SYDNEY--19 Jul--AsiaNet/InfoQuest VETERANS GROUPS... WASHINGTON: Eight national veterans groups ranging from the2.4 million member VFW to the Gold Star Wives announced theirstrong support for the US India nuclear agreement, and urgedcongress to quickly pass the legislation to implement theagreement. www.indianamericansecurityleadershipcouncil.org JV AGREEMENT... HOUSTON: NATCO Group Inc. announced that it has entered intoa joint venture agreement with Scomi Group BHD to pursue theexpanding market for CO2 processing using NATCO's proprietaryCynara membrane technology, used in the separation of carbondioxide from natural gas production streams, and Scomi's fieldservices capabilities. www.natcogroup.com ACTIMAGINE RAISES... PARIS: Actimagine, which provides the most advanced videocompression technologies, announced that the Company has raisedEURO 3 million (US$3.7 million) in equity financing from USventure capital firm GRP Partners. This first round ofinstitutional fund raising will enable Actimagine to accelerateits business development in the USA and Japan. www.grpvc.com TOYOTA ADOPTS... TOKYO: At the 2006 Japanese CATIA Forum, Microsoft Corp. andDassault Systemes announced that Toyota Motor Corp. has adoptedCATIA V5, Dassault Systemes' virtual product design productlifecycle management solution on Microsoft Windows XPProfessional x64 Edition. www.microsoft.com www.3ds.com www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO www.microsoft.com/presspass www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx FANNIE MAE... WASHINGTON: Fannie Mae is issuing 3-Year Benchmark Notes.The pricing date is July 18, 2006, the settlement date is July20, 2006 and the maturity date is August 15, 2009. The issuesize is US$3.0 billion, the coupon is 5.375 pct, the price is99.853 and the yield is 5.429. Payment dates are each February15th and August 15th, beginning on August 15, 2006. www.fanniemae.com PLEXUS EXPANDS... NEENAH, Wisconsin: Plexus Corp. announced that it hadentered into a new operating lease for an extension to itsexisting building which will include a new three-story officeand an additional production facility of approximately 60,000square feet. This will bring Plexus' manufacturing capacity inthe Xiamen Xiangyu Free Trade Zone in China to 120,000 squarefeet from its present 60,000 square feet. www.plexus.com PHOSPHATE CONTROL... BASINGSTOKE, England: New data show calcium-free FOSRENOL(lanthanum carbonate) further reduces phosphate levels indialysis patients previously receiving other monotherapies orcombined phosphate binders, including calcium carbonate andsevelamer hydrochloride. www.shire.com REMOTE ACCESS... SAN JOSE, California: Atmel Corporation announced an AVRRemote Access Control (RAC) solution that offers more than 10years of battery life with its license-free and secure RACsolution for Remote Keyless Entry and other wireless controlapplications. www.atmel.com www.atmel.com/products/avr/rac OPTIONS TRADING... SINGAPORE: The growing popularity of options trading in Asiahas spurred innovative products by global stock exchanges thatare trying to woo investors here. Financially savvy Singaporeinvestors who have turned to trading in US markets can nowchoose from more than 3,000 high-value optionable stocks totrade in. www.optionstradingchampionship.com MARKETING SERVICES... COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Grey's network of global specializedmarketing services in direct marketing, branding and design,interactive, promotional, trade, and shopper marketing hasaligned under the G2 brand, it was announced. With 86 officesextending across 42 countries, G2 will be headquartered in NewYork under the management of Global Chairman & CEO, JoeCelia. http://xprnnews.xfn.info/Grey/20060713/mikeamour.htm SINGAPORE EXCHANGE... SINGAPORE: Asia Netcom and the Singapore Advanced Researchand Education Network (SingAREN) announced that they havejointly established the SingAREN Gigabit Internet Exchange inSingapore. TAIYO FUND... TOKYO: The Taiyo Fund announced it now owns more than 9 percent of As One Corporation, making it one of the company'slargest shareholders. As One is Japan's leading distributor ofscientific equipment and consumables. (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agenciesdistributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwideclients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.)