Seoul - Shares plunged Tuesday on the Seoul stock exchange on concerns over the economy despite a government stabilization package worth 130 billion dollars to prop up the troubled financial market. South Korea's currency dropped against the US dollar.

The benchmark Kospi index fell 11.53 points, or 1 per cent, to close at 1,196.1.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers 496 to 325.

The main index of the technology-heavy Kosdaq market declined 2.12 points to 350.97.

London, October 21 : An English man is dragging a furniture company to court, claiming that a “toxic sofa” they had sold to him left him with a permanent heart condition.

Barry Green, 63, a resident of Plymouth in Devon, claims that he had to spend a week in hospital with blisters, breathing problems, pneumonia, and eventually heart failure.

The father-of-four bought the brown leather couch worth 545 pounds from Land of Leather a year ago, but soon began to suffer health problems.

He is now seeking damages from the firm and its manufacturers, Chinese firm Eurosofa, via a High Court legal action.

Washington, Oct 21: A couple of days after former US secretary of state Colin Powell crossed party lines to commit his support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the latter has said that if he won the election, he would invite the former to be one of his key advisers at the White House.

“Powell will have a role as one of my advisers,” the Daily Times quoted Obama as saying in a TV interview last evening.

Obama said that Powell was welcome to campaign for him and might have a place in his administration, if he won the poll.

On Sunday, Powell had endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate on NBC’s “Meet the Press” programme

Washington, Oct 21: A recent discovery by scientists suggests that the most effective treatment for leukemia may rely on a combination of targeted drugs, rather than a single miracle drug.

An anti-leukemia drug called imatinib is currently the most popular therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

CML is associated with the abnormal fusion of a portion of chromosome 21 with a cell growth-promoting enzyme called ABL, which makes the enzyme perpetually active.

Imatinib slows down the spread of cancer by blocking the enzyme''s activity.

However, the drug doesn''t work in everyone and resistance often develops, most likely because the drug only targets mature cells, leaving self-renewing cancer stem cells behind.

New York, Oct. 21: Fifty three percent of American voters claim that Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has far greater appeal than his Republican rival John McCain.

However, according to a New York Times report, 33 percent say they have an unfavorable view of Obama.

As far as McCain is concerned, only 36 percent of the voters view him favorably, while 45 percent view him unfavorably.

Oslo - The global financial crisis has affected the Norwegian aluminium and power generation group Norsk Hydro's third quarter sales and earnings, the group said Tuesday.

Third-quarter turnover was 23.98 billion kroner (3.65 billion dollars), down 9 per cent from the third quarter of 2007.

Underlying earnings before financial items and tax (EBIT) were down 8 per cent in the quarter to 1.49 billion kroner, the group said.

"The global financial crisis and uncertainty in world commodity markets have affected our results for the third quarter and will continue to do so in the coming quarters," Hydro Chief Executive Eivind Reiten said in a statement.