with chuseok, or korean thanksgiving, falling on monday... many koreans are heading for their hometowns to be with family. in anticipation of heavy congestion on most highways... the government has introduced special traffic control measures. the ministry of land, transport and maritime affairs estimates that over 29 million people will hit the roads in the traditional exodus over the five-day holiday... that starts saturday.

the ministry also advises drivers heading home to be extra careful... because the souther regions are expected to get 100 to 150 milimeters of rain over chuseok... due to typhoon kulap coming in from japan. president lee myung-bak sent text and video messages to soldiers, civil servants and police on friday,... wishing them a joyful chuseok. in a video message... president lee thanked the troops for doing their best to defend the country... including those deployed to 17 countries around the world. to civil servants,... he encouraged them to weather the global financial turmoil... through courage and pride... just as they overcame the 2008 financial crisis. and the korean leader thanked the police and firefighters who will not be able to spend time with their families... during the holiday season. and as people head back to their hometowns, politicians have come out to wish them safe travels. the ruling and

opposition party members greeted the travelers, and also did not lose the opportunity to explain their policies to the people. our kang seok-ho files this report. as koreans head back to their hometowns for the chuseok holiday, and with more than 4- hundred-70 thousand people per day estimated to go by train,... leading politicians gathered at seoul station on friday afternoon. stand-up "the chuseok holidays come just ahead of the heated political season from the second half of september to the october by-elections, which includes the seoul mayoral elections. and politicians from the ruling and opposition parties came out to greet the travelers and promote their new messages of hope to win votes." senior lawmakers from the ruling grand national party, led by chairperson hong jun -pyo, went around the halls of seoul station and shook hands with those waiting for the train... and heard what ordinary citizens had to say about domestic politics. emphasizing the recent achievements they made to help low- income families, the

ruling party lawmakers wished safe travels for those heading home. korean "even just during chuseok, i hope the korean people can forget about the hardships and enjoy the holidays. hopefully, they can be without stress and thinking only about the good things in life. and we promise to do our best." and the main opposition democratic party's leadership, headed by its chairperson, sohn hak -kyu, came to the railroad station to greet the people. while the dp lawmakers also wished for a safe trip home, they handed out leaflets with the party's message and policy. saying that economic hardships have hit many koreans,... the dp pledged to work on relieving the problem. korean "i truly hope and wish that everyone will enjoy the chuseok holidays. we will do our best to improve people's livelihoods, so that next year they can buy more gifts to take back

to their hometowns." and when the holiday comes to an end next week,... the two major parties will be back in business, beginning with the confirmation hearing for unification minister nominee yu woo-ik ... scheduled for wednesday. kang seok-ho, arirang news. with the so-called "ahn cheol-soo syndrome" sending shockwaves through korea's political circles,... ruling and opposition parties are striving to find a powerful candidate... who can bring victory to their respective parties in next month's election for seoul mayor. laah hyun-kyung has the details. after it tycoon ahn cheol-soo, who received more than 50 percent support in a recent poll of potential seoul mayoral candidates, announced his decision not to run for mayor,... both the ruling and opposition parties have been trying to come up with the powerful candidate to win next month's race. but it doesn't look like it is going to be an easy

task. the ruling grand national party was initally relieved that ahn decided not to enter the race... but as public polls have since revealed that activist park won-soon, whom ahn has publically backed, would beat the gnp's most likely candidate na kyung- won in a hypothetical two-way race,... the ruling party is being forced to find a stronger candidate. as president lee myung-bak has said that someone with administrative experience should serve as seoul mayor... prime minister kim hwang-sik and public administration minister maeng hyung-kyu have been mentioned as potential nominees... but both have strongly played down the possibility. meanwhile, three opposition parties and opposition civic groups have decided to take a two-way step in agreeing on a single candidate,... in which each party and civic group will come up with their own candidates and then select the most powerful of all to go up against the gnp. park won-soon, who has recently seen a boost in his popularity thanks to ahn's backing, seems to be the most likely candidate in the opposition camp as of

now. but the possibility of former prime minister han myeong-sook stepping up can not be ruled out... as han came less than one percentage point away from winning the mayoral election against former seoul mayor... oh se-hoon... last year. oh, a ruling party member, resigned last month... after a city- wide referendum on the free school lunch program failed to draw a large enough turnout to reverse the opposition-driven city council's decision to provide free meals to all elementary and middle school students. once ruling and opposition parties decide on their nominees, they will register as candidates by october 6th... exactly 20 days before the by-election, which is slated for october 26th. laah hyun-kyung, arirang news. the korean government and the ruling party have agreed on a package to help low-wage workers. under the plan, the government will cover a third of their employment insurance and national pension payments. hwang sung-hee has the details.

the korean government and the ruling grand national party have reached an agreement to help low -wage workers and protect the rights of temporary employees. the gnp said friday that the two sides decided to set aside 240-billion won,... roughly 220-million us dollars, for next year's budget... to support the employment insurance and national pension fees of low-income earners. a worker earning less than 1-hundred-20 percent of minimum wage and working 15 hours or more a week at a company with five employees or less... will meet the criteria for this latest employment support package. while such worker pays half of his or her insurance fees under the current system,... the government will be covering one-third of the fees starting next year. moreover, the two sides agreed to enforce measures to end discrimination against temporary contract workers... who often receive different welfare benefits from regular employees that carry out the same task. temporary workers

make up more than 21 percent of korea's workforce,... which is the fourth-highest among oecd nations. and a list of guidelines for employers will be released... to secure fair pay and welfare benefits for non-regular workers. as for the violators of the new regulations... they may face up to a 93-thousand dollars fine. the two sides also agreed to publicize details about non- regular positions within a company... to encourage businesses to shift their non- regular employees to regular workers. however, the plans were slammed by major business organizations in korea... as such regulations could become burdensome for employers, leading them to dismiss their non-regular workers. hwang sung-hee, arirang news. the korean government plans to expand economic ties with south asia... as a measure to diversify its export market. the ministry of strategy and finance says... it has agreed with 12 related ministries to boost cooperation with south

asian nations... like india and pakistan. it will focus on a range of sectors including construction, infrastructure, and energy. some of the plans include... sending more development aid to the region by opening two new trading centers in india by 2015... and doubling financial support for korean projects in the region by 2013. us president barack obama delivered a fiery speech to congress on thursday... calling for immediate action on a package of spending initiatives and tax cuts... designed to jump-start the world's largest economy. yang ji-woo reports. english "the people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities. the question tonight is whether we'll meet ours. the question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy." us president barack obama unveiled a 450

billion us dollar plan before the us congress thursday night, local time... to boost jobs and re- ignite the ailing us economy. in a nationally televised speech... obama urged bipartisan efforts to pass the bill... asking republicans to embrace his "american jobs act" by the end of this year. english: "it will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled and give companies confidence that if they invest and hire there will be customers for their products and services. you should pass this jobs plan right away," obama's jobs package consists of 250 billion dollars of tax relief by adopting payroll tax cuts...halving taxes to 3-point-1 percent on their first five million dollars in payroll. the deal would also see investment in the nation's infrastructure and schools at roughly 80 billion dollars... and an extension of unemployment

insurance costing 49 billion dollars amid the nation's eroding economic data with its jobless rate now standing at 9-point-1 percent. some observers have cast doubt about whether obama's package could win bipartisan support in washington... since winning congress' approval mostly depends on winning support from republicans. in addition... the republicans are now the backbone of the house of representatives...and are eyeing the presidential and congressional elections in november next year. meanwhile.. experts in seoul expect obama's proposal to boost korea's capital markets. yang ji-woo, arirang news. the us chamber of commerce says it's confident that the korea-us free trade deal will be approved by congress... in the next six... to eight weeks. lee ji-yoon has more. while the fate of the long-delayed free trade deal between korea and the us still hangs in a cloud of partisan wrangling,...

the us chamber of commerce has expressed confidence that the deal will be approved in the next six to eight weeks. john murphy, vice president for international affairs at the chamber told reporters thursday,... that he expects president obama and congress to approve the three pending deals with korea, colombia and panama soon,... saying that the standing of these deals is actually quite high in terms of growing bipartisan consensus. noting how the chamber has been laying the groundwork for years on the trade pacts, murphy also said,... the uscc will step up efforts to ensure that the deals are approved before obama hosts the annual meeting of leaders from the asia- pacific region in mid- november. he also emphasized that the chamber of commerce supports a bipartisan trade adjustment assistance program compromise negotiated by the white house and two key members of the house and the senate. the taa is a program that helps workers who lose their jobs because of increased imports or outsourcing that the trade agreements create,... but it's been a

tough deal to sell to republicans as the program is expected to add nearly 3 billion dollars to the deficit in five years. such an outlook comes just a day after the house approved the generalized system of preferences or gsp program,... which allows the import of goods from over 120 countries without tariffs. analysts say the passage of the gsp bill will likely smooth the passage of the three pending ftas. lee ji-yoon, arirang news. the european central bank has decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1- and-a-half percent.. after a meeting thursday in frankfurt, ecb president jean- claude trichet said the risk of slower growth in europe had intensified... amid a climate of enormous economic uncertainty. he also signaled that the bank was unlikely to raise rates soon. the ecb raised the benchmark rate by 25 basis points in april and july.

the oecd has warned that another global recession could be on the way... but it says any downturn is unlikely to be as bad as the one in 2008. the paris-based organization slashed its forecast for growth in the us and the eurozone this year due to government austerity packages and falling consumer and business confidence. in its twice-yearly economic outlook report thursday, the oecd forecast that the us economy will grow at an annualized rate of just four-tenths of a percent in the fourth quarter while the three largest economies in the eurozone will shrink by the same amount. the oecd says it is critical that policy makers use all the tools at their disposal to rebuild confidence. president lee will fly to the united states later this month... to attend the 66th un general assembly and a high-level nuclear safety meeting in new york. he'll then go to seattle... to meet with korean residents. yoo ji-hae tells us more. president lee

myung-bak is slated to visit the united states on september 20th... to attend the united nations general assembly... and a high -level nuclear safety city... and also stop by seattle on the way back... for a meeting with korean residents there. during his three-day stay in new york,... president lee is to make an official visit to the un headquarters,... celebrating korea's 20th anniversary since joining the organization,... and deliver a keynote speech at the 66th un general assembly. there, he is expected to express korea's commitment to support the un's efforts to promote peace and security, democracy, and human rights,... while proposing his vision on pursuing "ecosystemic development" internationally. ecosystemic development is a new model for market economy president lee proposed in his liberation day speech on august 15th... referring to narrowing the social gap, instead of increasing it, and seeking a humane society in which people embrace each other. the korean leader will

also attend a dinner hosted by un secretary-general ban ki-moon... to exchange views on current international issues and pending matters regarding the un... and hold summit talks with at least two leaders attending the general assembly... on the sidelines of the event. on the 22nd,... the third day of his visit,... president lee will make another keynote speech at a high-level nuclear safety meeting... aimed at discussing measures to strengthen efforts to ensure nuclear safety... following the nuclear accident this year in japan... triggered by a deadly earthquake and tsunami in march. in his speech,... he is expected to call for greater global efforts to step up the level of safety and transparency of nuclear facilities... and elaborate the significance of the upcoming nuclear security summit... set to be held in seoul next year. after wrapping up his new york trip... president lee will then fly to seattle on september 22nd for a two-day stay... to meet with korean residents there... before arriving home on the 24th.

stand-up / ed:dan "the presidential office said... president lee's attendance at the un general assembly will serve as an opportunity to reaffirm korea's willingness to play a significance role in the international community... while also boosting cooperative ties with the united nations. yoo ji-hae, arirang news." the us government says it has tightened security ahead of the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks... because of a potential threat against the country. oh jee-hyun has this story. the united states says it has a "credible but unconfirmed" threat ahead of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. this is fueling concerns... since notes were found at the late al-qaeda leader osama bin laden's compound... following the successful special forces operation in may... showing that he was planning strikes to coincide with the anniversary. while president barack obama has ordered a redoubling of counter- terrorism efforts,... us officials say the

possible plot,... is focused on washington dc and new york city... and that it is believed to involve three individuals and vehicle -related explosives. new york city mayor michael bloomberg told reporters thursday... that security in the city has been tightened,... but added that american citizens should continue with their daily routines. english "we do live in a world where we must take these threats seriously and we certainly will. the nypd is deploying additional resources around the city and taking other steps to keep our city safe, some of which you may notice and some of which you will not notice." in washington,... local officials said the city has been on heightened alert since the start of this month,... but they also urged citizens to remain clam and vigilant. a service marking the 9/11 anniversary will be held on sunday in new york... at the former site of the world trade center. oh jee-hyun, arirang news. in libya, the national transitional council's prime

minister delivered the first major speech in tripoli,... calling for unity in the country. and interpol issued a red notice warrant for the arrest of moammar gadhafi. park ji-won reports. the head of libya's national transitional council... mahmoud jibril... said on thursday in his first major speech... that the battles are not yet finished... and stressed the importance of the country's unity... until the fighting is offically over. while fugitive leader moammar gadhafi's whereabouts are still not known,... some southern cities are still in the hands of old regime loyalists... like gadhafi's hometown of sirte... and the desert town bani walid. the ntc has set a saturday deadline for these two towns to surrender. arabic "the meeting failed when the tribal leaders went back to bani walid and failed to reach an agreement to let anti- gadhafi forces enter the town peacefully. they sent in their elders, but gadhafi's

people also rejected their plan. we have two options now, either the surrender of the gadhafi supporters, but not the people of bani walid, or to use force to liberate all of meanwhile, the international criminal court asked the global police agency interpol for assistance... in arresting the fugitive leader for alleged crimes against humanity. interpol issued red notice warrants on friday for the arrest of gadhafi, his son seif al-islam, and his intelligence chief abdullah al-senussi,... following icc prosecutor luis moreno-ocampo asking the agency for help on thursday. park ji-won, arirang news. russia has begun operating a new pipeline that will provide gas... not only to russians... but also asian consumers in the future. kim yeon-ji has more. russia opened a new pipeline thursday that is designed to provide gas to its far eastern territories and,

potentially, asian consumers. the 18-hundred kilometer-long pipeline, the largest in the far east region, connects the untapped gas fields off sakhalin island, khabarovsk..., and the pacific ocean port vladivostok. russian prime minister vladimir putin attended the pipeline's opening ceremony... saying that residents in the nation's far eastern territories will benefit from the link that will provide natural gas at cheap prices. however, he added that the long-term goal of the pipeline is for it to grow into a hub that serves the energy needs of neighboring asian countries, including korea and japan. russia's national gas giant gazprom owns and operates the pipeline... which it says will be capable of transferring up to 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually. in the long-term, russia plans to build a new line that sends natural gas to south korea via north korea and connect it to the

sakhalin-khabarovsk- vladivostok line. although the development of sakhalin island's massive gas fields has topped russia's energy strategy for years, harsh conditions and the high cost of off shore drilling has slowed the process. kim yeon-ji, arirang news. taking a look at friday's stock market action,... the benchmark kospi finished lower... despite us president barack obama's new plan to create jobs. republicans gave a lukewarm response to the proposal... and questioned its effectiveness. the kospi closed 1-point-8 percent lower,... to finish at 18 -13. most of the top companies by market cap fell. samsung electronics lost more than two percent,... and posco, hyundai mobis, and hyundai heavy industries... all lost around three percent. meanwhile, the tech- heavy kosdaq lost nine-tenths of a percent. on the fx counter,... the korean currency weakened by two won... to finish at 10-77 against the us dollar.

tonight in sports... novak djokovic and rafael nadal are among a few of the big names who advanced at the us open on thursday after the rain cleared out. meanwhile, world champion sprinter yohan blake wins the 100 meter event at the zurich diamond league meeting. jimmy yu has more... hello, i'm jimmy yu and welcome to world sports. starting off with tennis...world number one novak djokovic reached the final-four of the us open on thursday when his serbian teammate janko tipsarevic retired with a leg injury. tipsarevic was clearly in trouble after the first two tiebreaker sets and the serb called it quits while trailing 7-6 6-7 6-0 3-0. on the other court, roger federer avenged his loss to jo -wilfried tsonga at wimbledon this year when he beat the frenchman 6-4 6-3 6-3 to reach the semi- finals. showing no signs of slowing down in his

first grand slam tournament as a 30- year-old, federer used his serve as a lethal weapon and whipped angled winners with his groundstrokes. meanwhile, former champion andy roddick fumed over the court conditions on thursday before shifting to another court to book his place in the semis. taking advantage of his powerful serves and forehands, roddick managed to dispose of fifth-seeded david ferrer 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-3. and defending champion rafael nadal welcomed the return of sunshine to flushing meadows by completing a resounding 7-6 6-1 6-2 victory over gilles muller to reach the quarter-finals. nadal had been trailing 3-0 wednesday after 16 minutes of play before the entire day's program was called off. elsewhere...britain' s andy murray also charged into the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-3 6-3 win over american wildcard donald young. the world number four wasted no time booking his place in the last eight by wrapping up the victory in just under two hours. on the women's side...top-

seed caroline wozniacki defeated andrea petkovic 6-1 7-6 on thursday to reach the semi-finals. the dane, aiming to claim her first grand slam title, squandered a 5-3 lead serving for the second set but broke petkovic in the 12th game to force a tiebreaker, which she won 7-5. lastly, serena williams struggled with her serve early on before finding her range to score a 7-5 6-1 victory over anastasia pavlyu-chenkova to also reach the semis. 06 women's world cup champions japan secured a place in the 2012 london olympics after australia beat china 1-0 in the final asian qualifying tournament. australia's win over host china guaranteed that japan will finish in the top two in the tournament being played in china. japan remains first in the six-team standings with 10 points, two ahead of north korea while australia moved up to third place with six points and china dropped to fourth with five points. well, that's it for sports. next up is your weather update.

hello, i'm yang un -jung with your weather forecast. it's friday and i'm sure many of you are excited about the long holiday weekend. but unfortunately,... it's shaping up to be a rainy or even a stormy one. we started off with a thick cloud cover and cooler than average temperatures friday morning with an increasing chance of showers starting from the southern region. this is mainly because of typhoon kulap, a small size tropical storm, that's quickly moving in a northwest direction from southern japan. this is going to bring some very heavy rain and strong gusty winds into the southern region including jeju island from saturday into sunday... with 80 millimeters or more. then from sunday into monday, the day of chuseok,... heavy rain will be concentrated in the central regions. so, keep that in mind, and for those of you who'll be driving, please be extra careful even though rain causes more traffic delays. here are your highs for saturday... seoul and gwangju will be peaking at 27 degrees tomorrow. daegu and busan will be one or two degrees

lower at around 25 or 26. daejeon will remain at 25 along with jeju. and dokdo will be at 24 and mt. geumgang will top out at only 19 degrees. taking a look at the international weather... most of japan will see more wet weather through out the weekend, and the southern regions especially will see heavier rain and strong gusty winds as kulap approaches. scattered showers for eastern and southern china as well. and more monsoon rain on the way for vietnam and thailand. down under... nice and sunny across north and west of australia,... but still big band of showers working its way from southeastern australia into new zealand. sydney, however, will avoid the rain as will wellington,... but melbourne and victoria will continue to be wet throught the day. flying over to north america... more showers and thunderstorms will stick around for much of the northeastern us on saturday. meanwhile,... most areas in the american midwest will dry out,

except chicago and along the mississippi valley. and some thunderstorms may break out in eastern california, but most of the west coast will stay hot and dry. down in south america... southeastern brazil will stay under fine and dry conditions with mostly sunny to parlty cloudy skies on saturday. showers in santiago will also clear out nicely, but buenos aires... is expecting cloudy and windy conditions. into europe... more heavy rain to come for moscow on saturday with cooler than average temperatures. london has a good chance of evening showers as well. but other than that... it's mostly fine and dry. lastly in africa... partly cloudy skies continue in dakar without a chance of rain. heavy showers in addis ababa will slightly taper off as well, but cape town will wake up to another soggy morning on saturday. that's all for today's weather. hope you have a terrific holiday weekend and i'll leave you with a look at your next 3-day forecast.