South Korea's construction sector contracted at the sharpest rate in more than a decade in the fourth quarter of last year due mainly to a protracted property market slump, data showed Monday.   The construction sector shrank 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter from three months earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea and Statistics Korea. The on-quarter decline is the steepest since

South Korean stocks began marginally higher on Monday but traded in a narrow range as investors opted to take a breather following last week's climb, analysts said.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) inched up 0.51 points, or 0.02 percent, to 2,054.55 in the first 15 minutes of trading. Last week, the KOSPI finished up 3.68 percent from a week earlier.   Techs were bullish w

The government may have decided to scrap a plan to build a new international airport in the country's southeastern region due to economic considerations, sources in the ruling camp said Sunday.   The sources told Yonhap News Agency that a special panel set up to review the two candidate sites for the new airport have decided that it would be better to abandon the expensive building program.   "The

  A majority of South Korean exporters remain bullish about their business activity in the second quarter of this year, but they are worried about growing uncertainties like political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, a poll showed Sunday.   The Export Business Survey Index (EBSI) came in at 105.4 for the April-June period, down from 116.3 for the current quarter, according to the Korea

South Korea plans to begin full-scale work to renovate a heliport on Dokdo if Japan lays renewed claim to the rocky islets in the East Sea in its new school textbooks, officials said Sunday.   The planned renovation of the outdated, 20-square-meter heliport is among a set of countermeasures that are being considered if Tokyo presses ahead with the endorsement this week of middle school textbooks t

   SEOUL, March 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's central bank is expected to hike its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage point this year to fight oil and commodity price gains, a senior economist at HSBC Holdings Plc. said Thursday.   "South Korea's central bank may raise its interest rate 75 basis points further from where we are now through the course of this year," HSBC Group Chief Economist Step

   South Korea's top wire and cable maker LS Cable Ltd. said Thursday that it has changed its English name to LS Cable & System Ltd. to reflect the company's growing businesses.   Shareholders adopted the new English name on Wednesday as the new name better indicates the company's expansion into businesses that offer a package of applications, equipment, software and systems to clients, the compan

  Cumulative exports by South Korea's second-largest automaker Kia Motors Corp. surpassed 10 million units on Thursday, a feat achieved 36 years after it started overseas shipments in 1975, the company said.   It took 30 years for Kia Motors to reach the 5 million unit export mark, but only six years since 2005 to reach 10 million.   The number only includes vehicles shipped from South Korea.Overs

  Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top memory chipmaker, said Thursday that it has begun mass production of a new type of mobile dynamic random access memory (DRAM) that packs denser memory in a slimmer package.   Earlier this month, Samsung started mass producing the 4-gigabit, low power double-data-rate 2 (LPDDR2) DRAM based on 30-nanometer class technology, the company said in a statement.

  South Korea will take tougher steps to deal with illegal Chinese fishing activities in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to better preserve the country's marine resources, the government said Thursday.   The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said more boats and personnel will be assigned to cope with illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea up until the end of April, when Chinese b

   WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter will likely visit North Korea next month to broker rapprochement in U.S. relations with the reclusive communist state, which have chilled over the North's nuclear and missile programs and other provocations, a diplomatic source here said Wednesday.   "It is highly likely that ex-President Carter will travel to North Korea in about a month as the

    South Korea's trade commission said Thursday that it has decided to extend anti-dumping duties on Chinese float glass products, citing unfair price cuts.   The Korea Trade Commission said punitive duties of 12.04-36.01 percent will be maintained on Chinese imports for the next three years.   The decision follows investigations carried out following formal complaints raised by KCC Corp. and Han

   LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Screen legend Elizabeth Taylor, theviolet-eyed film goddess whose sultry screen life was often upstagedby her stormy personal life, died Wednesday at age 79.   She died of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai MedicalCenter, where she had been hospitalized for about six weeks,publicist Sally Morrison said.Elizabeth Taylor (AP-Yonhap News)   ``All her children were with her

South Koreans now spend more time online and on mobile phones than five years ago, a survey said Wednesday, the latest sign that the Internet has become a daily necessity for many people in one of the world's most wired countries.   South Koreans surf the Internet for an average of 37 minutes during weekdays, up 25 minutes from 2005, according to the findings of a research institute of KBS, a majo

Apple Inc. said Wednesday that it will roll out the iPad 2 tablet computer in South Korea next month amid worries that high U.S. demand and component shortage may delay overseas shipments.Apple will release the iPad 2 in 25 countries, including France and Germany, this Friday and in Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore next month, the company said in a press release. "We're experiencing amazing demand for iPad 2 in the U.S., and customers around the world have told us they can't wait to get thei

   TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's top government spokesman says the country's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant must eventually be scrapped.   Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano's comment Sunday was the first word from the government that the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex will have to be closed once its overheating reactors are brought under control.   Closing the plant is inevitable, since the seawater

   QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) - At least three miners were killed and 45 others trapped underground when explosions triggered a collapse in a coal mine in Pakistan's Baluchistan province on Sunday, officials said.   A total of 48 miners were working around 1,200 metres (1,300 yards) underground in the mine and the officials said hopes for the survival of the missing were slim.   The mine in the far-fl

   BUSAN (Yonhap) -- A KTX bullet train abruptly stopped for an unknown reason inside a tunnel shortly after departing from Busan for Seoul on Sunday, paralyzing Seoul-bound railway traffic for about an hour, railway officials said.   The train came to an unscheduled halt at 12:13 p.m. inside the 20.3 kilometer-long Geumjeong tunnel on the outskirts of Busan, the longest in the country.   The stop

   Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco clinched victory in the 2011 Seoul International Marathon here on Sunday, the event's organizers said.   Goumri finished first with a record of 2 hours, 9 minutes and 11 seconds.   South Korea's Jeong Jin-hyuk came in second at 2 hours, 9 minutes and 28 seconds and Russia's Oleg Kulkov finished third in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 13 seconds, they said. (Yonhap News)  

   BEIJING (AP) _ China on Sunday expressed ``regret'' over punishing airstrikes by the U.S. and European nations against Libya to enforce a U.N. no-fly zone.Supporters of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi wave flags as they anticipate his arrival at his Bab Al Azizia compound in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday. (AP-Yonhap News)   Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said China ``consistently disagrees with