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News and developments in Asia private equity from Reuters News for the week ending June 21. _0"> JUNE 21 DEUTSCHE BANK'S Asia-Pacific head of financial sponsors group, Peter Plakidis, has left the bank to set up a private investment group headquartered in Australia , after working with the German bank for nearly six years, sources told Reuters.   A BIPARTISAN group of 15 U.S. senators urged the Obama administration to consider whether the proposed sale of Smithfield Foods Inc to the Chinese meat company Shuanghui International posed a threat to the U.S. food supply that could justify blocking the deal. U.S. ENERGY companies Hess Corp and Newfield Exploration Co have launched two separate auctions to sell part of their Asian oil and gas field stakes that have a combined value of about $3 billion, people familiar with the matter said. U.S. PRIVATE equity firm Blackstone Group LP and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings are in separate talks to invest about $200 m

Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani hopes his multi-billion dollar bet on cheap high-speed wireless broadband could change the way nearly a billion of his countrymen use mobile devices from the way they do banking to watching cricket. In a country where most people own a mobile phone yet lack basic Internet access, it is a risky gamble even for India's richest man. He is counting on an unproven strategy and still-developing technology in a market with very little pricing power.   Three years ago energy conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) won an exclusive nationwide licence to roll out 4G across India, giving it a foothold to tap a potentially lucrative market in phones, tablets, computers and television. The data-focused service could start to roll-out in New Delhi and Mumbai by the end of the year, sources familiar with the matter, who asked not be named, told Reuters. Eventually, the plan is to run it across hundreds of cities. Ambani has refused to divulge any specifics on th

An Australian public service ad campaign that became an internet hit for its black-humoured list of reckless ways to die - such as "poke a stick at a grizzly bear" - has added to its lustre by scooping up a record number of international advertising prizes. The three-minute short co-produced by Melbourne private rail service Metro Trains to teach people to be careful around trains, 'Dumb Ways to Die', has notched up more than 50 million views on YouTube since its release in November 2012, sparked hundreds of parodies and even become a smartphone game.   The clip employs an insanely catchy tune and colourful blobs which die in a variety of ways, including "keeping a rattlesnake as a pet" and "selling both kidneys on the Internet," before culminating in train-related deaths that are described as "the dumbest way to die". It swept the awards at Sunday's Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, winning a record five Grand Pr

The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. _0"> * A global cat-and-mouse game involving the admitted leaker of National Security Agency secrets exploded into a diplomatic scramble, as U.S. authorities sought to catch Edward Snowden before he reached what supporters say is his next goal: political asylum in Ecuador. () * Federal officials are cracking down on fraud in student-aid programs, responding to evidence that a growing number of recipients are pocketing federal loans and grants without any intent of going to school. ()   * Banks have floated to federal regulators a proposal on how to pay for a restructuring of the nation's largest financial institutions in the event of a future crisis. () * Chinese companies are under growing financial pressure as the country's economic growth slows. So industries ranging from airlines to steel to consumer appliances increas

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched an interbank reference rate for the offshore yuan market on Monday, a long-awaited move that will makes it easy to create more hedging options for those investing or trading in the Chinese currency. _0"> The move to create a CNH HIBOR fixing will help address a widespread concern about a lack of hedging options that have restrained enthusiasm for holding the yuan, which Beijing is trying to encourage.   Even as the yuan-denominated debt or "dim sum" bond market has grown rapidly in recent months in response to growing demand from investors hungry for yuan assets, market players have had to resort to using imperfect derivatives to hedge their interest rate risk such as non-deliverable forwards and currency swaps. For each of the eight tenors covered, namely overnight, one week, two weeks, one month, two months, three months, six months and twelve months, the fixing will be calculated by averaging the middle quotes after ex

Russia defied White House pressure on Monday to expel former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to the United States before he flees Moscow on the next stop of his globe-crossing escape from U.S. prosecution. Snowden, whose exposure of secret U.S. government surveillance raised questions about intrusion into private lives, was allowed to leave Hong Kong on Sunday after Washington asked the Chinese territory to arrest him on espionage charges. Snowden, 29, has kept out of sight in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport as Ecuador says it considers his request for asylum. His decision to fly to Russia, which like China challenges U.S. dominance of global diplomacy, is another embarrassment to President Barack Obama who has tried to "reset" ties with Moscow and build a partnership with Beijing. The White House said it expected the Russian government to send Snowden back to the United States and lodged "strong objections" to Hong Kong and Chi

Vodafone has agreed to buy Germany's largest cable operator Kabel Deutschland for 7.7 billion euros ($10 billion), adding TV and fixed-line services to help defend against mounting competition in its most important market.   In Vodafone's largest deal in six years and its second major buy of a European fixed-line network in 12 months, the group is offering a near 40 percent premium to Kabel's share price before its interest first emerged in snapping up the target's 8.5 million connected homes. The high price shows the desire of the world's second-largest mobile operator to adapt in its core market of Europe, where increasing regulation and recession have hit revenue and forced it to write down the value of its assets. The price was pushed up in the last week by an approach from John Malone's Liberty Global, which could still return with a higher bid, but two sources familiar with the German group said they did not expect that to happen. "Although you