“ North Korea says leader has reappeared ”

1. “North Korea says leader has reappeared”

2. North Korean state media has attempted to end the international speculation about the whereabouts of leader Kim Jong Un by publishing (in newspapers and on TV news) the first photos of him in more than a month. It was reported Tuesday that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, gave "field guidance" to a newly built residential district and visited the Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences. Kim hadn't been seen in public since September 3. It's his longest absence from official events since 2010, according to NK News, a website devoted to analyzing North Korea. In the undated photos, Kim was surrounded by officials and could be seen walking with a cane. He was smiling and didn't appear to be in pain. Kim's failure to appear fueled rampant speculation: Was there a power shift in the North Korean hierarchy? Could the young leader be ill?

3. In Other News The U.S. Air Force's mysterious unmanned space plane, the X-37B, is about to come back to Earth after more than two years in orbit on a mission the military won't tell us much about. The X-37B is expected to land at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the Air Force said. The base did not give an exact time for the landing, but a notice to aviators and mariners on the Federal Aviation Administration's website said airspace around the Southern California base would be closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT Tuesday. The X-37B "is designed to demonstrate reusable spacecraft technologies for America's future in space and operating experiments which can be returned to, and examined, on Earth," an Air Force statement said. "Technologies being tested in the program include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, re-entry and landing."