By William J. Broad and Choe Sang-Hun
 Published: December 17, 2012

 
On Wednesday, December 12, 2012, North Korea launched a small
satellite into orbit atop a large range rocket. This was considered a huge
triumph for Kim Jong-il’s son and successor, Kim Jong-un. But since the rocket
was launched, there have been signs that the satellite is not working as it
should be and it is possibly tumbling in orbit and could even be dead. Dr.
McDowell said “It’s clear that the rocket part of this mission worked very well
for the North Koreans, they ended up in the right orbit. But the preponderance
of the evidence suggests that the satellite failed either during the ascent of
shortly afterwards.”Astronomers have observed that the satellite gets bright
then dims as it presumably rotates through space. Astronomers have also not been
able to pick up a signal from the satellite which is another huge indication
that something went wrong. The North Korean government didn’t have any response
about the satellites dysfunction, but instead focused on how the launch was in
honor of the first anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-il, their longtime
leader. Mr. Molcazan, a sky watcher in Toronto who is tracking the satellite
said “It’s going to be up there for at least a few years. The real question is
whether the satellite is functioning. Right now, it looks like it’s rotating
aimlessly.”


 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/world/asia/north-korean-satellite.html?ref=world


 
 
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On December 2, 2012, this article was posted by David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt on nytimes.com. Recently, the United States have gotten news that the Syrian military is moving around chemical weapons. This lead the United States and many of our allies to warn President Bashar al-Assad that he would be ‘held accountable’ for any actions involving the chemical weapons he takes against the rebels who are fighting his government.

The United States isn’t only concerned about the Syrian military using chemical weapons against the rebels, but also the United States safety because the Syrian forces are not being clear about their intentions. One American official said “the activity we are seeing suggests some potential chemical weapon preparation” which is more than just moving stockpiles around.

‘A series of emergency communications among the Western allies’ occurred over the weekend and President Obama has been very careful about how to handle the Syria situation. “We consistently monitor developments related to Syria’s stockpiles of chemical weapons, and are in regular contact with international partners who share our concern,” an officer said over the weekend.  But Representative Mike Roger, a Michigan Republican, feels that we need to take greater actions to prevent anything drastic from happening, not wait to see what step the Syrians will take next. He released a statement saying: “We are not doing enough to prepare for the collapse of the Assad regime would be an extremely serious escalation that would demand decisive action from the rest of the world.”

Earlier in the year, there was threatening movement of chemical weapons. Having two consecutive events will most likely cause the United States to take greater actions to protect the United States and their allies. This could just be a bluff from the Syrians, but there is an unusually high amount of movement that ‘we’ve never seen before.’ The United States have ‘increased electronic eavesdropping and other surveillance activities of the chemical sites’ and troops are ready to report to the chemical sites when the Pentagon feels that they are needed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/world/middleeast/syria-moves-its-chemical-weapons-and-gets-another-warning.html?ref=world