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Fantômas — even his name is mysterious! The French criminal mastermind starred in a series of 19 deliciously pulpy novels beginning in 1911. Author Rachel Cantor says the series is "part police procedural, part gothic horror story, part courtroom drama, part Sherlockian mystery, part existential potboiler."

In her new book of essays, I See You Made an Effort, comedian Annabelle Gurwitch muses on middle-aged life. Critic Heller McAlpin says that the book, infused throughout with "sharp wit," is hilarious.

The chief minister of India's most populous state came from humble origins, but Mayawati, as she is known, has not been shy about displaying her wealth. Recently, the show of opulence at a political rally — where she accepted a garland made entirely of money — seems to have gone too far, even by her standards.

Connoisseurs of the rarified sport of cricket still speak in whispers of the scandal, 34 years ago, when an Englishman was accused of rubbing Vaseline into the ball to make it swerve more. That affair pales by comparison with the uproar in Australia this week when Pakistan's captain was caught on camera biting a cricket ball like an apple. Ball-tampering is considered the worst form of skullduggery in the so-called Gentleman's Sport. The loudest protests have come from Pakistan's arch-rival, India.

CNN talk show host Pier's Morgan testified under oath to a British judicial inquiry into media ethics. Morgan ran Rupert Murdoch's now-folded tabloid News of the World. He left that paper for the Daily Mirror, and his tenure there, too, was marked by scandal.

Marie Colvin, an American who was the Sunday Times of London's chief war correspondent for a quarter of a century, was killed Wednesday. Colvin was in the embattled Syrian city of Homs and died alongside a French photojournalist and one of Syria's best known citizen journalists. All three died in a district of Homs which has been under bombardment by Syrian government forces since early this month.

the past few months, Pakistan's Pakistan's army has lost control of the Swat Valley to the Taliban. It has now launched an operation to win the valley back, but victory will difficult: The Taliban is highly organized, and uses hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.

Nearly a year after President Bush declared the Taliban had been ousted from power, Afghanistan has seen its bloodiest year yet since the American occupation. NPR's Philip Reeves, in Kabul, discusses the Taliban's recent resurgence.

House Republicans nominated a new speaker today, but plenty of party division remains. The tally was 113 to 99 for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who beat out Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.

Pakistan has a democratically elected government, but the power of the army is growing and so is that of the man who runs it.