Mr. Appleton was a qualified stunt pilot whose many planes included a bright red Hawker Hunter fighter jet he bought from the Republic of Singapore Air Force in the 1990s.

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It was the standing of one of Singapore's most seasoned corporate players, Mr. Ong, who controls about 20% of the Vickers Ballas shares, and one of the island-republic's most powerful woman, Madam Ho, whose Singapore Technologies owns 40% of the firm.

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They include Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

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And there's no better example of that than Singapore Airlines and its highly tuned image as the republic's friendly ambassador.

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But Lim, head of research in Singapore for Salomon Smith Barney, believes the island republic's recent performance is well supported.

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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, accompanied by Madam Ban Soon-taek, arrived in the Republic of Korea early in the morning of Saturday 24 March on an overnight flight from Singapore.

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The first one out of the gates looks to be Singapore Press Holdings, the monopoly newspaper publisher in the island republic.

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