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.

Seoul - South Korea's central bank on Monday announced its largest-ever rate cut, sinking its key rate by 0.75 percentage points to 4.25 per cent, as it seeks to stave off more dire repercussions from the global financial crisis.

The Bank of Korea said "a large cut in the base rate is called for in order to guard securely against the possibility of a sharp contraction of real economic activity against the backdrop of the large swings of the exchange rate and stock prices and the partial seizing-up of the credit markets."

Seoul - North and South Korea have agreed to launch a new round of military issues talks after a previous round broke up without result, Seoul said Saturday.

The Defence Ministry said the new round would take place on Monday at a border point on the western coastline, near the South Korean city of Paju.

Pyongyang had proposed new talks on Friday, after the previous round had broken up without result some three weeks ago.

The talks are aimed at improving lines of communication between the armed forces of the two Korean states.

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.

Seoul - South Korea's benchmark Kospi index on Friday lost 10.57 per cent, dropping below the 1,000-point level, the lowest since May 2005, as foreign investors continued to sell stocks.

The Kospi fell 110.96 points, or 10.57 per cent to close at 938.75.

Kospi heavyweight Samsung Electronics Co dropped 5.2 per cent after quarterly profit reports were down to the lowest in three years.

On the currency markets, the won fell to 1,422 against the dollar, down from Thursday's close of 1.408, the lowest finish since June 17,
1998.

Amman- Jordan and South Korea on Thursday initialed an agreement on nuclear cooperation for peaceful purposes.

The accord was signed by the Chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Touqan and the South Korean ambassador in Amman Bongkil Shin.

Touqan said that the deal would be officially signed in Seoul in December.

The agreement provides for cooperation between the two countries in several areas such as technical assistance, site selection, design, construction and nuclear safety, he added.