Singapore's executive vice-president, Michael Tan, says the changes have long been planned.

ECONOMIST: Asian airlines

The dinner meeting may go a long way toward explaining why Tan is willing to allow the demise of PAL, the region's oldest national carrier.

CNN: PHILIPPINE AIR GETS GROUNDED

Helmeted officers decked out in tan fatigues, camouflage and body armor, many carrying long guns, rumbled in rented cargo trucks to and from the property where 65-year-old Jim Lee Dykes and his young captive were hunkered down in a roughly 6-by-8-foot hand-dug bunker with only one small hatch for an entryway.

WSJ: Military tactics, arms, helped rescue Ala. hostage