Khalil Hamra/AP

Suspicion between rebel groups in Syria raises the specter of further violence if Assad falls—and makes the idea of intervention fraught and complex. Mike Giglio reports.

Riad al-Ahmad, an Army lieutenant when Syria’s revolution began, defected to the rebels’ side early in the conflict. In Latakia, the coastal stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Ahmad made a name for himself as a bold and reliable commander. As his stature grew, he attracted funds from foreign donors, a coveted resource in the rebels’ desperate war effort, which he used to arm his fighters. In late January, Ahmad was resting in the Turkish city of Antakya, 12 miles from the Syrian border, when he received a call from a man who said he had money to donate.

FSB Public Relations Center/AP

Authorities in Moscow claim to have arrested an American spook wearing wigs and carrying an incriminating letter.

In an episode resembling an Austin Powers parody, Russian authorities on Tuesday announced the arrest of a man they claimed to be a CIA spook working as he tried to recruit a Russian citizen for a large sum of money in Moscow.According to the Russian Federal Security Service, the man who they identified as Ryan Christopher Fogle is an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow but worked undercover for the American intelligence agency.The FSB agency, which succeeded the KGB, put out a statement about the arrest and released what officials said were several photos of the detention to Russian journalists.

Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty

Ex-generalissimo Efrain Rios Montt is guilty of crimes against humanity during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war. Mac Margolis on how this time, his war will be fought from a prison cell.

Guatemala is no powerhouse. Dwarfed by Mexico to the north, this land of 13 million is best known for its impoverished indigenous population, Mayan ruins, vast banana groves, and a bumper crop of dictators. Now all that may be changing.The country's High Risk Tribunal has just found former army general Efraín Ríos Montt guilty of crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in the 36-year civil war that took more than 200,000 lives and tore this Central American nation apart.

Arrested in connection of Malcolm Shabazz killing in Mexico City. (PGJDF/AP)

Waiters at the bar where he was beaten.

Mexican authorities on Monday arrested and charged two men with the murder and robbery of Malcolm X’s grandson Malcolm Shabazz, who died after a bar fight in Mexico City. David Hernández Cruz and Manuel Alejandro Pérez de Jesús are both waiters at the Palace Club, a bar in downtown Mexico City where Shabazz ended up with fatal skull, jaw, and rib fractures. Authorities are also seeking two other bar employees. Shabazz reportedly went to the bar with Miguel Suárez, a friend, a fight broke out over the tab, and the two men were separated. What happened next is still unclear, prosecutors said. Shabazz’s body is still in a morgue in Mexico City as the American Consulate works to have him returned to the U.S.

Read it at The New York Times

Pakistan's incoming P.M. Nawaz Sharif on Monday in Lahore. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty)

But says he wants a good relationship with the U.S.

Nawaz Sharif hasn’t even been officially declared Pakistan’s prime minister, and he’s already criticizing the U.S. drone strikes. Sharif, poised to become the next prime minister of Pakistan after this weekend’s election, said Monday that U.S. drone strikes are a violation of his country’s sovereignty—although he insisted he wanted a good relationship with Washington. Sharif, 63, frequently criticized the U.S. while on the campaign trail, and he had criticized the former government of pandering to Washington in exchange for aid. The U.S. drone strikes are hugely unpopular in Pakistan, where many believe they kill innocent civilians. But Sharif insisted he would “extend full support” to the U.S. in the military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014.

Read it at Associated Press

Monks wait for ferry in Yangon on Monday. (Khin Maung Win/AP)

Only one survivor.

A boat capsized off the coast of Burma late Monday, killing nearly 200 people on board—although United Nations officials said there was one survivor. Burmese authorities said the vessel struck rocks off the coast, although other reports indicated that one big boat was towing two smaller boats without engines. The passengers were fleeing the oncoming Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to hit Thursday and Friday and the U.N. has warned could lead to “life-threatening conditions.” Burmese authorities reportedly moved over 5,000 people from low-lying areas to Sittwe, the capital of the western Rakhine province. Nearly 20,000 Rohingya Muslims are living in Pauktaw in Rakhine after fleeing last year’s ethnic violence.

Read it at Al Jazeera English

Mohammad Sajjad/AP

Sharif, Pakistan’s former prime minister, once faced possible execution. Now he will return to the nation’s highest office. Bruce Riedel on the inside story of Sharif’s odyssey.

Nawaz Sharif is the comeback kid of Pakistani politics. With his party’s electoral victory, he is poised to become prime minister for an unprecedented third time. The Sharif odyssey has been remarkable—but now we will see if he can convert his victory into a new beginning for his deeply troubled country and our own tortured relations with it.Sharif, 63, was born into money as the scion of a very wealthy family in Lahore. He entered politics to protect the family’s industry from nationalization.

Antonio Calanni/AP

A vicious spate of copycat acid crimes has shocked the European country—and reveals a deep-seated culture of violence against women. Warning: graphic images below.

When Vania Del Col, 31, opened her door to her Vicenza apartment last Thursday, she found two hooded men waiting for her. They forced their way into her home and pushed her to the floor. Then they poured acid from a glass bottle on her, severely burning her arms and buttocks. The assailants also threw acid on a dog in the adjacent yard. Del Col had survived a brutal rape by an ex-boyfriend in 2002 and the man, who served just under four years for that attack, is the primary suspect, though his whereabouts are unknown.

AP

Turkish officials were quick to tie two deadly car bombs to Syria, arresting nine men they said were linked to Syrian intelligence. Mike Giglio reports on the fallout—and Prime Minister Erdogan’s Washington visit this week.

Abdul Majid was a schoolteacher in Aleppo before Syria’s civil war reached the city, and like many Syrians—some 25,000, according to the local government—he now calls the Turkish border town of Reyhanli home. On Saturday evening, after a trip out of town, Majid was headed back to Reyhanli on a public bus when it was stopped and boarded by police. The officers had a warning for the Syrian passengers: when they got to Reyhanli, they should hide.

Musadeq Sadeq/AP

For four years, foreign correspondent Heidi Vogt was always one of the first people to file when a bomb went off in Afghanistan. But as U.S. troops begin to draw down, there is also a corresponding press drawdown that will prevent Americans from hearing the full story.

KABUL, Afghanistan — The first thing is always the boom. Then the rattling of window frames. Then I look up from my computer for someone to make eye contact with. My Afghan colleague does the same. “Was that?” “Did you feel?” We both rush for the stairs, running up to the roof to look for smoke. As I go, I flip through other options in my head: Earthquake? No. Gas tank explosion? Unlikely. The military blowing up a weapons cache? Maybe.When I reach the roof, the photographers and cameramen are already there.