Seoul - Shares jumped 2.8 per cent Wednesday on the

Seoul  - Citizens groups plan to protest US beef imports to South Korea when President George W Bush visits the country on Tuesday, an organizer of the protests said Monday.

The peaceful protests are intended to show the US delegation South Koreans are unhappy at the reopening of the market to US beef, a spokesman for an alliance for measures against mad cow disease said.

Beef imports resumed in April after a five-year ban imposed following cases of mad cow disease in the United States.

Seoul - Shares nosedived Tuesday on the Seoul stock exchange

Seoul - At least seven people have died in several days of storms and heavy rain sweeping across South Korea, with a further six people still missing, local media reports said Saturday.

The district of Bonghwa in North Kyongsang province, the hardest- hit area, saw four people killed and four missing, including a 77- year-old woman and her 54-year-old daughter crushed by a crumbling rail bridge.

Seoul - South Korea's Samsung Electronics Friday reported a 51-per-cent profit increase for the second quarter of 2008, as sales were boosted by booming mobile phone and flat screen TV business, but stayed below analysts' expectations.

Profits in the months from April to June climbed by 50.6 per cent to 2.14 trillion won (2.11 billion dollars) year-on-year. Profits stayed almost level compared with the previous quarter.

Operating profits rose to 1.89 trillion won from 911 billion year-on-year, but again remained below analysts' predictions. First quarter operating profits were 2.19 trillion won.

Seoul - Six people were killed in a fire early Friday in a 10-storey boardinghouse in the city of Yongin, 40 kilometres south of Seoul, local media reported.

Four people were injured in the fire, and some are in critical condition, according to Yonhap news agency.

The fire broke out at 1:20 am on the ninth floor of the residential building as guests were sleeping. Inhalation of toxic gas was believed to have caused the deaths, reported Yonhap from police sources.