Seoul  - A South Korean appeals court on Tuesday confirmed a lower court verdict allowing ending life-prolonging measures for a 76-year-old coma patient, making it the first time mercy killing has been formally permitted in the Asian nation.

In November, a court ruled in favour of ending life-prolonging measures for the woman at the request of her family but without the patient's consent.

Seoul - In the gloom of South Korea's economic problems, a flash of hope and joy has come from the skating queen Kim Yu-Na, 19, who unseated the reigning champion, Mao Asada of Japan, and won the Four Continents figure stating championship in Vancouver last Friday.

Yu-Na owes her stardom to her graceful presence and calm confidence, which did not leave her even when she fell down during her performance of a triple loop jump.

She quickly rose from the ice and went on to display her grace and confidence in a masterly performance that charmed the audience.

Seoul  - A Seoul court granted bankruptcy protection to Ssangyong Motor Co on Friday, giving the ailing South Korean automaker another chance to turn itself around.

The decision deprives majority stakeholder Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp of management control of the smallest of South Korea's five carmakers. The Chinese company will, however, keep its 51-per-cent share while Ssangyong is under court management.

Two court-appointed managers are to draw up a plan to save Ssangyong, which reported losses in the past four quarters after plunging sales.

Seoul - A 68-year-old South Korean hawker has set a new record by failing her driving test 771 times, a news report said Thursday.

Mrs Cha has been trying her luck with the test questions almost every day since April 13, 2005, the Korea Times reported, quoting local authorities at Wanju district in the south-west of the country.

However, the woman failed every time at the test's theory questions, only achieving between 30 to 50 points of the 60 necessary to pass the test, the paper quoted official Park Jung Seok as saying.

But instead of being discouraged, Cha usually signs up for the next test.

Seoul - South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc on Thursday reported its fifth consecutive quarterly loss as prices for computer memory chips tumbled.

Hynix reported a net loss of 1.33 trillion won (961 million dollars) for the fourth quarter of 2008, after losses of 462 billion won in the same quarter last year, dragged down by rapidly falling prices, which could not be compensated by rising sales and the weak won, the company said.

Sales of the world's second largest chipmaker fell by 18 per cent to 1.5 trillion won.

Seoul  - Shares surged 2.8 per c