SYDNEY--25 Apr--AsiaNet/InfoQuest ASBESTOS DESTRUCTION... KENT, Washington: ARI Technologies, Inc. of Kent,Washington, a waste management technology developer, has signedan agreement with a Japanese Consortium comprised of a majorsteel manufacturer, a leading general contractor and otherprominent Japanese companies that are engaged in industrialwaste processing to conduct an asbestos destruction andrecycling demonstration consistent with guidelines establishedby the Japanese Ministry of Environment. www.aritechnologies.com OTIS SELECTED... FARMINGTON, Connecticut: Otis Elevator Company, a unit ofUnited Technologies Corp., has won a nearly US$4 millioncontract to supply and install elevators at The St. FrancisShangri-La Place, expected to be the tallest residential towersin the Philippines. www.otis.com AGREEMENT SIGNED... BEACHWOOD, Ohio: Aleris International, Inc. announced thatit has entered into a definitive agreement with Charter OakCapital Partners to acquire the assets of EKCO Products, alight gauge sheet and heavy gauge foil producer headquarteredin Clayton, New Jersey. www.aleris.com PEROT CITED... PLANO, Texas: Perot Systems Corporation was recently citedin a report by Forrester Research Inc. as a Leader in the NorthAmerican applications outsourcing market, with strong offeringsand strategies. www.perotsystems.com www.perotsystems.com/library/ForresterWAVEreport.pdf EDMISTER JOINS... TOKYO: Prominent Tokyo capital markets lawyer BradleyEdmister has joined the international law firm Milbank, Tweed,Hadley & McCloy LLP. Mr. Edmister joins the firm's Tokyo officeas Counsel. www.milbank.com WORKING CONDITIONS... SHANGHAI: Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. andDaimlerChrysler Group have announced that they will providefree working conditions training for all of their currentsuppliers in China. www.aiag.org www.caam.org.cn TAG APPOINTS... VANCOUVER: TAG Oil Ltd. is pleased to announce theappointment of Dr. David Bennett as a director of the Company.To facilitate this appointment, Jim Smith has tendered hisresignation. www.tagoil.com AUSTRALIA OFFICE... CHICAGO, NEW YORK and SYDNEY: Sidley Austin LLP announcedthat it will open an office in Sydney, New South Wales,Australia on May 1, 2007. www.sidley.com FANNIE MAE... WASHINGTON, D.C.: Fannie Mae will redeem the principalamount of MTN securities issues amounting to a total of US$400million on May 4, 2007 at a redemption price equal to 100 percent of the principal amount redeemed plus accrued interest. www.fanniemae.com DECARTA NAMES... SAN JOSE, California: Reinforcing its presence in the AsiaPacific region, deCarta, the leading supplier of softwareplatforms and services for the Location-Based Servicesindustry, announced that it has appointed Kevin Dowd asManaging Director, Asia Pacific, and opened new offices in HongKong and Shanghai, China. www.decarta.com RISK MANAGEMENT... CHICAGO: Multinational corporations are facing increasinglydiverse, complex and exotic risks, and may not have all theresources in place to manage them effectively, according toAon's first Global Risk Management Survey. www.aon.com www.aon.com/newsroom SECURITY TRACKING... LAUSANNE: Turkey's Board of Revenue has announced theimplementation of a country-wide product tracking system forlocally manufactured and imported tobacco, alcohol and beerproducts. SICPA-ASSAN has been named as the technology providerto install and maintain the new security system. CARDIOVASCULAR RISK... BUDAPEST: The weight loss medication Xenical (orlistat120mg) significantly reduces weight and improves cardiovascularrisk factors such as blood pressure, glycaemic control andlipid profile in overweight and obese people with type 2diabetes and hypertension, according to a study analysispresented at the European Congress on Obesity, Budapest,Hungary. www.managingyourweight.com www.roche.com NEWMONT EXONERATED... MANADO: An Indonesian court has ruled that PT NewmontMinahasa Raya, a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, andits President Director Richard Ness are innocent of allcriminal charges of pollution and regulatory violations. www.BuyatBayFacts.com www.buyatbayfacts.com/what_happened/timeline.aspx AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies distributing unedited, translated news releases for worldwide clients. Visit www.asianetnews.net for full-text versions.