Seoul- Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd, the world's largest shipbuilder, on Thursday reported a two-thirds rise in its fourth-quarter earnings but predicted a 23-per-cent drop in orders for this year.

It saw better-than-expected net profit of 854 billion won (621 million dollars) for the quarter as sales rose 42 per cent over the final quarter of 2007 to 6.05 trillion won.

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