Midday Roundup: What's happened to North Korea's Kim Jong-Un?

Missing man? North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hasn’t been seen in public for more than a month, and analysts are scrambling to figure out what’s behind his absence. Speculation ranges from a serious illness to a possible coup. The country’s ruling party, founded by Kim’s grandfather, will celebrate its 69th anniversary tomorrow, and the world will be watching to see whether Kim makes an appearance. Three senior North Korean officials who visited South Korea last week for the closing ceremonies of the Asian Games, assured their counterparts Kim was healthy. U.S. and South Korean officials say they have no evidence of a coup, but information is hard to come by in the secretive country.

Settlement. The Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and its former president, Edward Blews Jr., have settled a dispute over the circumstances of Blews’ termination almost a year ago. Although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, Blews said in a statement he and the organization “parted ways because of philosophical differences over leadership approach vis-à-vis the culture of the Council and because of fundamental differences in management style and priorities.” Blews had sued for $2 million, claiming the CCCU breached his contract and besmirched his reputation. In his statement, Blews said he “prayerfully extended his best wishes”to the CCCU. In turn, the organization tried to put to rest assumptions about Blews’conduct. “There was no legal or financial wrongdoing nor any moral turpitude on Dr. Blews’ part,” it said in a statement.

Painful revelation. One of the passengers on the Malaysia Airlines flight brought down over Ukraine earlier this year was wearing an oxygen mask, Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans revealed yesterday during a television interview. The previously undisclosed finding suggests not all of the passengers died immediately. Investigators are still trying to determine whether the passenger put on the oxygen mask or whether it might have been placed around his neck after the crash. Experts had previously said the plane would have broken apart too quickly after being hit by a missile for the passengers to react or even be aware of what happened.

Another shooting in STL. Protestors are once again taking to the streets in St. Louis after an African-American teenager was shot to death by a white police officer. Vonderrit Myers Jr., an 18-year-old police described as “no stranger to law enforcement,”fired at the off-duty officer, who was working for a private security company at the time. The officer, who has not been identified, returned fire, squeezing off 17 rounds. Family members claim Myers had a sandwich in his hand, not a gun. Investigators are trying to piece together what happened. About 200 protestors filled nearby streets after the incident. Some chanted “hands up, don’t shoot,”a reference to the Michael Brown shooting in nearby Ferguson, Mo., in August.

Word prize. French writer Patrick Modiano has won this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. Modiano, who has been awarded numerous other literary prizes, writes about the German occupation of France and how it affected his country. The Swedish Academy chose Modiano “for the art of memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of the occupation.”