Singapore - Singapore police coast guards chased away 58 illegal immigrant boats from landing along the shores of the city state in the first three months of this year, more than double the 27 boats detected during the same period last year, according to a Straits Times report Friday.

The police coast guard commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police Teo Kian Teck, said the intruders resorted to dangerous manoeuvering in darkness when they wee being pursued.

The police caught 35 illegal immigrants during January-March 2009 compared with 46 a year ago.

Singapore  - Singapore's industrial development group JTC Corp on Thursday awarded an 890-million-Singapore-dollar (594 million US dollar) contract to South Korea's Hyundai Engineering and Construction to build two rock caverns for storing oil on the western part of the island state.

JTC said the first two of the 132-metre-below-ground Jurong Rock Caverns would be completed by 2013.

The caverns would hold 1.47 million cubic metres of oil underground, according to a report by the Straits Times Thursday.

JTC was also to build three other caverns.

Singapore  - Singapore warned Thursday it would not tolerate violent protests during high profile events, including the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in November.

The city state's Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng warned tough action would be taken against protests like those seen recently in Thailand and London where demonstrators damaged public property and caused tourists to stay away.

Singapore - Singapore Airlines said Wednesday that its passenger load in March dropped by 23 per cent year-on-year to 1.28 million passenger as the carrier sheds flights and cuts capacity.

Singapore Airlines filled 69.4 per cent of its seats last month, the Straits Times newspaper reported, saying the comparative February figure was just slightly better at 69.7 per cent.

Taking passengers and cargo as a whole, the total amount of space filled was 62.6 per cent.

With the help of funds from its internal accretions and the foreign exchange proceeds, Reliance Communications intends buying back foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) at a mark down, depending upon the central bank approval.

A tender offer, for repurchasing the bonds for cash at a discount, has been issued by the company to all its bond holders.

Singapore - Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) Wednesday said its net profit for the third quarter of this year fell by 45.5 per cent year-on-year to 55.3 million Singapore dollars (36 million US dollars).

The net profit was also down by 25.9 per cent from the second quarter of the financial year 2009.

Operating revenues decreased 30.9 per cent to 119.8 million Singapore dollars for the third quarter ended 31 March 2009 from 173.3 million Singapore dollars for the same period of last year.