Singapore - Singapore Telecommunications, South-East Asia's largest phone company, reported Tuesday a 5.3 per cent fall in first quarter net profit as a stronger Singapore currency cut earnings from overseas affiliates.

For the first quarter ending June 30, the net profit was 878 million Singapore dollars (622 million US dollars), down from 927 million Singapore dollars in the corresponding period a year ago.

"As a high proportion of the group's earnings are from outside Singapore," the financial results are "sensitive to currency movements," a SingTel statement said.

Sydney, Aug. 12 : Singapore Airlines has been named the world''s best airline in the 2008 Airline of the Year awards. Cathay Pacific and Qantas came second and third respectively in the annual survey.

Singapore won the title for the second year in a row and the third time in 10 years. The airline also took out the award for best business class.

Qantas also won the award for best first class lounge, best economy class catering and best airline in Australasia.

Singapore - The Asian oil-and-gas industry is facing a labour crunch crisis amid the lure of higher salaries in the Middle East, a management consultancy's report said on Tuesday.

The Hay Group found workers in Asia are paid only a fraction of what a person in the same job would earn in the United Arab Emirates.

For every dollar of guaranteed cash that a senior manager earns in the UAE, his counterparts in Singapore and Malaysia earn only 74 and 32 cents respectively, the report said.

The manager in China earns 46 cents and only 17 cents in Indonesia, said the findings from the Hay Group's compensation and benefits database.

Singapore - French professional climber Alain Robert will scale a building in Singapore as part of The Straits Times' 163rd anniversary celebrations, the newspaper said on Tuesday.

Singapore - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was set to kick off his visit Tuesday in Singapore by laying a wreath in remembrance of Allied soldiers who died in South-East Asia during the two world wars.

Rudd, in his first official visit to the city-state as prime minister, was scheduled to meet with the top leaders after visiting Kranji war cemetery.

Singapore  - A US law firm has opened an office in Singapore focusing on South-East and South Asian markets, a news report said on Monday.

The city-state office of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, the firm's fifth in Asia, is starting off with a focus on the finance, merger and acquisition, private equity, restructuring and distressed investment and capital markets.

"We are in the process of recruiting more lawyers," the Business Times quoted Howard Chao, chairman of O'Melveny's Asia practice, as saying. He expects the Singapore office to have up to 15 lawyers by the end of the year.

Given the growth rates in the South-East and South Asia markets, "We expect the office will grow quickly," he added.