San Francisco/Miami  - A couple in Florida has received the first cloned puppy in the US after paying a San Francisco company working with South Korean scientists
155,000 dollars to perform the complicated feat of bio-engineering.

Nina and Edgar Otto picked up their cloned yellow labrador puppy on Monday, according to a press release from BioArts International. The puppy, Lancelot Encore, was cloned from the DNA of the Ottos' late dog Lancelot, who died of cancer in January 2008.

Seoul - Shares rallied Wednesday on the Seoul stock exchange on the first trading day

Seoul, Jan. 23 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-il met a senior Chinese Communist party official in Pyongyang on Friday.

According to the New York Times, it was his first known meeting with a foreign visitor since reports that he suffered a stroke in August

China's state-run Xinhua reported Kim's meeting with Wang Jiarui, chief of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, but did not describe Kim's health.

Intelligence officials in Seoul have said that Kim, 66, underwent brain surgery following the stroke.

Wellington  - New Zealand's and South Korea's foreign ministers are to discuss a timetable for launching formal negotiations on a free trade pact during weekend talks, the New Zealand government announced Friday.

New Zealand's Murray McCully said he would host his South Korean counterpart, Yu Myung Hwan, in talks that offered an important opportunity to further cement the countries' relationship.

Seoul - The K

Seoul  - Hyundai Motor Co's profits for the fourth quarter of 2008 dropped 28 per cent year-on-year as the South Korean automaker struggled with rising warranty and marketing costs.

Net income for the months from October to December dropped to 243.6 billion won (176.8 million dollars), the company said Thursday.

Sales of South Korea's leading carmaker rose by 1.1 per cent to 8.8 trillion won while operating profit was down 8.9 per cent to 581 billion won, compared with 637.8 billion won in the same quarter last year.