Assad's Wife Pregnant

Bashar al-Assad has taken time out of his schedule extinguishing thousands of lives to create a new one, at least according to a Lebanese paper sympathetic to the Syrian leader. The paper mentioned the pregnancy of Assad's wife, Asma, in an article that described the leader as confident of victory in the country's civil war, the New York Times reports. Rumors surfaced months ago that Assad's 37-year-old wife had become pregnant in June—one of the war's bloodiest months.

There are few other examples of leaders adding to their families during similar conflicts and, considering what tends to happen to the family members of leaders on the losing side, maybe Assad "really does believe what he says about his popularity and impending victory," writes Max Fisher at the Washington Post. Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, is rumored to have a second love child with a former Olympic gymnast. (More Bashar al-Assad stories.)