SYDNEY--4 Aug--AsiaNet/InfoQuest ARROW OPENS... HONG KONG: Arrow Asia Pac Ltd., a business unit of Arrow Electronics, Inc.,Monday announced that it has established a new office in Ho Chi Minh City ofVietnam.http://www.arrowasia.com SEIKO INSTRUMENTS... TOKYO: Seiko Instruments (SII) announced availability of the S-25A series ofSPI Serial EEPROMs, specifically designed for use in the highly demandingautomotive market. NI ANNOUNCES... AUSTIN, Texas: National Instruments Monday announced LabVIEW 8.6, the latestversion of the graphical system design software platform for control, test andembedded system development.http://www.ni.com CENTRE STAGE... SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y.: Singer/philanthropist Sir Ivan is preparing to takecenter stage at the Metro NY Balloon & Music Festival at Calabro Airport inBrookhaven on Saturday, August 9 at 3:30 p.m.http://www.sirivanmusic.com SHOPPING HABITS... LONDON: If you live in Roman Abramovich's world you might be forgiven forthinking that everyone owns a yacht and private jet. It's a sure thing wedon't, but an annual investigation into the shopping habits of the rich andfamous by investment bank Merrill Lynch suggests that more and more super richare placing orders for a yacht, and anything up to 200ft. EXPLORATION UPDATE... TORONTO: Glass Earth Gold Limited Friday reported on its explorationactivities in Muirs/Mamaku and Central Volcanic Regions in the North Island ofNew Zealand.www.glassearthgold.com AIAG PARTNERS... SHANGHAI: AIAG China and Intertek Friday announced that they have signed anagreement to co-develop a series of unique services that will assist theautomotive industry in becoming compliant with the new European Union (EU)regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction ofChemicals (REACH) entered into force on 1st June 2007.http://www.aiag.orghttp://www.intertek.com FANNIE MAE... WASHINGTON, D.C.: Fannie Mae will redeem the principal amount of threesecurities issues amounting to a total of US$835.008 million on Aug 12 and 13,2008 at a redemption price equal to 100 per cent of the principal amountredeemed plus accrued interest.http://www.fanniemae.com NORKOM RESEARCH... SYDNEY: Recent research conducted by Norkom Technologies reveals that, whilethe costs associated with watch list management continue to rise, mostfinancial services organisations are struggling to meet their regulatoryobligations and are ill-prepared to monitor suspected terrorist activity intimes of crisis.http://www.norkom.com YAMAHA COMPLETES... TOKYO: As previously announced on June 19, 2008, Yamaha Corporation decidedto seek to acquire NEXO SA, a leading French manufacturer and seller ofprofessional acoustic speaker systems. This decision followed Yamaha'ssuccessful strategic alliance with the company since 2005. SUNGARD ACQUIRES... GENEVA and PARIS: SunGard and GL TRADE Friday announced SunGard's intentionto acquire a majority stake in GL TRADE, a global financial software solutionscompany serving more than 1,600 customers.http://www.sungard.comhttp://www.gltrade.com AsiaNet is a consortium of leading news agencies distributing unedited,translated news releases for worldwide clients. Visit www.asianetnews.net forfull-text versions.