គ្រឿង​អលង្ការ​របស់​ម្ចាស់ក្សត្រី​ Elizabeth II របស់​អង់គ្លេស​នឹង​ត្រូវ​ដាក់​បង្ហាញ​ជា​សាធារណៈ​ដើម្បី​ប្រារព្ធ​ពិធី​មួយ​​ ​បន្ទាប់​ពី​បាន​​សោយរាជ្យ​អស់​រយៈពេល​៦០ ឆ្នាំ​មក​នេះ (៦ កុម្ភៈ ឆ្នាំ ១៩៥២ ដល់ បច្ចុប្បន្ន) ។

ក្នុង​ការ​ដាក់​បង្ហាញ​នេះ គេ​នឹង​ឃើញ​មាន​គ្រឿង​អលង្ការ​ដែល​ម្ចាស់ក្សត្រី​គ្រង​ចាប់​តាំង​ពី​ខួប កំណើត​ព្រះជន្ម ២១ ព្រះ​វស្សា រហូត​មក​ទល់​សព្វ​ថ្ងៃ​នេះ។ ការ​តាំង​ពិព័រណ៍​គ្រឿង​អលង្ការ​នឹង​បើក​ដំណើរ​ការ​រយៈ​ពេល ២ ខែ​នៅ​ក្នុង​រាជវាំង Buckingham ក្នុង​ខែ​សីហា ហើយ​ត្បូង​មាន​តម្លៃ​មួយ​ចំនួន​ទៀត​របស់​មហាក្សត្រ​ចក្រភពអង់គ្លេស​ដទៃ​ទៀត​ក៏​ដាក់​បង្ហាញ​ផង​ដែរ។ រឹត​តែ​អស្ចារ្យ​សម្រាប់​ពិព័រណ៍​នោះ​គឺ មកុដ​របស់​ម្ចាស់ក្សត្រី (Queen Victoria) ដែល​រុំ​ព័ទ្ធ​ដោយ​ត្បូង​ពេជ្រ​ចំនួន ១.២០០ គ្រាប់​ក៏​ដាក់​បង្ហាញ​ផង​ដែរ។ បន្ថែម​លើ​នេះ​ទៀត គ្រឿង​អលង្ការ​នីមួយ​ៗ​នឹង​មាន​ពណ៌នា​ពី​ប្រវត្តិ​ខ្លះ​ៗ​ឲ្យ​មហាជន​បាន​ជ្រាប។

ម្ចាស់ក្សត្រី Elizabeth II មាន​ព្រះ​នាម​ពិត​ថា Elizabeth Alexandra Mary ។ ទ្រង់​បាន​ប្រសូត​នៅ​ថ្ងៃ​ទី ២១ ខែ​មេសា​ឆ្នាំ ១៩២៦ ក្នុង​តំបន់ Mayfair ចក្រភព​អង់គ្លេស៕

When U.S. restrictions on work permits barred Intel from moving nearly 50 Finnish engineers to the United States this year, the microchip maker reluctantly parked them in a new research center in Finland.
U.S. and multinational firms are chafing at delays and difficulties securing visas that effectively require them to keep high-skilled workers abroad instead of expanding operations in the United States.

"Tech companies like ours follow where the action is and where the talent pools are," said Young Sohn, chief executive of the semiconductor maker Inphi.

That trend puts pressure on President Barack Obama to set aside his plan for a "comprehensive" overhaul of U.S. immigration policies -- at the risk of angering key Hispanic voters -- and fix the system of work permits and green cards for the likes of engineers and programmers.

"America can't afford to let high-skilled immigration reform remain attached to the controversies that surround comprehensive immigration reform more broadly," executives advising Obama on jobs and competitiveness said this week.

"Given the challenges our economy now faces in a global age, we all need to rethink," the chief executives from GE, Boeing, DuPont and other firms said.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also wants quick action on skilled workers because of Capitol Hill's resistance to the sweeping deal sought by Obama that would address undocumented workers and border security at the same time.

"I'm not sure you can do this whole thing in one great big bunch," Chamber President Thomas Donohue said. "We might have to do it a piece at a time. And this is the piece that we really ought to be able to get done in a big hurry."

'CRITICAL SHORTFALLS'

Even with 9.1 percent of Americans unemployed, there are thousands of vacancies in the U.S. manufacturing sector because the U.S. labor force lacks the engineering, computing and math skills companies need.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the cumbersome process to secure visas for top foreign graduates in the United States contributed to "critical shortfalls" in the software industry as well as electronics, pharmaceuticals and aerospace.

"Turning these students out of the country is, to put it bluntly, about the dumbest thing that we could possibly do," he said. "We cannot afford to keep turning away those with skills that our country needs to grow and to succeed. It is sabotaging our own economy."

The United States caps H-1B skilled worker visas at 65,000 a year and often hits the maximum within months, leaving limited options for top-skilled foreign graduates and experts.

And while it issues more than 1 million permanent residency "green cards" each year, only 15 percent are given for economic reasons to workers and their families, and those are subject to nationality quotas that pinch applicants from big countries.

Intel, whose CEO Paul Otellini is a member of Obama's jobs panel, learned in March that the annual cap had already been met for the permits it needed to move over the 50 engineers who previously had worked for Nokia.

The specialists now work in a new R&D center in Helsinki, but Intel said it would have preferred to have them do their mobile computing research in its U.S. facilities.

"Intel's R&D and manufacturing hub is in the United States. It is important to our business group managers to have the flexibility to move individuals with specialized technical expertise to the U.S. to collaborate with existing Intel teams," Intel's staffing manager Idan Zu-Aretz said.

'TECHNICAL FIX'

Labor unions have expressed concern that companies hire foreign workers because they can do so at a lower salary than Americans would accept.

But proponents of more skills-based immigration say the salary differential is overstated. They say immigrants tend to create jobs because they are twice as likely as U.S.-born people to start their own companies and can help improve access to foreign export markets.

Obama is likely to tread carefully on the issue of foreign workers because of his preoccupation with reducing the U.S. jobless rate as part of his 2012 re-election campaign.

Turning away from his "comprehensive" immigration approach could also alienate the Democrat from Hispanic voters who want to see help for the estimated 11 million undocumented workers and their families now in the United States.

Cecilia Munoz, the top immigration policy official at the White House, said the prospects for immigration reform depended on Republicans in Congress, who supported a comprehensive fix under the Bush administration but have since cooled to it.

"The challenge for anything in the immigration arena, including the broader immigration reform as a whole or any of these individual pieces, is the lack of bipartisan support," she said in a recent interview.

Scott Corley, head of the Compete America alliance of companies that includes Google, Wal-Mart and Cisco, said there was potential for piecemeal action on skilled immigration before the election.

A bill introduced in the House of Representatives to eliminate green card nationality quotas may be able to clear Congress as a first step, Corley said.

"It's a technical fix that we could do today," he said of the bill from Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz.

He added there was possibility of amendments to other pieces of legislation working their way through Congress.

Somalia's famine refugees, weakened by months of drought, on Monday began Islam's punishing Ramadan fast amid the tents and shacks of the world's largest refugee camp.
"Because of the famine, we've been going for days without any food anyway," said 25-year-old Mohamed Dubow Saman, comforting his daughter outside their emergency shelter in Dadaab camp, just over Somalia's border in neighboring Kenya.

"That was a fast without reward. At least this fast is inspired by God," he said.

Sick people do not have to keep the fast during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. But most camp-dwellers, caught up in the severest drought to hit the Horn of Africa in decades, appeared determined to keep to their traditions.

As the sun sank below the horizon late on Sunday, bathing Dadaab's makeshift city in a deep orange hue, Saman scanned the sky for the first sight of the crescent moon, which would mark the start of the month-long fast.

Like millions of fellow believers across the world, Saman was prepared to go without food or water from dawn to dusk and wait until night to eat his meager rations.

Ramadan comes at a tough time for the Horn of Africa's Muslim population. In parts of the drought-prone region the rains have failed for four straight years, pastoralists say.

The United Nations has warned the whole of southern Somalia is slipping into famine. In all, more than 12 million people are affected across the Horn.

A rebellion waged by Islamist militants has prevented the distribution of food aid in some parts of Somalia.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has embarked on a tour of countries in the region, kicking off with Djibouti over the weekend, to stress the importance of delivering aid within the country first, so Somalis do not have to trek elsewhere.

"We don't want our compatriots to have to make testing journeys to other countries to receive aid," he told Reuters

Apple Inc plans to launch a new iPhone with a faster chip for data processing and a more advanced camera in SepThe new iPhone will include the A5 processor along with an 8-megapixel camera, the report said, quoting two people familiar with the plans.

Apple is also testing a new version of the iPad that has a higher resolution screen, the report said, adding a cheaper version of the iPhone aimed at developing countries is also in the works.

Apple shares fell to $323.85 in trading before the bell on Wednesday. They closed at $325.30 Tuesday on Nasdaq.tember, Bloomberg said in a report late Tuesday.

Republican lawmakers are "playing with fire" by contemplating even a brief debt default as a means to force deeper government spending cuts, an adviser to China's central bank said on Wednesday.
The idea of a technical default -- essentially delaying interest payments for a few days -- has gained backing from a growing number of mainstream Republicans who see it as a price worth paying if it forces the White House to slash spending, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

But any form of default could destabilize the global economy and sour already tense relations with big U.S. creditors such as China, government officials and investors warn.

Li Daokui, an adviser to the People's Bank of China, said a default could undermine the U.S. dollar, and Beijing needed to dissuade Washington from pursuing this course of action.

"I think there is a risk that the U.S. debt default may happen," Li told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Beijing. "The result will be very serious and I really hope that they would stop playing with fire."

China is the largest foreign creditor to the United States, holding more than $1 trillion in Treasury debt as of March, U.S. data shows, so its concerns carry considerable weight in Washington.

"I really worry about the risks of a U.S. debt default, which I think may lead to a decline in the dollar's value," Li said.

Congress has balked at increasing a statutory limit on government spending as lawmakers argue over how to curb a deficit which is projected to reach $1.4 trillion this fiscal year. The U.S. Treasury Department has said it will run out of borrowing room by August 2.

If the United States cannot make interest payments on its debt, the Obama administration has warned of "catastrophic" consequences that could push the still-fragile economy back into recession.

"It has dire implications for the economy at a time when the macro data is softening," said Ben Westmore, a commodities economist at National Australia Bank.

"It's just a horrible idea," he said.

Financial markets are following the U.S. debate but see little risk of a default.

U.S. Treasury prices were firm in Europe on Wednesday, supported by a flight to their perceived safety on the back of the Greek debt crisis and worries about a slowdown in U.S. economic growth.

Marc Ostwald, a strategist with Monument Securities in London, said markets were working on the assumption that the U.S. debt story "will go away." But nervousness would grow if a resolution was not reached in the next five to six weeks.

'WOULDN'T HAPPEN'

The Republicans' theory is that bondholders would accept a brief delay in interest payments if it meant Washington finally addressed its long-term fiscal problems, putting the country in a stronger position to meet its debt obligations later on.

But interviews with government officials and investors show they consider a default such a grim -- and remote -- possibility that it was nearly impossible to imagine.

"How can the U.S. be allowed to default?" said an official at India's central bank. "We don't think this is a possibility because this could then create huge panic globally."

Indian officials say they have little choice but to buy U.S. Treasury debt because it is still among the world's safest and most liquid investments. It held $39.8 billion in U.S. Treasuries as of March, U.S. data shows.

The officials declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

Oman is concerned about the impact of a default on the currency reserves of the sultanate and its Gulf neighbors.

"Our economies are substantially tied up with the U.S. financial developments," said a senior central bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It just wouldn't happen," said Barry Evans, who oversees $83 billion in fixed income assets at Manulife Asset Management. "They would pay their Treasury bills first instead of other bills. It's as simple as that."

Monument's Ostwald called the default scenario "frightening" and said bondholders' patience would wear thin if lawmakers persisted in pitching this strategy in the coming weeks.

"This isn't a debate, this is like a Mexican standoff and that is where the problem lies," he said.

Yuan Gangming, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank, smelled some political wrangling behind the U.S. debt debate as the 2012 presidential election draws nearer and said Republicans "want to make things difficult for Obama."

But with time running short before the U.S. Treasury exhausts its borrowing room, Yuan said default was a real risk.

"The possibility is quite high to see a default of the U.S. debt, which would harm many countries in the world, and China in particular," he said.

The United States probably wouldn't be able to maintain its prized AAA sovereign ratings status if it suffered even a "technical" default on its debt, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday.
The rating agency also warned it would downgrade the U.S. sovereign ratings to "restricted default" in August if the government fails to honor Treasury notes and some coupon payments on Treasury securities due on August 15.

"Even a so-called 'technical default' would suggest a crisis of 'governance' from a sovereign credit and rating perspective and though such an event (such as a short-lived Treasury bill default) may not permanently impair the capacity of the U.S. government to service its obligations, it is unlikely that its 'AAA' status would be retained in the short to medium term," Fitch said in a statement.

Fitch added, however, that it believes U.S. lawmakers will ultimately reach an agreement to raise the country's debt ceiling and avoid any default.

The military handover from NATO-led forces to Afghans should start in the first half of 2011 but poor security in some areas could see it run past a 2014 target, a NATO official said on Wednesday before an important summit.

With attention focusing on the security transition from foreign forces to Afghans over the next four years, newly appointed French Defense Minister Alain Juppe called Afghanistan "a trap for all the parties involved."

Afghanistan will be among the priorities for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) leaders when an annual summit begins on Friday, with the pace and scale of troop withdrawals at the top of their agenda.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has made 2014 the target for Afghan forces to assume full security responsibility from foreign forces, with Washington planning to begin a gradual drawdown of its forces from July 2011.

Others doubt enough Afghan forces will be ready in time to meet Karzai's target, but U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have called it realistic.

The 2014 target is part of a wider plan by Karzai that includes talks with Taliban-led insurgents, reintegration and reconciliation and the ramping up of the Afghan security forces to enable the transition.

"We expect that the transition process will start in the first half of 2011," said Mark Sedwill, the top civilian NATO representative in Afghanistan.

He did not say where the transition would begin but U.S. and NATO leaders have recently sought to play down expectations, saying it would likely start at the district rather than the provincial level.

Sedwill said the transition could run "to 2015 and beyond" in some areas that could still face security problems.

"We expect to have strategic overwatch in large parts of the country by that time (2014)," he told reporters in Kabul, with civil administration to follow the security transition.

NATO troops would then assume support and training duties as Afghans took on the burden of combat roles. "The end of 2014 does not mean that the mission is over, but the mission changes. It's the inflection point, if you like," Sedwill said.

VIOLENCE TIPS UP

U.S. President Barack Obama, who will review his Afghanistan war strategy in December, has set July 2011 as the start of his drawdown and European leaders are following a similar timetable.

Juppe, for example, said France wanted to discuss in Lisbon how to draw down its 3,500-strong force in Afghanistan. Many European leaders are under pressure at home to justify their continued combat support for the increasingly unpopular war.

Violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

Military and civilian casualties are at record levels and an increase in attacks over the past week will likely send an even more sobering message to NATO leaders in Lisbon.

U.S. and NATO commanders have been talking up recent successes but there are still points of friction with their Afghan allies, most recently over the use of "night raids" on Afghan homes while hunting Taliban and other insurgents.

Karzai told The Washington Post he wanted the U.S. military to reduce its visibility and the intensity of its operations and that night raids "have to go away."

But Sedwill defended the tactic, saying the raids were as "surgical" as they could be and were an important weapon.

"We are under no illusion that you can run a counterinsurgency program without these operations," he said.

Sedwill said the timetable for transition would vary across Afghanistan and depend on conditions. He declined to give details on what areas could see handovers, citing security issues.

He said he and General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, had their own assessment of what areas could be handed over and would discuss the transition with an Afghan ministerial committee in February.

Sedwill said that NATO and Afghan forces had regained the initiative in many areas but gains were still fragile.

"We think we are in a different mode than where we were in the last few years," he said, noting additional NATO resources that included 30,000 extra U.S. troops.

"I think we are facing a real disagreement," said Benny Begin, a respected right-wing minister and son of the late Menachem Begin who made peace with Egypt in the late 1970s.

He said Washington's offer to Israel of 20 F-35 stealth warplanes worth $3 billion was "the bait to push us into the diplomatic trap" by agreeing to a proposed 90-day halt to Jewish settlement building in the occupied territory.

Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor confirmed on Tuesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting to receive the offer in writing from Washington before putting it to a vote in cabinet which is expected to convene on Wednesday.

If the letter reflected verbal agreements between Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in New York talks last week, then the cabinet would vote on it, he said.

In addition to ultranationalist, religious and pro-settler allies in his coalition, Netanyahu faces stiff opposition from within his own right-wing Likud party, where many lawmakers have vehemently stated their opposition to Israeli concessions.

"(We) will do everything we can to prevent a decision on a freeze. We are also appealing to all members of our Likud faction to express their view," prominent Likud lawmaker Zeev Elkin said on Monday.

An Israeli diplomatic source said the U.S. written commitment was being delayed by pressure from the Palestinians, who object that it exempts East Jerusalem from a freeze, denies them any chance of seeking a further moratorium, and prevents them from pursuing an imposed settlement via the United Nations.

Palestinian presidential aide Nabil Abu Rdainah said the Palestinians had yet to receive details of the final proposal and had made no formal remarks to the Americans concerning it.

STAKES GET HIGHER

U.S. President Barack Obama invested substantial political capital in persuading the Palestinians to resume direct talks with Israel in early September, after months of mediation.

But, true to their warnings, they halted negotiations when Netanyahu refused to extend the 10-month partial construction moratorium on Jewish settlements in the West Bank after it expired at the end of that month.

The Obama administration has now offered Israel diplomatic and defense inducements to renew the freeze for 90 days and give talks a chance, hoping Netanyahu will tell Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas what size and shape of state he can agree to.

The Palestinians suspect they may be presented with plans for a shrunken, fragmented territory studded with Israeli settlements and without East Jerusalem as its capital.

The inducements offered to Israel last week would include a promise to use Washington's veto in the United Nations Security Council to block anti-Israel resolutions, media reports said.

Meridor confirmed the deal includes "an American veto."

"I hope it will not take too long, but there will be no point if it is not in writing," he told Army Radio. The outcome "depends on only one thing, that we get from the Americans the letter that we agreed that we would get..."

OBAMA "REGRESSING"

The Palestinians say such inducements amount to bribes by Obama, who appears to be retreating from his position that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal and all building must cease.

Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran negotiator and member of the executive of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said Obama's Middle East peace policy was going backwards.

"The U.S. policy clearly is witnessing a real regression because they are desperately trying to accommodate Israeli demands by paying them in strategic currency in order to obtain some temporarily tactical gains," she said.

Asking for a 90-day postponement means "the U.S. has become complicit in accepting Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said the U.S. offer is a genuine acknowledgement of the strategic risks Israel would be taking if it agrees to create a Palestinian state.

But Begin accused Barak of misreading the situation.

"I think he is wrong and I think he underestimates the American ambition, the American need, to reach agreement on the borders within three months," he told Army Radio.

Begin forecast that "on the 84th day" of the new freeze, Washington would say: "Look, we are progressing so well, why don't you add another month?"

Britain's Prince William is to marry his long-term girlfriend Kate Middleton next year, Buckingham Palace said Tuesday, ending months of media speculation about the couple's plans to wed.
William, 28, the elder son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, and Middleton, 28, daughter of self-made entrepreneurs, became engaged while on holiday in Kenya last month.
"The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton," Charles's office said in a statement.
"The wedding will take place in the spring or summer of 2011, in London. Further details about the wedding day will be announced in due course."
The statement said William had informed Queen Elizabeth and also sought the permission of Middleton's father.
The Queen and William's grandfather, Prince Philip, said they were delighted at the news, while a cabinet meeting held by Prime Minister David Cameron was interrupted by a call from Buckingham Palace with the announcement.
"The prime minister is delighted to hear the news and has passed on his best wishes to the happy couple," Cameron's spokesman said.
William, who is currently serving as a helicopter search-and-rescue pilot in the Royal Air Force, met Middleton when they shared a house at university in Scotland in 2001.
They split up in 2007 because, newspapers said, Middleton, who has been dubbed "waity Katie" by the British tabloid press, was getting fed up of waiting for William to propose, but they soon got back together.
William has previously said he did not want to get married until he was 28, an age he reached in June.
Following the wedding, the couple will live in North Wales so the prince can continue his service with the RAF.
The engagement has been long predicted and rumors have abounded for months that an announcement was imminent.

China's Yao Ming injured his left leg during the first quarter of the Houston Rockets' 98-91 loss to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.The 7-foot-6 Yao, who has had repeated leg and foot ailments that forced him to miss the entire 2009-10 season, limped off the court after straining a tendon.

"It looked like somewhere around the ankle," Yao told the Rockets' team website (www.nba.com/rockets/). "Tomorrow we'll have a scan and a detailed checkout -- until tomorrow I can't tell you anything."

Yao entered the contest averaging 12.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Houston had been limiting his minutes in an attempt to prevent injury.

The sputtering global economy is complicating life for policymakers from Washington to Tokyo.When the financial crisis erupted in 2007, authorities around the world began throwing nearly everything they had at the problem to avoid a re-run of the Great Depression.

Three years later, with the global recovery losing momentum, they find themselves in a tough spot yet again.

This time, if things get worse, they won't have as many tricks left in the bag to jump-start their faltering economies. What's more, whatever medicine they prescribe may well come with unpleasant side effects.

For the Federal Reserve, the medicine in question could be more large-scale purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds, though officials are unlikely to unleash that option at their policy-setting meeting on Tuesday.

Officials at the U.S. central bank disagree on many fundamental questions: How dark is the outlook? What should the threshold for further support be? Would pumping more money into the financial system be effective or could it do more harm than good?

"The economy is not falling apart, so easing now could send a signal that folks at the Fed are a little bit panicked," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Connecticut.

"They need to make sure if they do more that the case for it is strong and the case is well-explained."

Further Fed easing could make things even more difficult for other countries, which are resorting to their own tactics to defend their economies.

Japan last week intervened in currency markets for the first time in six years to weaken its yen in a last-ditch bid to improve the competitiveness of its exports in a world of weak demand.

A strong yen curbs Japanese exports and weighs on production, making it harder for Tokyo to end the long spell of falling prices that dampens consumer demand and discourages corporate investment.

Although Japanese markets will be closed for holidays on two days next week, another round of foreign exchange intervention could still be forthcoming and will keep markets on edge.

Japan's unilateral move to devalue its currency sparked fears other countries might follow suit and deal a crippling blow to the global recovery. It also elicited stinging criticism from other countries.

"We don't like the behavior of the Japanese authorities," the head of the euro zone group of finance ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, told reporters on Thursday.

European growth has been driven by Germany's export-led economy. Policymakers worry a strengthening euro, which rose nearly 5 percent in three days on Japan's move, could further slow Europe's recovery.

"Everyone seems to want a weaker currency in this environment to drive exports, but clearly not everyone can," said Mark McCormick, a currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York.

A range of European data next week on manufacturing, consumer confidence and Germany's business climate is expected to add to evidence of a slowdown.

Coupled with revived worries about European debt burdens and the health of euro zone banks, the slowdown spells the potential for more anxiety for financial markets.

The European Central Bank kept rates on hold at a record low 1 percent this month and extended unlimited liquidity to banks until at least early next year, further delaying its exit from emergency lending measures.

Markets will watch any comments from ECB policymakers about the outlook for the economy and policy there. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet will attend a euro-zone conference in Estonia on Sunday and Monday, while ECB Executive Board member Juergen Stark will speak in Italy on Friday.

The global backdrop will no doubt be on Federal Reserve officials' minds as they mull the costs and benefits of pumping more money into the financial system.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in late August that he would need to see a significant deterioration in U.S. economic conditions before easing monetary policy further. The Fed has already cut interest rates to near zero and bought $1.7 trillion in longer-term bonds.

It is unlikely the threshold for further large-scale purchases has yet been met, given a slightly better tone to recent data.

The data "lifts some of the pressure, and when you have a divided committee, if you are not pressured, you move sideways," said Vince Reinhart, a former senior Fed staffer.

Some Fed officials worry that if any further monetary easing is not effective in spurring the recovery, it would tarnish the U.S. central bank's much-needed credibility. Others worry about the potential for market disruption or sowing the seeds for inflation down the road.

"They will acknowledge the problem in the outlook and look for a compromise that kicks the can down the road," Reinhart said.

Some officials, including Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, argue that the ball is now in the government's court to do more to support the economy.

The House of Representatives will vote on a package of loan incentives and tax breaks for small businesses next week.

With the unemployment rate stuck at 9.6 percent, Democrats are eager to show voters they are taking steps to help the economy as the November 2 congressional elections approach. Many of their job-creation efforts have been blocked by Republicans this year.

Former President Bill Clinton underwent a successful heart procedure on Thursday to open a blocked artery in his heart with two stents after he had experienced chest discomfort, his spokesman said.
Clinton, 63, had quadruple heart bypass surgery in 2004 to free up four blocked arteries and the latest incident comes after he has traveled twice to Haiti to help recovery efforts after a devastating earthquake there.

"Today, President Bill Clinton was admitted to the Columbia Campus of New York Presbyterian Hospital after feeling discomfort in his chest," Douglas Band, counselor to Clinton, said in a statement.

"Following a visit to his cardiologist, he underwent a procedure to place two stents in one of his coronary arteries. President Clinton is in good spirits, and will continue to focus on the work of his foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts," Band said.

Having stents placed in heart arteries is a relatively quick and routine procedure among patients like Clinton who have suffered from heart disease.

Stents are tiny mesh tubes used to prop open heart arteries that have been cleared of blockages via angioplasty. They are now often coated with drugs to help prevent reclogging.

Clinton's chest pains were possibly caused by failing grafts from the quadruple bypass heart surgery he had six years ago, a cardiologist said on Thursday.

"If he had four grafts it is not surprising that one of them would start to fail by now," said Dr. Cam Patterson of the University of North Carolina, adding they last on average about 10 years.

Clinton was president from 1993 until 2001 and like many Americans he has struggled with his weight.

He presided over eight years of economic prosperity and political tumult during a presidency tarnished by a sex-and-perjury scandal that led to his impeachment and a bitter fight to stay in office.

While in office he was known for his love of burgers and junk food and was also seen regularly jogging.

Following his 2004 heart operation he has looked trim and fitter than while he was president -- something he attributed to the South Beach diet, which excludes processed foods and favors lean meat.

Clinton joined with former President George H.W. Bush in a public campaign to raise money for survivors of the December 26, 2004, tsunami in Asia that killed more than 300,000 people.

He also established a foundation to build his legacy beyond the White House which has pushed big companies and rich people to actively try to fix some of the world's worst problems.

CHELSEA CLINTON AT HOSPITAL

Most recently Clinton, as U.N. special envoy to Haiti, has coordinated relief efforts after the January 12 Haiti earthquake. His wife, Hillary Clinton, is the current secretary of state under President Barack Obama.

CNN reported that Clinton's daughter Chelsea was at the hospital with him. A hospital spokesman confirmed he is a patient at the hospital but gave no other details.

David Sherzer, spokesman for former President George W. Bush, said in a statement, "President Bush spoke to Chelsea Clinton this afternoon and was glad to hear that her father is doing well and that his spirits are high." Clinton and Bush are working together on Haiti relief.

A senior administration official said Hillary Clinton had left Washington for New York but declined to say if there would be any changes to her planned trip to Qatar and Saudi Arabia, due to start on Friday.

Just before his 2004 surgery, Clinton spoke on CNN's "Larry King Live," about his heart blockage: "Some of this is genetic and I may have done some damage in those years when I was too careless about what I ate ... I've got a problem and I've got a chance to deal with it," Clinton said.

Clinton, a former governor of Arkansas, presided over the nation's longest economic boom but had many policy setbacks, most notably on his plans for healthcare overhaul which he tried to tackle when he took office in 1993.

He remains popular despite the sex-and-perjury scandal involving his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky that indelibly marked his presidency.

The self-styled "man from Hope," the name of the small town in Arkansas where he was born, wrote in his memoir "My Life" that his worst day in office came when he admitted the affair to the first lady, who had famously blamed the sex allegations on a "vast right-wing conspiracy" against Clinton.

He was back on the presidential campaign trail in 2007 and 2008 when Hillary Clinton sought the White House on her own.

But he was criticized for his campaigning style and some blamed him in part for her loss. Black leaders, long among his strongest supporters, thought he demeaned then-Senator Barack Obama with some off-the-cuff comments about the role of race in politics.

Since Obama won the nomination and the subsequent election, Clinton has worked to repair any damage and he visits the White House occasionally for talks with the president.