Morning Brief, Monday, November 19

Asia

JOHN MOORE/Getty Images

The United States is looking to recruit tribes in the frontier region of Pakistan to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban. 

Pakistan's new Supreme Court is proving to be just what the general ordered. Roughly 90 percent of the country's lawyers, however, are against Musharraf. And today, the opposition boycotted a meeting to discuss procedures for the upcoming elections.

Nearly 3,000 people are now feared dead from Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh. 

Cambodian authorities have detained a former top leader of the Khmer Rouge.

Middle East

Attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces in Iraq have fallen to their lowest level since February, 2006.

Regarding the upcoming peace conference in Annapolis, MD, "No one seems to know what is happening," an Arab diplomat told the Post's Glenn Kessler.

As a confidence-building measure, Israel will release some 450 Palestinian prisoners.

Europe

Several European countries are privately warning Kosovo not to declare independence after Saturday's elections.

Italy's former PM Silvio Berlusconi is plotting his political comeback.

The recording of King Juan Carlos telling Hugo Chávez to "shut up" has become a popular ring tone in Spain. 

Elsewhere

OPEC is looking into the impact of a falling U.S. dollar. "They get our oil and give us a worthless piece of paper," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained at the OPEC meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Meet Brazil, South America's newest energy powerhouse. 

Some in South Sudan are bracing themselves for war.

Today's Agenda

• U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is in Ghana.
• New York hosts the International Emmy Awards despite the ongoing writers' strike.
• U.S. and North Korean officials are meeting in New York.

Web Exclusives

• The List: Five Reasons to Be Thankful This Thanksgiving
  From Baghdad to Islamabad, doom and gloom dominate today’s headlines. And yet, a peek beneath the daily drumbeat reveals a world that may never have been better. Herewith, some of best reasons we should all give thanks.
• FPTV: Pakistan on the Brink
  An interview with Pakistani Amb. Mahmud Ali Durrani.