hello and welcome. in seoul,... i'm eoh jin- joo. and i'm devin whiting. korea's benchmark stock index fell below the psychologically significant 17-hundred -point level friday...closing at its lowest level in almost 15 months. the fall comes amid concerns over european debt woes and the possibility of another recession in the us. our kim han-ul reports. seoul's shares

nosedived 5-point-73 percentage points on friday to break the significant 1700 point level... the biggest daily percentage loss in 5 weeks... with foreign investors taking flight amid growing debt problems in europe and an increasingly grim u.s. and chinese economic outlook. the benchmark korea composite stock price index plunged 103-point-11 points to close at 1-thousand- 697-point-44... the lowest close nearly 15 months. most shares ended in the negatives led by a sell-off by foreign investors who sold more than 670 billion won or roughly 570 million us dollars worth of shares on friday. crude oil refiners, shipbuilders and carmakers took the hardest hit. meanwhile, asian stock markets were not spared either. stock markets in taiwan and thailand fell more than 3 percentage points, while indexes in hong kong and singapore fell around 1 percent. japan's stock market

was closed for a holiday. currency wise, the korean won weakened against the us dollar by two and a half percent since monday... to close at 1-thousand -1-hundred-66 won on friday... joining the steep decline in other asian currencies this week. stand-up "but stock experts say even with the foreign investors taking flight, a radical pull out is unlikely because of to the weakening korean won. kim han-ul, arirang the korean government and the central bank agreed to actively respond to any abnormal movements in the foreign exchange and financial markets. the bank of korea and ministry of strategy and finance said in a joint statement that... the two share the view that the recent dollar-to- won exchange rate is one-sided... and that they will take action to ease the trend if needed. korean won tumbled against the dollar this week... amid heightened uncertainties in the us and europe,... reaching a one-year low on thursday. and in related

news,... korea's finance minister bahk jae-wan made clear,... that the government is not considering another round of currency swap lines with the united states. he said,... the korean government will... instead... focus on improving the global financial safety net. our lee ji-yoon has the details. the korean government will focus on improving the global financial safety net instead of introducing further countermeasures to alleviate worries over a possible dollar shortage. this is according to finance minister bahk jae-wan,... who is currently in washington to attend the annual meetings of the international monetary fund and the world bank. during an interview on thursday,... bahk expressed concern over the korean economy's vulnerability to external volatility,... amid global market jitters. he said, volatility in capital flows in addition to foreign- exchange rates poses the biggest risk to korea's economic outlook. with the us federal reserve's gloomy economic outlook disappointing markets this week,... the korean currency weakened by

almost 30 won on thursday,... to close at 1-thousand-179-point-8 won against the us dollar,... the highest level in a year. however, according to minister bahk,... the korean government is not considering another round of currency swaps like in 2008,... when the bank of korea signed a temporary currency swap deal with the federal reserve as worries grew about a liquidity crunch in korea. instead, seoul will focus on improving the global financial safety net. he said, the korean government does not plan to implement additional countermeasures due to the country's continued current account surplus, lower unemployment rates, and increased foreign exchange reserves. bahk, however, urged cooperation among the group of 20 nations to avert another global financial crisis while encouraging europe to swiftly resolve its debt problems. lee ji-yoon, arirang news. meanwhile,... the governor of the bank of korea has stressed that... the central bank will try to meet its inflation goal of four percent for this year. the bok said,

however, that... it would keep its policies flexible... to control rising prices. arirang's song ji-sun has more. bank of korea governor kim choong -soo has stressed that the central bank will try to meet its inflation goal of four percent for this year,... but it will not put pressure on the economy in doing so. during a visit to washington for annual world bank and imf meetings, kim said... the bok's inflation goal remains at four percent... with plus or minus one percent of range for the next three years. kim, however, underlined the importance of flexible policies in achieving the targets,... noting that unyielding policies always fail... in periods of economic volatility. citing inflation control as one of the central bank's major roles, kim added that the economy evolves dynamically,... and that inflation comes as a result of economic activities. kim said he did does not think the united states would slip into a new recession,... calling the world's largest economy resilient

despite tepid growth... adding that it is unlikely the us economy would again shrink for two straight quarters. despite high unemployment, weak consumption and housing market woes in the us,... kim said that the state of us businesses was "not that bad" with continued investment in facilities and software. the governor explained that one percent decrease in us growth would mean point-4 percent less growth in korea. song ji-sun, arirang the head of the international monetary fund christine lagarde has warned world leaders once again,... that the global economy is entering a 'dangerous phase',... and has called for collective measures... to head off a crisis. with more,... here's kim na-ri. imf chief christine lagarde claims the global economy is entering a dangerous and worrying phase and she is urging world leaders to take cooperative actions to cope with the crisis. english "what needs to happen is that medium-term, long- term, solid well-

anchored measures that will actually aim at restoring good public finances by reducing deficits, by stabilizing debt and gradually reducing it." speaking at the opening of the world bank-imf annual meetings in washington thursday... ms lagarde said the crises in the european union and us were threatening the entire world economy... and that the heavy debts could suffocate the global economic recovery. lagarde also said... the global policy should not be driven by day-to -day investor's panic. english "and we really try to look at the fundamentals of economies, we try to look at the policies that have been decided and more importantly, the implementation of those policies." related to that, billionaire investor george soros told cnbc... that the european debt crisis is more of a threat to the global economy than the collapse of investment bank lehmann brothers in 2008.

soros also said the united states is already in a double-dip recession... blaming the republican party's opposition to president obama's jobs and tax policies for steering the economy away from recovery. meanwhile... the leaders of korea, the united kingdom, australia, canada, indonesia and mexico have sent a joint letter to the g20... that calls on euro zone countries to act swiftly to resolve the euro crisis. the letter urged all european economies to confront the debt overhang... to prevent it spreading further afield. kim nari, arirang president lee myung-bak has arrived in seattle,... on his way back to korea... from the un general assembly in new york. upon arriving,... president lee held talks with the governor of washington... and met with korean residents there. our yoo ji-hae, who's traveling with the president,... files this report... from seattle. president lee myung-bak arrived in seattle thursday, local time... after wrapping up his three-day stay in new york... where he attended the un

general assembly and a high-level meeting on nuclear security. upon his arrival... president lee held talks with washington state governor christine gregoire... on regional ties between korea and america's northwestern region, the korea-us alliance and the pending free trade agreement between the two countries. he then, attended a meeting with local korean residents later in the day... where he spoke highly of their contribution and respect they have earned within the american community... while calling for their active participation in next year's elections. the korean leader also said that it is likely that the pending korea -us free trade agreement will be ratified... possibly by his upcoming state visit to washington next month. he stressed that the pact could serve as a win-win situation, especially for the state of washington... as the region has high production of agricultural goods and lumber... as well as cutting-edge technology and aviation industry for exports. meanwhile... before his departure to seattle from new york... president lee delivered

a keynote speech at a high-level meeting on nuclear safety thursday morning... stating that despite the accident at the fukushima daiichi nuclear power plant last march... it should not be the cause to renounce nuclear energy... while emphasizing the need for transparency of nuclear facilities... and regional cooperation. lee also participated in an interview by bloomberg news... where he elaborated on korea's plans to build a natural-gas pipeline from russia to north and south korea... saying that he does not consider it a far- fetched dream... but a project beneficial for everyone involved. he stated that south korea is aware the russians and the north koreans have been discussing the issue... and that progress is being made. stand-up "on friday... president lee is slated to hold a breakfast meeting with microsoft founder bill gates... to discuss measures to boost cooperative ties between the korean government and the bill and melinda gates foundation... before arriving home on

korea's trade minister kim jong- hoon says... the united states is mindful of president lee myung-bak's state visit to washington next month... and so... congress will likely take up the korea-us free trade deal before then. speaking to reporters in washington thursday,... the trade minister said... the white house and the republican house leadership will likely discuss the pact next week,... following the senate's approval of the trade adjustment assistance bill this week. kim predicted that the white house will submit the house- backed legislation... as early as the first week of october. the minister indicated that the korean national assembly plans to ratify the deal after the us... and so both sides could finish the process by the middle of next month. the 1-hundred-51 member states of the international atomic energy agency,... have unanimously passed a resolution calling on north korea to suspend all of its nuclear programs. choi you-sun has this report. the international

atomic energy agency unanimously adopted a resolution thursday, calling on north korea to bring an end to its nuclear development programs and abide by its nonproliferation responsibilities. the resolution, which also raised grave concerns over the north's uranium enrichment program, passed at the global body's annual general conference in vienna, a year after failing to secure support from arab countries. the 151-member iaea then fully endorsed the six-party talks launched in 2003 to denuclearize north korea, commending the parties involved, namely the two koreas, the us, china, russia and japan, for their efforts to resume dialogue stalled since 2008. welcoming the news, south korea's envoy cho hyun stressed that despite the six-party efforts to denuclearize the north, the international community must continue to condemn pyeongyang's nuclear ambitions. cho added anything other than a repeated strong denunciation, would only encourage the north korean

regime to disregard the international community's calls for its return to the denuclearization process. the iaea also adopted an action plan on nuclear safety, containing measures highlighting transparency that aim to reinforce the safe use of nuclear energy around the world in the aftermath of the post- quake nuclear meltdown at japan's fukushima power plant. choi you-sun, arirang news. south korea is reportedly developing its own version of us patriot missiles. these long-range missiles, which are capable of traveling more than double the distance of the original missiles, will be used to intercept north korean ballistic missiles or fighter jets at high altitudes. military sources say the state-run defense agency for technology and quality... will complete preliminary research the on long- range surface-to-air missiles by the end of this year... while the military plans to set up basic outlines for further development until early next year.

with just over a month left until the by- elections, the race for seoul mayor is heating up. lawmaker na kyung- won of the ruling grand national party has joined the race. kang seok-ho reports. with about one month left until the october 26th by- elections, the race to fill the seat vacated by former mayor of seoul, oh se-hoon, is heating up with a number of hopefuls declaring their intention to run in recent days. and on friday at the party headquarters, the ruling grand national party's senior lawmaker na kyung- won declared her candidacy. korean "there's a lot of talk of non- politicians running for the seat surging up and gaining popularity, and that only one candidate should represent the pan-ruling camp. i will not run for mayor with a purely political mindset. i will not just use sweet words or beautiful ideas as my reasons to become the next mayor. i will only look forward to working for the citizens of seoul."

on her ability to administer the city with 10-and half million people, na said what seoul needs is a mediator who can resolve the issues and lead the citizens toward reconciliation, and a professional politician like herself is a suitable candidate. stand-up "with na having officially entered the mayoral race, the candidate field includes lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties, as well as two leading independents representing the pan- ruling and pan- opposition camps." former legislation minister lee seog- yeon appeared on radio interviews on friday and said he is open to the idea of picking a single and unified candidate to represent the pan- ruling camp between himself and the gnp's nominee to be selected in about ten days. the four main opposition democratic party lawmakers seeking the party's nomination held a televised debate on friday afternoon before the selection set for this sunday. the dp has finally settled on the selection

rules that will not give an advantage for female candidates. and park won-soon, who has led the pack so far... met with reporters and said he has never acted against his ideals of helping the underprivileged and promoting a culture of sharing. kang seok-ho, arirang news. a poll conducted by yonhap news shows... the opposition parties' unified candidate park won- soon ahead of na kyung-won in public support in next month's mayoral race. laah hyun-kyung has the details. a recent poll shows that... park won -soon, whose public support hiked from a single digit after korea's popular it expert ahn chul-soo publicly announced his backing for park, leads the ruling grand national party's strongest candidate, na kyung-won, in a hypothetical two-way seoul mayoral race. in a survey conducted by yonhap news, in association with 12 polling agencies... park shows as high as 18- point-8 percentage

points lead over the gnp's front-runner. taking a look in detail,... interviews conducted for three days from this past tuesday with 700 respondents on landline telephones indicate that... park received nearly 43 percent support,... overtaking na with seven percentage points. interviews conducted during the same period with 500 respondents on mobile phones reveal that park is ahead of na with almost 19 percentage points,... where nearly 50 percent of those interviewed said they would support park. and three other surveys using on-line and ivr polling with a total of 25-hundred respondents... all reveal that the lawyer turned civic activist is in the lead. however, analysts say because people responding to these kinds of surveys tend to be young,... there is still a lot of room for change depending on how many of these respondents will actually make it to the polling stations on the election day. laah hyun-kyung,

moammar gadhafi's former prime minister, al baghdadi ali al-mahmoudi,... has been arrested in tunisia. he's the most senior member of the former libyan regime to be detained since the government's overthrow by nato- backed rebels according various media sources,... al- mahmoudi was caught near the country's border with algeria,... and jailed for six months for illegal entry. sources suggest that the former pm will be handed over to libya,... to face investigation as tunisia recognizes the new ruling national transitional council in tripoli. news of al-mahmoudi's detention came on the day the united states formally re-established its embassy,... in the libyan capital. the number of obese people in the world... has surpassed the hungry... for the first time according to a new report,... but the hungry are facing a worsening food crisis. a report by the international federation of the red cross shows that 1- and-a-half billion people,.. or a quarter of the world's population,... were obese last year,... while 925 million were

undernourished. the agency warns... that global hunger has been exacerbated by rising food prices. a red cross official says,... problems with distribution,... waste and skyrocketing prices are to blame for the unequal access to food,... especially in poorer developing countries. a bus-sized satellite is expected to crash to the earth sometime on friday afternoon, eastern daylight time,... or the early morning hours on saturday... here in seoul. nasa issued a warning earlier this week,... saying certain parts of the satellite could slam into the earth. hwang ji-hye tells us more. a twenty-year-old satellite, the size of a bus, is expected to crash into the earth sometime on friday afternoon, eastern time... or early saturday morning in korea. nasa said earlier this week that... the non-functioning upper atmospheric research satellite will mostly disintegrate and partially melt,... as it burns up in the earth's atmosphere. the 6-ton,10-point-6 meters long satellite

was launched in 1991... to gather information over chemical compounds found in the ozone layer which affect ozone chemistry and processes. the satellite has also been measuring winds and temperatures in the stratosphere and the energy input from the sun. experts from nasa say that... 26 'potentially hazardous' pieces ranging from about half a kilogram to over 150 kilograms will fall from the sky,... as the satellite re-enters. english "there are some pieces that are made of stainless steel and titanium and beryllium that have very high melting temperatures and those pieces will survive. we have a list of about 26 pieces." the debris will miss north america... but apart from that... nasa still does not know exactly where the pieces will fall. experts say there is a one in 3,200 chance that a piece will hit a person somewhere on the planet and for one person specifically the risk is one in 21 trillion. however,... there are some concerns that some debris could hit a heavily populated area.

english "if the thing happens to come down in a city that would be bad. the chances of it causing extensive damage or injuring someone are much higher." the chance of korea being hit is slim,... as the peninsula makes up such a tiny part of the earth's surface. hwang ji-hye, arirang the wives of foreign envoys to korea enjoyed a special outing on muuido... a beautiful island that belongs to the city of incheon. the event was prepared to give the ladies a chance to experience traditional korean culture. our kim yeon-ji reports. the wives of foreign ambassadors to korea... representing 27 countries got a chance to experience traditional korean culture on friday on muuido... an island off the coast of incheon. the ladies wore traditional korean vests... specially designed for both traditional beauty and comfort. and a group of traditional musicians welcomed the guests with upbeat korean folk music, poongmul. korean "today's event is to show these

world representatives the beautiful landscapes of incheon... a jewel city not so widely known among foreigners. more importantly, we wanted to have them experience korean traditions." after the host's welcoming remarks, the wife of uzbekistan's ambassador to korea offered a speech in appreciation. english "we will make a great contribution to promote mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation between our people and our countries." the ladies visited the island's popular attraction, hanagae beach,... and there they enjoyed walking on the soft mud flats barefoot. english "this island is very beautiful. in romania, we have beaches, beautiful ones also. but they are crowded, populated and not natural. so this is beautiful. you can come here and relax." after enjoying the serenity of the beach, the group visited the house featured in the popular korean drama,

"stairway to heaven". there, the ladies had a tea party with rice cakes. english "i tried the sweet potatoes. they are just delicious. we grow them in kenya too, and i am happy i was able to taste the korean variety." after a hearty korean meal, the group ventured out to the sky bridge by farmers' tillers... a kind of transportation unique to farming villages. walking up on the bridge that stands high above the waters, they admired the clear sky and the open ocean. and here, this multicultural group sang songs in unison... which showed their friendship and harmony. stand-up "the day's event was a great chance to showcase traditional korean culture to the women representatives of 27 countries... and introduce the city of incheon, the host city of the 2014 asian games." kim yeon-ji, arirang

this year marks the 1000th anniversary of the production of the tripitaka koreana,... a collection of korean buddhist scriptures. to celebrate the occasion,... a festival kicked off on friday,... near haein temple in south gyeongsang province. the event, which will run until november sixth,... will give vistors a chance to learn about the the printing blocks from the goryeo dynasty in the 13th century,... as well as korean tradition and culture through exhibitions, performances and symposiums. the tripitaka is the oldest and most comprehensive version of buddhist canon in woodcut,... which has been added to unesco's memory of the world program. hello, i'm peter bint and welcome to world sports. stoke city are the next team in the firing line for early pacesetters manchester united in the premier league this saturday, as they play hosts to the champions at the britannia stadium. park ji-sung will be looking to build on his two assists and impressive all-round performance midweek in the carling cup but it remains to be seen whether manager alex

ferguson will stick with the south korean playmaker for the premier league tie. stoke are looking to bounce back from their 4-0 hammering at sunderland last week, but stopping a scintillating manchester united side that have scored 21 goals in their opening 5 games is going to be a tall order. in the bundesliga son heung-min could return to the starting line-up for hamburg after missing 3 weeks with injury. hamburg prop up the table with just 1 point, a dreadful start to the season that saw coach michael oenning fired this week. fans will be hoping that son can replicate his early season form and inspire a run of results to steer the club clear of the relegation zone, starting against stuggart tonight. the pga's money-spinning tour finally in baseball, the new york yankees clinched the american league east after a doubleheader victory over the tampa bay rays to enter major league baseball's postseason for the 16th time in the last 17 years. after coming from behind to win the early game 4-2, the yankees got a go-ahead two-run single from jorge posada in the eighth

inning to win by the same score in the second. scenes of wild celebration from the 27-times world series champions followed after clinching the eastern division. well, that's it for sports. next up is your weather update. hello i'm yang un jung with your weather forecast. we have absolutely beautiful fall weather in store for the weekend, a high pressure system will continue to ensure us clear blue skies and lots of warm sunshine during the afternoon. so it's definitely great weather to enjoy some outdoor activities, in fact there are a lot different festivals going on this weekend, such as the "eye love walking" contest at the dduksum resort and also there's a rock festival at nanji park, so if you're interested these are a few outings you can consider. temperature wise... we're still looking at a big gap between our morning lows and afternoon highs... there's almost

a 10 degree difference, so make sure you have a jacket or a cardigan when you're heading out. seoul is expected to reach 25 degrees. 26 in daegu and busan. gwangju will be the warmest city once again at 27. daejeon and jeju both will see highs of 25 degrees. dokdo stays at 21 and mt. geumgang at 14 degrees. taking a look at the international weather... it's going to be fine and dry across most of japan, you guys can look forward to some decent sunshine as well on saturday. just about the same for beijing, lots of sunshine and warm temperatures there as well in shanghai. but further south in china... heavy rain clouds will push into vietnam during the day tomorrow. down under... there will be a few showers in the eastern coastal regions of australia; this includes brisbane, cairns and sydney on saturday. melbourne should be dry but fairly cloudy. down in new zealand... showers are developing in the

southern islands which will turn into more persistent rain throughout the weekend. into north america... showers and thunderstorms will affect the northeastern u.s throughout the weekend, with a possibility of localized flooding in virginia to new hampshire. chicago may also see showers as well. but far across california will continue to stay under clear sunny skies with highs coming down to the mid 20s. down in south america... a band of showers will pass through southeastern brazil sometime on saturday, so have an umbrella handy if you're there. meanwhile santiago and buenos aires will enjoy their typical sunshine, as usual. into europe... moscow and rome are expecting one or two showers in the evening. but other than that... most cities will stay precipitation-free... with mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies. lastly in africa... algiers and dakar have a good chance for some showers during the day on saturday, but addis ababa's only expecting a few raindrops in the

evening. cape town will climb a couple of degrees to 24 with a lot of sunshine. that's all for today's weather. have a fantastic weekend and i'll leave you with a look at your next 3 day forecast. that's it for those of you outside korea.