It’s a star-studded month of May for the country. Following the arrivals of Thai heartthrob Mario Maurer, “The Vampire Diaries” star Ian Somerhalder and pop singer Lady Gaga, American singer-actor Joe Jonas also landed in Manila on Tuesday for a series of mall shows.

Australian marine pilots Monday called for a review of how ships pass by the Great Barrier Reef, warning of the risk of a major environmental disaster on the tourist attraction.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Denmark’s biggest company, is looking into selling two new bonds in 2012 to help fund investments in drilling rigs, port terminals and oil fields as bank credit grows more expensive.

Passenger traffic and aircraft movements at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) registered significant year-on-year growth in April 2012, increasing by 7.8% and 4.8% respectively compared to the same month last year.

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, is offering one night’s free accommodation to passengers who stop over in Abu Dhabi for a minimum of two nights before December 1, 2012.

A regulation exempting pilots at United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and FedEx Corp. from new rules to combat fatigue will be reviewed after the US government disclosed errors in its analysis of costs and benefits.

Embattled Australian flag carrier Qantas said Monday it will axe 500 jobs in its heavy maintenance and engineering operations as part of a restructuring to help slash costs.

Representatives from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have chosen Bureau of Customs deputy commissioner Caridad Manarang as the new ASEAN Single Window (ASW) steering committee chairman to supervise its forthcoming projects and activities.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) is pushing for fare-pricing transparency via its the first no-hidden charges, all-in low-fare promo for all domestic and selected international destinations.

Singapore Airlines Ltd., (SQ) flying to Athens since 1972, will halt the service to the Greek capital starting October because of weak demand.

China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., a state-controlled company with seven yards, said domestic vessel owners must renew their fleets to prevent new orders from slumping to a seven-year low.

The world's top iron ore exporter, Brazil's Vale, is not excluding Chinese shipowners from transporting its iron ore and remains open to selling its huge dry bulk carriers to them, industry officials said.

Publicly-listed port operator Asian Terminals Inc. has declared P600 million in cash dividends from a net income of P1.5 billion in 2011.

Asia Pacific-based airlines posted a 47 percent decline in net profits to US$4.8 billion in 2011 from US$9 billion achieved in 2010.

Boeing Co. pledged to cut expenses to maintain profit margins on the latest version of the top-selling 737 jet, countering “predatory pricing” on the new A320neo from Airbus SAS.

European Union (EU) naval forces in attack helicopters conducted their first onshore raid on a suspected pirate lair in Somalia. A pirate said the strike destroyed a supply center and set back operations.

Global shipping accounts for 3 to 4 percent of the global CO2 emis¬sions. However, there continues to be an eminent lack of transparency and understanding of the impacts of shipping, says Lucas Vos, chief com-mercial officer of Maersk Line.

The biggest hedge fund in shipping is turning bullish on the largest oil tankers for the first time in four years as the US push toward energy independence provides China with a greater share of global crude supply.

Japan Airlines (JAL), which went bankrupt two years ago in one of the country's biggest-ever corporate failures, logged an annual net profit of $2.33 billion, thanks to cost-cutting efforts.

Governments don’t want to regulate standards for private armed guards on the world’s ships, employed to protect vessels against hijacks by Somali pirates, in case they get sued, the United Nations’ shipping body said.