Seoul  - Shares tumbled Wednesday on the Seoul stock exchange over growing concerns about the recovery of the US economy.

South Korea's currency fell also against the dollar.

The benchmark Kospi index shed 39.82 points, or 2.4 per cent, to close at 1,609.71. Declining issues outnumbered advancers 691 to 132.

The main index of the technology-heavy Kosdaq market slid 13.48 points to 488.82.

On currency markets, the US dollar was quoted at 1,195.40 Korean won, after Tuesday's close of 1,184.40 won. (dpa)

Vientiane  - South Korea has granted 3.5 million dollars to build Laos' first children's hospital, media reports said Wednesday.

Construction of the Lao-Korean National Children's Friendship Hospital will begin this month and be completed by October 2010, the Vientiane Times reported.

The new hospital, which will have 160 beds and 200 medical staff, is to be built in Chanthabouly district in Vientiane, near the capital's only other hospital, the Soviet-built Mittaphab Hospital.

Seoul  - Foreign brides are replacing local women as a major source of vitality in South Korea's greying rural communities, helping to rebuild rural family bonds by providing babies and farm labour and participating in community activities.

Lured by the prospect of a higher standard of living, brides recruited from other Asian countries are becoming commonplace in the South Korean countryside.

Seoul  - Toyota Motor Korea has begun selling four flagship models in South Korea aimed at cracking a market dominated by native car makers Hyundai and Kia.

The models are the Prius sedan, the Camry sedan and hybrid sedan, and the RAV4 sport utility vehicle. They are priced at 34.9 million won (30,000 dollars) for the Camry, 45.9 million won for the Camry hybrid, 37.9 million won for the Prius and 32.1 million won for the RAV4.

Seoul, Oct 27 : India's Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj entered the second round of the $125,000 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Challenger here Tuesday.

Somdev, seeded fourth, advanced after South Africa's Rik de Voest retired while trailing 2-6, 0-2. He next plays Slovak Pavol Cervenak.    

Prakash showed the door to South Korea's Kyu Tae Im, winning 6-3, 6-1. He next faces second seeded Lu Yen-hsun.  (IANS)  

Seoul, Oct 26 : India's Somdev Devvarman and his American partner Todd Martin crashed out of the $125,000 Association of Tennis Professional (ATP)challenger, losing in the doubles first round here Monday.

Somdev and Martin went down to second-seeded Israelis Amir Hadad and Harel Levy 1-6, 6-7 (7). The Indian is seeded fourth in the singles and will open against South Africa's Rik De Voest.

Seoul  - The South Korean scientist initially hailed as a cloning pioneer and national hero until an investigation found some faked research into cloning human embryonic stem cells was convicted Monday of embezzling research grants.

Hwang Woo Suk, 56, was found guilty by a Seoul court after a three-year trial, the national Yonhap News Agency reported.

The sentence was to be announced at a later hearing, but prosecutors were seeking four years in prison.

Hwang was the subject of a scandal over falsified data on 2004 and 2005 studies in which he not only claimed to have cloned human stem cells but also to have developed patient-specific stem cells.

Seoul  - South Korea on Monday offered North Korea its first food aid in nearly two years as part of a recent cautious rapprochement between the two neighbours.

South Korea made the offer through its Red Cross, which said it would send North Korea a small shipment consisting of 10,000 tons of corn, 20 tons of milk power and medicine.

The aid was being offered purely on humanitarian grounds and no further shipments were planned, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said.

Seoul  - South Korea's economy grew at its fastest pace in seven years in the third quarter, rising 2.9 per cent from the quarter before, the central bank said Monday.

The third-straight quarterly growth for Asia's fourth-largest economy was better than analysts had expected and beat second-quarter growth in the gross domestic product (GDP), which was 2.6 per cent.

Seoul, Oct 24 : South Korean Defence Minister Kim Tae-young has told lawmakers that the government is preparing for its reconstruction work in Afghanistan, WAM news agency reported Saturday.

Kim said the government is reviewing its contributions, including financial support, expansion of civilian-led provincial reconstruction team (PRT) and personnel to protect PRT members.

Cha-am, Thailand  - Trade between the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and South Korea increased 23.4 per cent in 2008, even before a free trade agreement goes into effect next year, ASEAN leaders said Saturday.

An ASEAN summit in Cha-am, 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, reconfirmed that an ASEAN-South Korean free trade agreement would be implemented January 1.

A final statement issued at the end of the ASEAN summit Saturday noted the already impressive growth in trade between South-East Asia and South Korea.

Seoul  - South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc on Friday reported its first quarterly profit in two years thanks to rising prices for computer chips.

After reporting seven-straight quarters of losses, the world's second-largest computer-memory chipmaker posted net income of 245.4 billion won (207 million dollars) in the third quarter. In the same quarter a year ago, it had reported a loss of 1.65 trillion won.

Sales rose 15 per cent from a year ago and 26 per cent from the second quarter to 2.12 trillion won, Hynix said.

However, the profit was less than analysts had predicted as Hynix's cost-cutting measures failed to snip as deep as expected.

Seoul  - South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co said Thursday that its net profit for the third quarter had more than tripled and hit a record.

Its profit rose to 979.1 billion won (827 million dollars) from 264.8 billion won in the same period last year, beating market expectations.

As sales in the automotive industry have dived because of the world economic crisis, Hyundai, South Korea's leading automaker and the world's fourth-largest, profited from the weakness of the won, which made its cars more competitive abroad.

Seoul  - South Korea can rely on the United States to defend it from its neighbour as North Korea develops its nuclear and missile capabilities, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday on a visit to Seoul.

Both Gates and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Tae Young, criticized the nuclear and missile tests North Korea has carried out this year as "grave threats to peace and stability" for South Korea, the region and the international community.

Phnom Penh  - Three South Korean tour guides have been arrested for allegedly raping a teenage karaoke hostess after she passed out from drinking, national media reported Thursday.

The three men were taken into custody in the tourist town of Siem Reap, home to the famous Angkor Wat temple complex.

The provincial bureau chief of the police's juvenile protection unit, Sun Bunthorng, told the Cambodia Daily newspaper the three men would appear in court Thursday.

Seoul  - North and South Korea are planning to modernize the telephone connection between their armed forces in the latest step in a cautious rapprochement between the two countries.

South Korea was due to deliver optical lines and other communications equipment worth 850 million won (720,000 dollars) to is neighbour next week, the Unification Ministry in Seoul said Wednesday, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

The total cost of the upgrade was estimated at 2.1 billion to 2.7 billion won.

Hanoi  - South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said Wednesday that his country would recognize Vietnam as a market economy along with taking other steps to upgrade their relationship.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet in Hanoi, Lee said the two countries had agreed to upgrade their relationship to a "strategic partnership."

The two leaders said they had also decided to establish dialogue between their defence and foreign ministries.

The market economy status could help protect Vietnamese exporters to South Korea against protectionist trade measures.

Seoul  - Samsung Electronics Co plans to invest 2.6 trillion won (2.23 billion dollars) in a plant for building liquid crystal display (LCD) panels in China, the company said Friday.

South Korea's leading technology firm said it planned to form a joint venture to build the plant in Suzhou in western China, but did not elaborate who would be its partner and the size of its stake in the project.

The Suzhou plant was to produce 40-inch (102-centimetre) LCD panels of the 7.5th generation as of 2011, Samsung said.

Seoul  - Delegations from North and South Korea met Friday to discuss further reunions of families separated since the 1950-53 Korean War and other humanitarian issues.

Pyongyang demanded some unspecified compensation for agreeing to more reunions, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported, quoting government sources.

Seoul - South Korea's automotive sector remains a sticky issue that might make implementation of a new free trade deal with the European Union a bumpy ride.

The EU paved the way for a potentially massive rise in exports Thursday when it reached its biggest-ever free trade agreement with an individual country - worth up to 19 billion euros (28.3 billion dollars), according to some estimates.