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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Few expect Chairman Ben Bernanke to signal at a Federal Reserve conference Friday in Jackson Hole, Wyo., that the Fed is about to take major new action to boost the economy.
• No one is sure, though.
• Three years after the end of the Great Recession, the U.S. economy is still struggling to break out of a slog that's kept unemployment at a painfully high 8.3 percent.
• After its last policy meeting, the Fed repeated a pledge to try to boost growth if hiring remains weak. And minutes of that meeting showed that some Fed officials felt the economy would need more support "fairly soon "unless it improved significantly.
• Still, many analysts think slightly brighter economic news since then has diminished the need for the Fed to act soon. Bernanke may want to review the U.S. jobs report for August, due on Sept. 7, and perhaps other forthcoming economic reports, before seeking any policy changes.
• ___

• RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- For decades, Palestinian women seeking to divorce their husbands risked years of miserable, expensive litigation or lengthy domestic battles as they begged their spouses for permission to leave.
• Now Palestinian religious authorities announced sweeping reforms of divorce laws that will make it easier for a woman to end her marriage. The changes make a huge step forward in a society where many still believe that a woman should have no right to separate from her husband.
• "In Islamic law, the relation between spouses should be based on tenderness, love and understanding," said Sheik Yousef al-Dais, head of the Islamic courts in the Palestinian Authority, as he announced the changes Thursday. "If there's hatred between them, should we force them to stay together?"
• Marriage rules throughout the Middle East are based on Islamic law but have been heavily influenced by stricter tribal traditions that erode rights enshrined to women in Islam, such as a dignified divorce. Proponents say the reforms still con

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