Tokyo - Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average recovered the 8,000 level Wednesday morning after it hit a 26-year low the day before.

New Delhi - Hundreds of students joined a march in India's eastern state of Orissa to protest a proposed plant by South Korean steelmaker Posco, news reports said Monday.

The students carried banners and posters at Dhinkia in the coastal district of Jagatsinghpur, about 100 kilometres south of Orissa's capital, Bhubaneswar, the IANS news agency reported, citing police.

Posco, or the Pohang Iron and Steel Co, signed a deal with the Orissa government in June 2005 to build a steel plant in Jagatsinghpur by 2016. The project has been delayed by months of protests by thousands of villagers claiming it would deprive them of their homes and livelihoods.

Negotiations for the potential sale or merger of Chrysler LLC withstanding, the automaker announced Friday that it will cut 25 percent of its white-collared work force – that is, 5,000 jobs - to deal with a continued downward spiral in US auto sales.

The announcement of the cut is a blow for Detroit, as it implies that Chrysler, which has about 18,500 white-collar workers, will remove about 5,000 salaried workers and employees who work for other companies under contract with the automaker.

Seoul - Hanwha Group was chosen by South Korea's state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) as the preferred bidder for a controlling stake in Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the KDB announced on Friday.

"Hanwha was found to best fit our criteria of selection, including bid price, management ability and fund-raising plan," Chung In-Sung, deputy governor of the KDB, said at a press conference.

Hanwha, a conglomerate with roots in explosive maker Hanwha Corp, won out rival bidder Hyundai Heavy in the bid for a 50.5 per cent stake of the world's third-largest shipbuilder.

Sofia - The Bulgarian government on Thursday invited the world's largest steel concern, Arcelormittal, to take over the troubled Kremikowtzi mill.

"It is one of the world's best-known enterprises," Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said, announcing the decision to call in the company of the India-born billionaire Lakshmi Mittal.

Lakshmi's younger brother, Pramod, already owns the majority stake

in the debt-ridden Kremikovtzi mill, near the capital Sofia, which went bankrupt in August.

Dimitrov said however that the government is negotiating the sale of its 25-per cent stake in Kremikovtzi with "other domestic and foreign candidates."

Tokyo - Sony Corp revised downward its expected earnings for the current fiscal year by 38 per cent on a strengthening yen and slowing demand for consumer electronics amid a sluggish global economy, the company said Thursday.

The second-largest maker of consumer electronics in the world now expected a net profit of 150 billion yen (1.51 billion dollars) for the year ending March 31, down from an initial projection of 240 billion yen announced in July.

Last year, Tokyo-based Sony made a net profit of 369.44 billion yen.