But Karzai, acknowledging shaky relations with his international partners in the war on terror, told The Associated Press in an interview that he was not prepared at this time to discuss the key Taliban demand �" a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops.

The government said Monday that new U.S. home sales rose by the largest amount in nearly nine years last month, in another sign the housing market finally is bouncing back from the worst downturn in decades.

The Commerce Department said sales rose 11 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 384,000, from an upwardly revised May rate of 346,000.

Blatter plans to extend a personal invitation to Obama to attend the 2010 World Cup in South Africa when the two meet at the White House on Monday.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, Blatter said the invitation has been extended and that he will "confirm it" at the meeting.

"I know there are people around the president who are football fans, and that they will make everything possible in his agenda that the president be at the opening of the World Cup or the final," Blatter said.

The Worldwide H1N1 swine flu pandemic serves to mislead public opinion. The 2009 pandemic, which started in Mexico in April, is timely: it coincides with a deepening economic depression. It takes place at a time of military escalation.  The epidemiological data is fabricated, falsified and manipulated.

In a profound departure from the central bank’s tradition as an aloof and secretive temple of economic policy, Mr. Bernanke has plunged into the public spotlight to an extent that none of his predecessors would have contemplated.

He has given a television interview to “60 Minutes” on CBS, including a tour of his hometown, Dillon, S.C.; held what amounted to a televised news conference; and written newspaper commentaries to explain the Fed’s efforts to fight the financial crisis.

On Sunday, Mr. Bernanke reached another milestone in his evolution from Fed chairman to Fed showman, participating in a one-hour town hall-style forum here organized and moderated by Jim Lehrer of “The NewsHour” on PBS.