on this edition of arirang news for tuesday, september 20th... president lee myung-bak leaves for new york to attend the united nations general assembly and other events. lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties question officials from the financial services commission over the recent savings banks scandal on the second day of the annual audits of government ministries. a report says north korea has carried out cyber attacks on south korea's national health and welfare database system more than 40 times this year. that's nearly four times the

figure in 2010. and standard and poor's cuts italy's long and short-term sovereign debt ratings by one notch citing the country's weakening growth prospects. hello and welcome. in seoul,... i'm eoh jin- joo. and i'm devin whiting. president lee myung-bak left for the united states on tuesday... to attend the un general assembly... as well as a high-level nuclear safety meeting in new york. on the sidelines of the meetings,... president lee will hold summit talks with other heads of state and make a stop in seattle before returning home on saturday. arirang's yoo ji-hae tells us more. president lee myung-bak left for new york tuesday... to attend the united nations general assembly and other events. upon his arrival on wednesday, korea time... the president will receive the world statesman award presented by the appeal of conscience foundation... for his contribution to world peace, democracy and human rights.

the following day... lee will make an official visit to the un headquarters... to deliver a keynote speech at the 66th un general assembly. in his speech... lee is expected to speak about koreas position on the un security council reform... while proposing his vision on pursuing "ecosystemic development" internationally... a new model for market economies...which is aimed at narrowing the social gap between the rich and the poor. on thursday, president lee is to make another keynote speech at a high-level nuclear safety meeting... aimed at discussing measures to ensure the transparency of nuclear facilities... while elaborating on the significance of next year's nuclear security summit to be held in seoul. on the sidelines of the un meetings... lee is also to hold summit talks with the leaders of japan and peru. after wrapping up his new york trip... the president will head to

seattle to meet with korean residents there... and hold a breakfast meeting with business tycoon bill gates before arriving home on saturday. yoo ji-hae, arirang news. meanwhile, korean prime minister kim hwang-sik has offered a public apology... for last week's power outage... that affected large parts of the country. during a cabinet meeting tuesday morning,... kim apologized to the korean public for putting their lives and safety at risk,... and hampering the livelihoods of business owners. the prime minister says,... he will set up an inspection team... comprising representatives from all government ministries,... to determine the exact cause of the incident and identify those responsible. it was day two of the annual audits on government ministries... at korea's national assembly. there,... the latest scandal involving the nation's savings banks took center-stage. our laah hyun-kyung reports. on the second day of audits, legislators of the national

assembly's policy committee questioned officials from the financial services commission about how dozens of local savings banks have all ended up being suspended for liquidity shortages. lawmakers from both the ruling grand national party and the main opposition democratic party said that... the government's attempt to calm depositors by assuring it was safe to leave their savings in the banks had only made things worse...for the suspension of these banks only led customers to lose more money. korean "six banks have avoided suspension but it is highly likely that they managed to get away by a small margin. i think information on those banks should also be available for the public." "even those that received government's financial aid have ended up being suspended. this is the reality where the government's words of 'fairness' and 'transparency' simply cannot rebuild the broken trust." meanwhile, korea's prosecutor general han sang-dae proposed a joint investigation team with

other financial regulators such as the financial supervisory service and korea deposit insurance corporation in order to conduct a thorough investigation on the scandal... while pledging to root out corruption in the nation's financial sector. and during the strategy and finance committee's audit on the finance ministry,... next year's two potential presidential candidates voiced the needs to reduce the amount of capital spent on building social infrastructures and spend more on improving the nation's social welfare systems instead. korean "i believe we can reduced reduce the country's social overhead capital by ten-percent" "we need to invest more in human capital and that is what our society demands as a welfare policy." a total of 13 standing committees at the national assembly will continue their audits on government offices until october 8th. laah hyun-kyung, arirang news.

a recent report shows... north korea is trying harder to break into south korea's national health and welfare database. this is raising great concern... as personal information in this database... could be used for possible north korean terror attacks in the future. kim han-ul reports. north korea has attempted to hack into seoul's national health and welfare database system 41 times this year... up from 11 times last year. this is according to a report released tuesday by national health and welfare committee lawmaker yoon seok-yong . the report shows that pcs with north korean ip addresses attacked the national health insurance corporation a staggering 24 times... while the health insurance review and assessment service and the national pension service were attacked six and five times, respectively. the main target, the national health insurance corporation, holds the personal information of millions of south korean insurers and their dependents.

yoon has expressed concern that these individuals could potentially become targets of north korean terror attacks. the lawmaker also pointed out that the health insurance review and assessment service holds sensitive medical records about millions of south koreans... which could be used as a reference for potential chemical warfare. plus, the national pension service holds information on investment plans and monetary transactions... and this could be used to fund north korea's activities. yoon added that cyber attacks on seoul's national health care database systems have jumped six times from 2009 to 2010... and stressed that the health ministry's current level of security is poor and called on the national intelligence service to make further investigations. kim han-ul, arirang and south korea's key military facilities,... including the defense ministry and the joint chiefs of staff, may be helpless against potential north korean electronic attacks. that's the opinion of grand national party lawmaker chung mee- kyung

tuesday,... who analyzed reports received from the agency for defense development and the defense acquisition program administration... for the annual parliamentary audit into defense agencies. the reports indicate that... south korea does not have the technology to defend itself from electromagnetic pulse bombs... also known as emp bombs from north korea,... and that they can only fend off less- damaging electromagnetic interference at this point. emp bombs can damage high-tech defense systems and communication networks within a certain range. the agency for defense development says... it will try to develop technologies to protect military facilities against emp attacks over the next japanese media report... that a recent decision by a group of north koreans to defect to the south... was greatly influenced by south korean tv soap operas and movies. according to the asahi shimbun,... one of the nine north koreans who left the north for japan on a

boat earlier this month,... told investigators that he decided to defect... after seeing the streets and the people of south korea on television. however, the man added that... although he didn't have any extra food in the north korean military,... his unit did not see shortages. the south korean government is expected to bring the defectors to seoul,... once japanese officials finish their investigation. standard and poor's ratings services has lowered both long- and short- term credit ratings for italy by one notch, which shifted the country's short-term ratings from a high to an upper-medium grade. s&p cited the country's heavy debt... and the lack of popular support for the italian government's austerity measures. kim yeon-ji has the details. standard and poor's ratings services on monday downgraded italy's long-term sovereign credit rating by one notch from a+ to a, while its short-term rating was lowered from a-1+ to a-1..., citing the mediterranean country's heavy debt

load and tepid political leadership. italy is the eurozone's third largest economy... and currently suffers a deficit to gross domestic product ratio of 120-percent, one of europe's highest. the european central bank had called for stiff austerity measures from italy, for which prime minister silvio berlusconi submitted a proposal consisting of higher taxes, pension reform and spending cuts. while berlusconi received the parliament's final approval for his austerity measures last week..., s&p projects that italy's reduced pace of economic activity is likely to limit the effectiveness of the government's plan. the ratings agency forecasts that the country's gdp will grow at an annual average of zero-point-7 percent between this year and 2014..., well below its earlier projection of 1-point-3 percent growth rate. meanwhile, some say that italy's downgrade has more to do with its fragile governing coalition.

experts say prime minister berlusconi is not gaining enough support for its austerity budget from the italian people. the approval rating of berlusconi, who is also meddled in a bribery scandal, has plunged to 20-percent. the head of redefine, a brussels- based economic think- tank, said that the current financial crunch is a downgrade of eu and italian politicians. italy's borrowing costs have risen steadily in recent weeks, despite the european central bank's buying of its bonds. analysts warn that the italian debt crisis can negatively affect french and german banks, as they are exposed to italy. at the news of another eurozone debt crisis, south korean firms have quickly turned to minimize impacts of italy's downgrade and a potential drop in demand for their goods. the downgrade cast fears among stockholders in korea, and is expected to affect broader investment sentiment. kim m yeon-ji, arirang news.

s&p's downgrade of italian debt has raised concerns over issues facing greece and the eurozone as a whole. world economic and political leaders are striving to rein in the situation. our song ji-sun has more. standard & poor's decision monday to lower italy's sovereign debt rating by a notch, caused concerns over the debt crisis in the eurozone to soar, especially in greece which is coming under intense pressure to bring forward a drastic round of public sector job cuts. the country will continue talks with the imf and the european union on tuesday after being warned to tighten austerity measures and ramp up state asset sales to secure rescue funds and stave off bankruptcy. over in washington, us president barack obama held a teleconference with german chancellor angela merkel... and the two leaders agreed that concerted action would be needed in the coming months... to address the situation in the euro zone... while world bank president robert zoellick said european policymakers

must tackle the region s debt crisis without relying on others... as ripple effects from the area begin to reach developing countries. zoellick added that the global recovery is far more fragile than it was earlier this year as concerns over european solvency and cooling us growth are disrupting markets in emerging economies, where export demand has already begun to slow. song ji-sun, arirang news. us president barack obama is telling america's wealthiest citizens they have to pay more taxes. speaking at the white house on monday, obama asked congress to raise taxes on the rich to cut the country's deficit. hwang sung-hee reports. us president barack obama has put forward a three trillion us dollar plan to cut america's deficit... by raising taxes on the rich. speaking at the white house on monday, the

president called for 1- point-5 trillion dollars in new taxes,... as part of the 10-year deficit reduction package..., and said wealthy americans should pay their fair share. english "for us to solve this problem, everybody, including the wealthiest americans and biggest corporations have to pay their share." obama vowed to veto any effort by congressional republicans to cut medicare benefits for the elderly without raising taxes as well. his plan would end bush-era tax cuts for top earners and limit their deductions. the president's plan has been sharply criticized by republican lawmakers, who insist that tax increases should play no part in taming the nation's escalating national debt. anticipating the criticism, obama said the middle class should not pay higher rates than millionaires. english "it is wrong that in the usa, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns 50-thousand dollars should pay higher tax rates than

someboy pulling in 50 million dollars." us treasury secretary timothy geithner explained the principle of setting a minimum tax rate for people earning more than one million dollars a year, also known as the buffett rule. english "the basic principle at the heart of the 'buffet principle' is that if you're among those fortunate few in the us, we should make sure you pay, as a share of income and taxes, more than what a middle class family pays." the deficit cut proposal will go to a congressional "super committee" charged with finding up to 1- point-2 trillion dollar in deficit cuts by november. however, although the white house believes its populist pitch is one that can win public support, many experts say obama's plans have little chance of passing congress. hwang sung-hee, arirang news. a leading us think tank has called the country's pending free trade agreements with korea, colombia and panama necessary for a "pro-america" trade policy.

the study released monday by the council on foreign relations ... says the us must become a "thriving trading nation" to boost jobs and income. the authors of the report, which include george w. bush's former chief of staff andrew card and former senate majority leader tom daschle,... say political gridlock has harmed the nation's interests. it outlined several proposals revitalize the us economy through trade. the us senate has taken a step forward to pass america's stalled free trade deals with korea, colombia and panama. the senate voted on monday to debate a bill passed by the house... that would renew the system of preferential tariffs for developing countries. before sending the bill back to the house... democrats plan to attach an aid package, known as trade adjustment assistance, to help us workers hurt by overseas competition. now president barack obama could submit the three trade deals to congress... or wait for the house to pass the tariffs and the aid for

workers. the obama administration has said approving the agreements would spur job growth in the us economy. people traveling to thailand usually choose to stay at the country's famous resorts... or visit well- known destinations in city centers. but to expand the tourism industry,... and offer more diversity,... the thai government is developing new activities for foreign tourists. arirang's kang seok- ho files... this report from thailand. foreigners traveling to thailand visit many famous spots in the capital bangkok, such as khao san road. this street, which is very popular with foreign tourists due to its proximity to the city center..., is filled with shops and bars offering a variety of activities. english "because of the cheap food, cheap drinks, the night life, markets, the clothes, the massage. diss the good times, really, yes. it's very convenient for everything, so it's a really good place to just relax."

and for those tourists who have travelled far from home... there are plenty of ways enjoy the vibrant atmosphere. english "yes, because this is the main street of bangkok, everybody from all over the world comes here, there is a lot of cheap stuff, and good food, a lot of bars and good energy... so i love to be here." this area is crammed with bars for visitors to unwind with friends and have a good time. stand-up "and thailand has more to offer than its famous street markets and resorts, such as eco-tourism spots and physical rejuvenation clinics away from the city centers." other than simple sightseeing and trying local food at street stands, thailand is trying to offer a new type of tourism activities, one of which is practicing a type of living style for better health. at a longevity clinic outside bangkok, tourists can receive a

range of treatments to enhance their health, from traditional thai massages to detoxification through volcanic rock heat treatment. english "longevity center is unique, high technology and among the botanical atmosphere, it's near by the river of chachoengsao, and the surroundings have so many interesting tourist places, so you can mix between treatment entertainment and detoxification. diss mainly we have so many from the united arab emirates, middle east, some from singapore, and thai business people." already attracting foreigners to the clinic, the government hopes these kinds of activities can become new engines of growth for the country's tourism industry. kang seok-ho, arirang news, thailand.

syrian forces have reportedly killed at least 75 anti- government protesters over the past four days... as demonstrations calling for president bashar al -assad to step down... intensify. according to human rights groups... the most recent deaths occurred in the city of homs... which has been the site of much of the violence. the clashes come as opposition groups have been moving to set up councils... to unite the nation's various religious and ethnic groups. since protests began late january... over 36 -hundred people have been killed... and 30- thousand protesters have been detained. 11 and over in libya..., rebel forces claimed on monday that they were advancing on sabha, the desert territory occupied by gadhafi's tribe... and where moammar gadhafi himself is believed to be hiding in the vicinity. according to a national trasitional council spokesperson,... ntc forces seized the sabha airport and other areas of the city. however, ntc fighters are still struggling to take the two major gadhafi strongholds,... sirte and bani walid.

efforts to claim the last remaining gadhafi strongholds have been left to disjointed brigades based on fighters from individual cities. dengue fever has killed at least 40 people in pakistan since july. local health authorities in the country's second largest city lahore say... thousands more have been infected by the tropical disease... which is mainly transmitted by mosquitoes. according to a world health organization official,... immunity to the disease falls about every two years as the virus mutates. but critics say,... the outbreak could have been less severe... had authorities used the right insecticides against resistant mosquitoes. to stay safe,... health officials advise people to cook their food thoroughly and keep a korean research team has discovered the country's oldest dinosaur fossil footprints. the fossils, found in north chungcheong province, are important not only because they are the oldest in

korea,... but also because they are of a type rarely seen anywhere in the world. hwang ji-hye has the details. korea's oldest dinosaur fossils have been found in yeongdong county, north chungcheong province. earth science professor kim jeong- ryul ,... who has been researching the area since last may,... said on monday,... that his team has discovered dinosaur fossil footprints,... that are between 130 to 140 -million years old,... which means they are from the cretaceous period,... also known as the "chalk period." these newly- discovered fossils are 10 to 20 million years older than the ones found in south gyeongsang province in 2006. around a hundred fossilized footprints were found in yeongdong county,... and they include fossils with visible tail tracks... that are rarely found anywhere in the world. korean "in fossilized footprints of carnivorous dinosaurs,... 3-point-6 meter-long dinosaur tail tracks are found. these kinds of fossils have never been found in korea before." the fossil footprints of

the meat-eating dinosaurs are about 23 centimeters long and 16 centimeters wide,.... while those of their herbivore counterparts are almost three times larger. the earth's oldest fossilized footprints of birds with webbed feet,... that are between 120 and 130-million- years old,... as well as plant fossils were also discovered by professor kim's team. korean "natural heritage is very important these days. these fossils are meaningful in that they will promote further research on dinosaurs, the evolution of birds, and paleogeography." based on the discoveries, yeongdong county says it is planning to designate the fossils as natural monuments and construct a natural history museum. hwang ji-hye, arirang news. taking a look at tuesday's stock market action,... the benchmark kospi ended higher... as gains in tech firms and shipbuilders outweighed worries over italy's credit downgrade. the kospi rose about 1 percent,... to 18-38,... while the tech -heavy kosdaq also

closed 1-and-a-half percent higher,... at 4- 70. on the fx counter,... the korean currency weakened by 11-point-4 won... to close at 11-48 against the us dollar,... hitting a nine-month low. tonight in sports...korean park chu-young will soon make his debut for premier league's arsenal after making the move from as monaco over the summer. meanwhile, in baseball, mariano rivera confirms that he is the best closer of all time, as he recording his 602nd save. jimmy yu has more... hello, i'm jimmy yu and welcome to world sports. starting off with football....although korean striker park chu-young has yet to feature for the gunners, manager arsene wenger has

confirmed that park will start against shrewsbury town. the 26-year-old has proven himself to be lethal across all positions in the forward line and wenger was more than generous in praising the korean's feel on the pitch as well as his versatility. many fans have been eager to see park to start his first game as the former monaco player was obtained only in the final minutes of the summer transfer window. arsenal will host shrewsbury town on tuesday in the third round of the carling cup. again and again over his 16-year career and now it's official: mariano rivera is the top closer in baseball history. the seemingly ageless right-hander recorded his 602nd career save on monday in the new york yankees' 6-4 win over the minnesota twins, placing him at the top of baseball's career saves list. rivera, who soon turns 42, also leads baseball with 42 career postseason saves and ranks ninth all-time in games pitched. the 12-time all-star was named mvp of the 1999 world series after recording a win and two saves in the

yankees' four-game sweep of the atlanta braves. wrapping up...the country of spain celebrated their european basketball championship on monday with their sights now set on the olympic gold next year in london. spain had once again proven its supremacy in europe by retaining the championship over france and now looks to topple the united states, the top basketball squad in the world. for now, pau gasol and tournament mvp juan carlos navarro were just some of the national squad members to celebrate with fans in madrid on sunday. well, that's it for sports. next up is your weather update. hello i'm yang un jung with your weather forecast. continental high pressure from northern china will continue to keep us cool and dry for wednesday. mostly clear sunny skies are expected nationwide tomorrow, except the eastern

coastal regions with partly cloudy skies under the influence of an easterly winds. here are your temperatures for wednesday the gap between our morning lows and our afternoon highs will be wider... so we'll wake up to an even cooler morning tomorrow. seoul will start off with only 12 degrees in the morning then reach 23 for the afternoon. gwangju's also dropping to 13 in the morning... daegu will wake up to 15 then 24 during the day. busan will be couple higher at 17 then 25 for the afternoon. daejeon's dropping to 12 just like the capital... then 24 later on. dokdo and mt. geumgang... will drop to 19 and 5 in the morning...then reach 22 adn 13, respectively. taking a look at the international weather... stormy conditions are very likely in tokyo tomorrow winds will gust at 40 to 50 kilometers per hour with showers and thunderstorms, so watch out. most of china's looking nice and dry under plenty of sunshine, this includes shanghai and hongkong as well.

bangkok should see a mix of sun and clouds with a chance for thunderstorms, and manila with more scattered showers and thunderstorms. down under... sydney has sunny spells for another day. melbourne and victoria... will dry out nicely as well... but cloudiness will still linger. wellington has the same story... no precipitation for tomorrow... but instead, cloudy skies. into north america... new york will be mostly cloudy during the day then there will be showers later on in the day, similar in washington d.c partly cloudy then scattered showers and thunderstorms developing for the afternoon, but temperatures will rather warm up a couple of degrees. chicago will also start off with a few showers early in the morning, but the sky will clear out by the afternoon. down in south america... there are a lot of clouds in the picture. rio de janeiro, sao paulo and santiago... will all see mostly to partly cloudy skies throughout the day. but buenos aires will

stay away from those clouds, so clear sunny skies are expected there. into europe... moscow and paris will see a partly cloudy day tomorrow, with 16 and 22 respectively. other than that... most cities will continue to enjoy sunny spells and clear skies, so enjoy it. lastly in africa... dakar's mostly looking rainy and stormy, but you can still see some sunshine in between. addis ababa's only expecting one or two showers during the evening. and cape town downsouth is finally returning to its typical sunshine. that's all for today's weather. have a great evening and i'll see you back