LONDON, December 15 - The 2009 Frost & Sullivan European Product Quality Leadership Award in the Ultrasound Market is conferred on SonoScape. The award recipient has effectively analyzed existing market challenges - the need for special features, pricing, and portability - and introduced the S8 hand-carried ultrasound (HCU). The performance of this high-end colour Doppler HCU compares with that of a regular, high-end, cart-based echo ultrasound system.

LONDON, December 15 - As the Christmas party season reaches its peak, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is launching a campaign to warn of the dangers of getting chlamydia after a festive fling.

OAK PARK, Michigan, December 14 - Azure Dynamics Corporation (TSX: AZD) - ("Azure") or (the "Company"), a leading developer of state-of-the-art green technologies that address environmental and cost issues for the commercial transportation industry, announced today that Purolator Courier Ltd. ("Purolator") has placed an order for an additional 200 Balance(TM) Hybrid Electric delivery trucks. The 200 unit purchase is Azure's largest revenue order to date and also the highest volume Balance(TM) Hybrid Electric order since the product launched in the summer of 2008. The new trucks join approximately 205 other Azure trucks already at work in Purolator's fleet. The trucks will be delivered in 2010.

SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES, December 14 - Sky Holding Company and Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. are pleased to announce a new partnership with the goal of once again becoming the premier provider of capital to airlines around the world. Sky's management team previously worked together at Pegasus Aviation and has invested with Oaktree since the mid 1990's. Together they built Pegasus into one of the world's largest commercial aircraft lessors before selling the company in 2007. The new US$500 million investment from funds managed by Oaktree will enable Sky to finance over US$2 billion of Boeing and Airbus aircraft annually, with sale/leaseback activities set to begin in the first quarter of 2010.

MONTREAL, December 14 - Rio Tinto Alcan and the Administracion Nacional de Electricidad (ANDE) have signed a Letter of Intention to confirm that they will begin negotiations regarding a power purchase agreement for a potential aluminium smelter in Paraguay.