The ongoing revolution in Syria continues to be a big story on the network evening newscasts, and on cable news. Earlier this year we noted that Syria may be the most dangerous country yet for foreign journalists to report from, as ABC’s Alexander Marquardt recently experienced firsthand.

CNN’s Ben Wedeman, in a behind the scenes report, looks at what foreign correspondents have to deal with in order to get around Aleppo, currently a hotspot in the revolution.

NBC’s Richard Engel is also in the region, and appeared on “NBC Nightly News” from the Turkey/Syria border:

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Forty minutes into a 5-day window, North Korea launched a rocket from a facility in the northwestern part of the country. The launch, at 7:39am local time, was first reported on U.S. cable news 14 minutes later by CNN’s John King. The news was followed minutes later on Fox News, CNBC World, Fox Business and, at 7:13pm, on MSNBC.

ABC News led the way on the broadcast networks not only reporting that the missile had launched, but during a network special at 7:09pmET, correspondent Martha Raddatz reported that the launch was a failure. ABC’s Diane Sawyer anchored the special and also got phone reports from Jake Tapper at the White House and Bob Woodruff in North Korea. “We don’t have a chance to see the actual video of this launching,” said Woodruff, adding “We were thinking they were going to show it live to us in the press room.”

More than 100 foreign correspondents, including CNN’s Stan Grant, NBC’s Richard Engel and FNC’s Greg Palkot are reporting from North Korea this week.

Later in the evening, Engel went on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show to report he, and other correspondents only learned the news from colleagues stateside. “We were alerted by our own news desk,” said Engel, then telling what happened next:

We rushed into the press center, the only place that has internet, the only place that has computer access, and we saw our minder [who] said, “Are you ready? We’re going to go in a few hours to a music festival.” We said, “What music festival? There has just been a rocket launch.” We were met with a completely blank stare and he shrugged his shoulders and ran out of the room.

North Korea is slowly beginning to open up to more foreign media following the death of Kim Jong Il late last year. ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff will be reporting from the country all this week. Likewise, NBC’s Richard Engel is in the country and filed a report this morning on “Today.”

Update: CNN is there too, with senior international correspondent Stan Grant repping the cabler. It is a busy week in North Korea, with a planned rocket test launch, as well as the 100th birthday of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung.

Woodruff first reported from the country in 2005, with trips back in 2008 and 2010, where he witnessed the public introduction of current leader Kim Jong Un in a parade. Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren has made three trips to North Korea, in the last four years, most recently last May.

Pres. Obama has called a 1:15pmET Super Tuesday news conference — his first solo newser in five months.

NBC’s Brian Williams will anchor a special report beginning at 1pmET across NBC stations with David Gregory, Savannah Guthrie and Richard Engel among those taking part. Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor for ABC News and will be joined by ABC’s senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper. CBS’s Scott Pelley will anchor a special report with reporting from Norah O’Donnell. Bill Hemmer will anchor a special report for FOX affiliates. The cable news nets will also carry the news conference.

On the agenda: Obama’s meeting Monday with Israeli P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu, the economy, gas prices, the GOP primary and his own re-election campaign.

TV news analyst Andrew Tyndall has released his latest report, the 2011 network news year in review. As usual, he listed the most frequently used network correspondents for the year.

This year, the top five were: ABC’s David Muir (right), with 343 minutes of airtime, ABC’s Jake Tapper with 283 minutes of airtime, NBC’s Richard Engel with 246 minutes, NBC’s Chuck Todd with 226 minutes and CBS’ Nancy Cordes, also with 226 minutes. Last year Tapper and Muir led the pack, though their positions were reversed.

What stories received the most coverage on the network evening newscasts last year?

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A year ago today we wrote about one of those annual “predictions” stories. It was from Mashable’s Vadim Lavrusik who had a host of predictions for the news media in 2011. This was No. 6:

6. The Death of the ‘Foreign Correspondent’

Lavrusik, who is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s journalism school, argued that news organizations would rely “heavily on stringers and, in many cases, social content uploaded by the citizenry.”

How right he was… and wasn’t.

While much of the video from the Arab Spring and Japanese earthquake & tsunami — two of the biggest stories on the planet this year — was user generated: captured on smartphones, uploaded to video sites and shared around the world on social networks, it took the network correspondents to put into perspective what we were seeing, to interview some of those captured on video (or who captured the video), and put into greater context what it all means. That’s really their job. So that at the end of a 1-minute 45-second package or 2-minute live shot, we all have a better understanding of the story.

This year, the networks did not rely “heavily on stringers,” the news was simply too broad and complex and the competition too great. No network wants to be left out.

So they dug deep into their pockets and sent in correspondents and anchors to report what was happening. Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer, Anderson Cooper, Scott Pelley, even Barbara Walters have all traveled the globe this year for their networks. ABC’s Christiane Amanpour racked up more stamps on her passport and NBC’s Richard Engel and CBS’s Lara Logan — who

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CBS News, NBC News and, for the first time, Al Jazeera English, have just been announced as winners of the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards.

CBS News “60 Minutes” will be honored for Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan‘s report from the frontlines of the war in Afghanistan, and NBC News, along with Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel, will be honored for breaking news coverage of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Al Jazeera English will receive its first duPont silver baton for a documentary about shortcomings in the recovery efforts in Haiti and NOVA, on PBS, will be honored with a duPont award for a documentary on Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.

“This truly dynamic group of news organizations and journalists represent the best in broadcast and digital news reporting,” said Bill Wheatley, duPont Jury chair and former executive vice president of NBC News. “Journalists are using technology in new ways to effectively tell these important stories covering the news, issues and events that are critical to our society.”

In all, 14 awards will be presented during a ceremony on Thurs., Jan. 19. CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley and Michele Norris from NPR will host the 70th anniversary of the duPont awards, presented each year to honor excellence in broadcast and digital journalism.

TVSpy has more on several local news stations who will be honored with duPont Awards.

At 11:28pmET, U.S. cable news networks broke into coverage as the final U.S. combat troops crossed from Iraq into Kuwait, creating a lasting image for the end to the 8-and-a-half-year war, which was officially declared over on Thursday. CNN/U.S. and CNNI simulcast coverage with Hala Gorani and Don Lemon co-anchoring. Michael Holmes reported from Kuwait, Arwa Damon from Baghdad and Martin Savidge, who traveled the 5-and-a-half hours with the American convoy, reported by phone (and later, around 12:27amET, via livestream from inside an MRAP vehicle) after crossing into Kuwait. CNN/U.S. stayed live until MidnightET (CNNI until 12:30amET) and included interviews with soldiers at Camp Virginia, Kuwait.

On Fox News Geraldo Rivera and Greg Palkot reported live from Kuwait, with the final MRAP truck crossing over at 11:38pmET / 7:38am along the Kuwait/Iraq border. “I have tears in my eyes, so emotional,” said Rivera, who is on his 11th trip to the region. Fox News wrapped coverage at 11:46pm.

MSNBC produced a 4-minute special report with Richard Engel live in Kuwait. Engel too, traveled with the U.S. convoy. “So much has transpired when they crossed this berm in 2003 going North,” said Engel. “They were on their way to topple a dictator. Now they are crossing this berm again. The dictator has been toppled and the troops are going home.”

In his first TV interview with an American outlet since the uprising began in his country earlier this year, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad will speak to ABC’s Barbara Walters.

Walters questioned Syria’s leader on the human rights violations the UN has said his government is committing, as well as the harsh treatment and crackdown of protestors. The interview will air across all of the ABC News platforms on Wednesday, December 7, including a special edition of “Nightline” dedicated solely to Syria.

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For her first assignment since joining CBS News, foreign correspondent Clarissa Ward secretly visited Syria, where foreign journalists have been banned in an ongoing attempt by President Bashar al-Assad to quell opposition.

“I had all sorts of things I wanted to see that I felt American audiences had not been able to see,” Ward tells TVNewser.

Ward entered the country alone on a tourist visa, spending two days in Damascus before she felt comfortable reaching out to an underground network of government defectors she interviewed for the series, which begins this evening.

“I had already been in contact with a network of activists before going in, and once I went in I went to Damascus I posed as a tourist for a few days to make sure I wasn’t being followed,” Ward, who speaks Arabic, says. “I was fortunate that I really did slip under the radar.”

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