits(CIEB) has completed a formal agreement with Fortis HealthcareLimited of India to accept direct payments from CIEB so thatits insured members and covered international businesstravelers have direct access to the premier Fortis hospitals innorthern India. http://www.cigna.com SPIRIT AEROSYSTEMS... WICHITA, Kan.: Spirit AeroSystems, Inc., has announced thatRandy Davis has joined Spirit in the newly established positionof corporate controller reporting to Rick Schmidt, executivevice president and chief financial officer. http://www.spiritaero.com FANNIE MAE... WASHINGTON: Fannie Mae has announced the introduction of itsBenchmark REMICs securities, a multi-class mortgage-relatedsecurity with enhanced structural, price transparency andliquidity features for fixed-income investors. www.fanniemae.com CLIMATE RESEARCH... TOKYO: Sir John Houghton, formerly Chief Executive of theMeteorological Office and a founder of the Hadley Center forClimate Prediction and Research, the Meteorological Office,U.K., received the Japan Prize for the pioneering research onatmospheric structure and composition based on his satelliteobservation technology and for promotion of internationalassessments of climate change. www.japanprize.jp/prize/prize_e1.htm MASTERCARD FILES... PURCHASE, N.Y.: MasterCard International has filed acomplaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern Districtof New York seeking an injunction against the FederationInternationale de Football Association (FIFA), the governingbody of the FIFA World Cup to prevent FIFA from moving forwardwith an agreement with Visa International to sponsor the 2010and 2014 FIFA World Cups. www.mastercardinternational.com OUTDOOR ADVERTISING... NEW YORK: Taking another significant step to increase thevalue of outdoor advertising, Nielsen Outdoor has announcedthat it is expanding its GPS-based ratings service to LosAngeles to establish an independent, accurate ratings currencyfor the outdoor advertising marketplace. www.nielsenmedia.com QUELLAN EXTENDS... LOS ANGELES: Quellan, Inc., a leading supplier of Analogsemiconductors, has announced it has achieved a 200 per centReach Extension for the burgeoning 10 Gigabit Ethernet Standard- a breakthrough for Data Centers. www.quellan.com IPTV SYSTEM... HONG KONG: CASCADE Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary ofPCCW Limited, announced that it has completed building andinstalling an IPTV system for True Digital EntertainmentCompany Limited in Thailand. www.cascade-ltd.com www.truecorp.co.th (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agenciesdistributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwideclients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)