Manila - A Philippine man nearly caused an air disaster in an eastern city when he used an airport runway to teach his girlfriend to drive just as a passenger plane was about to land, a local official said Tuesday.

A Cebu Pacific Air flight carrying 80 passengers was descending at the weekend at the airport in Legazpi City, 360 kilometres south-east of Manila, when the pilot quickly pulled up after he saw a passenger van moving fast on the runway.

Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal told the Philippine Star newspaper that the van was driven by the son of the city aviation chief who was teaching his girlfriend how to drive.

London, March 17: British parents have been named among the worst informed in the world as to how much time their children spend surfing the Internet, and what they look at online.

A Norton Online Report says that parents in the UK believe that their children spend 18.8 hours a month on the Internet, while they actually spend about 43.5 hours online.

During a survey of 9,000 internet users worldwide, British parents were found to be more likely to set internet controls to ensure that their children were not looking at unsuitable sites.

Seoul - North Korea on Tuesday allowed hundreds of South Koreans access to a joint industrial park after closing down its borders for several days to protest joint US-South Korean military exercises.

Pyongyang allowed the entry of 500 South Koreans while at the same time 300 South Koreans who had been stranded at the Kaesong industrial complex in the North for days were allowed to leave, the Defence Ministry in Seoul said.

The reopening of the heavily guarded border crossing also allowed for the more than 90 South Korean companies operating at Kaesong to receive deliveries of urgently needed raw materials.

On Monday, the Stalinist state opened the border for hundreds of South Koreans who were stuck at Kaesong but denied entry.

Hong Kong - Unemployment in Hong Kong was expected to surge in the first half of this year to its highest level since the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, a survey released Tuesday predicted.

The survey by a human resources consultancy predicted the jobless rate in the former British colony would rise from its current 4.5 per cent to 7 per cent before the end of June.

Zamboanga City, Philippines - Two people were killed in a grenade attack on a southern Philippine island where fighting erupted between government troops and Muslim militants holding captive three international Red Cross staff, police said Tuesday.

Three people were also wounded in the explosion Monday evening inside a karaoke bar in the port area of Jolo town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, said Senior Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, the provincial police chief.