Morning Brief, Monday, August 6

Middle East

ANWAR AMRO/AFP/Getty Images

A special parliamentary election won by a Christian party aligned with Hezbollah is rocking Lebanon's fragile political system.

As the rest of the Middle East burns, the Gulf is booming. At the same time, facing growing unrest, employers in the United Arab Emirates are improving the working conditions of imported laborers.

The U.S. military says it killed a top al Qaeda leader responsible for the Golden Dome bombing in Samarra.

Turkey is inching closer to attacking northern Iraq. 

Europe

Hoof-and-mouth disease is back in England. 

Hizb ut-Tahrir, a controversial Islamist group that calls for the reestablishment of the Caliphate, held a boisterous conference in London.

Nicolas Sarkozy supports an investigation into whether France made an arms-for-hostages deal with Libya. 

Asia

This year's monsoon season is wreaking havoc in South Asia. 

British soldiers in Helmand, one of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces, are making surprising progress against the Taliban.

Speculation is growing that exiled former PM Benazir Bhutto could forge a pact with President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan.

Prostitution is on the rise in China. 

Elsewhere

The co-president of Bear Sterns was forced to resign over a worsening subprime mortgage crisis that has struck the investment firm especially hard.

All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve Bank this week as it ponders how to react to the worsening credit market.  

U.S. President George W. Bush signed into law a massive expansion of the U.S. government's eavesdropping powers.

Today's Agenda

• President Bush finishes two days of talks at Camp David with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. Karzai will meet Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf later this week.
• Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is set to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jericho, the West Bank, to discuss an "agreement of principles" for peace.
• IAEA officials are due to discuss the Iranian nuclear program in Tehran.
• Nicolas Sarkozy marks his first 100 days as president of France by demanding that photographers leave him alone while he vacations in New Hampshire.
• The world's largest unmanned systems (read: roboplanes) exhibition opens in Washington, DC.
• Today is the 62nd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.