There's nothing like the internet for making people look foolish.

The latest outbreak of red faces is in Seoul, where Korean journalists and investors have been caught out by one of the oldest online hoaxes around.

On a slack Friday afternoon's trading, the Korean stock market dropped by 1.5% - a value loss of more than $3bn - after local TV reported that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates had been assassinated.

Mr Gates, who personifies many of the hopes of the global technology industry, was reportedly shot by a lone gunman at a charity event in Los Angeles - "facts" eagerly retailed by three Korean channels, MBC, YTN and SBS.

In fact, the story was a hoax, lifted from a - admittedly, highly accurate - spoof of the CNN website.

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