SYDNEY--19 Dec--AsiaNet/InfoQuest VERIZON JOINS... BEIJING - Verizon Business signed a construction and maintenance agreementwith a consortium that includes China Telecom and China Netcom to build thefirst next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the U.S.mainland and China. http://www.verizonbusiness.com www.verizon.com/news http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/094251.html http://www.verizon.com VENTRACOR ANNOUNCEMENT... SYDNEY - Ventracor announced the British Standards Institute (BSI) hasapproved CE Marking for the VentrAssist left ventricular assist device (LVAD). www.ventracor.com FANNIE MAE... WASHINGTON, D.C. - Fannie Mae will redeem the principal amount of fivesecurities issues amounting to a total of US$273 million on various dates at aredemption price equal to 100 per cent of the principal amount redeemed plusaccrued interest. http://www.fanniemae.com CHINESE COAL... SYDNEY - Renewable energy and water purification specialist EESTech Inc, andthe Liaoning Fuxin Coal Group of Northern China have selected the HaiZhou coalmine as the first coal mine in China to use the HCGT power plant technology. www.drpr.com.au BRIDGE ACQUIRES... SAN FRANCISCO - Bridge Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a global leader in preclinicaldrug evaluation studies, today announced its acquisition of Gaithersburg,MD-based Gene Logic Labs (GLL). BHARTI AIRTEL... SEOUL - WiderThan Co., Ltd., a leading global provider of integrated mobileentertainment solutions for wireless carriers, a subsidiary of RealNetworksInc., announced its selection by Bharti Airtel to operate and manage Bharti'swireless application portal Airtel Live!. http://www.widerthan.com http://www.bhartiairtel.in http://www.airtel.in COOPER-STANDARD AUTOMOTIVE... NOVI, Mich. - Cooper-Standard Automotive Inc. announced that on November29th the company finalized its joint venture with Hubei Jingda Precision SteelTube Industry Co., Ltd., one of the largest tube manufacturers in the People'sRepublic of China. http://www.cooperstandard.com HYBRID BOOK... CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In his new book Getting the Right Things Done, PascalDennis outlines the nuts and bolts of strategy deployment, answering two toughquestions that ultimately can make or break a company's lean transformation. http://www.lean.org/WhoWeAre/LEINews.cfm . www.lean.org./ http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060310/NEF009LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org http://lean.org http://www.lean.org/WhoWeAre/LEINews.cfm DARBY INVESTS... HONG KONG - Darby Overseas Investments Ltd., the private equity arm ofFranklin Templeton Investments and a leading provider of private equity andmezzanine capital in emerging markets, announced that its Darby Asia MezzanineFund II made an equity investment in AUPU Group Holding Company Limited. ATTICUS CAPITAL... NEW YORK - Atticus Capital LP, the largest shareholder of Euronext, todayannounced that it intends to fully support Euronext's imminent merger with theNYSE Group. LCT GRANTED... MELBOURNE - Living Cell Technologies Ltd announced it has received a licencefrom the New Zealand Government to manufacture a novel animal cell product forhumans under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). AUTHORIT SOFTWARE... AUCKLAND - AuthorIT Software Corporation (ASC), a world leader in softwarefor authoring, content management, publishing, and localization, announced theappointment of Steve Davis as General Manager. (AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies distributing unedited,translated news releases for worldwide clients. Visit forfull-text versions.)