Gaza, Palestinian Territory (TML) – Um Hajjar Al-Ghalayini, 46 years old, owns half an acre of sandy Gaza land that produces two tons of strawberries every season. Since her husband died two years ago, the crop is the sole means of support for her nine children, mother-in-law and widowed sister, so every one of the bright red berries counts.

Last year, she had no choice but to sell her produce to the local market. That filled the Gaza markets with fruits and vegetables to the benefit of consumers, but for growers like Um Hajjar it was a disaster. Her earnings dropped by more than half and the family had a tough year economically. This week, as Israel took another step in easing its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, Um Hajjar delivered her strawberries to the Kerem Shalom checkpoint on the Israel-Gaza border, their first leg of a journey to the more profitable markets in Europe.

“Now I can say that things are getting back to normal, if not on the right track,” she told The Media Line.

Exports of strawberries and flowers from the Gaza Strip to European markets began on Sunday, as part of a wide-ranging project coordinated by the Israeli army and local farmers and funded by the Dutch government. The current undertaking involves some 2.5 tons of strawberries and some 2,000 flowers, but Israel plans expanded facilities at Kerem Shalom and stepped-up security measures that will enable exports to grow more next year.

All told, about 700 tons of strawberries and 30 million carnations will be exported from Gaza by the time the season ends – in February for strawberries and May for flowers — Yousef Shaath, the project manager of the Dutch-funded Agricultural Relief Committee in Gaza, told The Media Line.

Strawberries are just one part of a gradual easing of the blockade Israel imposed on Gaza, a Mediterranean enclave of just 360 square kilometers (138 square miles), in 2007 after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control. Israel used the siege to pressure Hamas, which unlike the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) that rules in the West Bank, is sworn to Israel’s destruction and rejects peace talks.

While Israel and Hamas are still at loggerheads, Jerusalem has loosened some aspects of the blockade since nine people were killed last May when commandoes raided a ship trying to break the siege. As a result, Gaza’s economy will probably grow 8% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

While human rights advocates have focused on the pain caused by Israel’s blocking most imports, Gaza’s tiny economy has suffered by the ban on nearly all exports as well. According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, Gaza’s exports plunged from $41 million in 2005 to $30,000 in 2006 and $20,000 in 2007. In 2008, virtually nothing left the Strip.

The business of export agricultural produce is fraught with politics, business and security issues. Before the first strawberries and carnations could be trucked into Israel, representatives of the Gazan agricultural associations met last week with an Israeli agriculture coordinator, a representative of the Israeli farm-export company Agrexco and the deputy ambassador of the Netherlands in Tel Aviv at the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel last week.

That is because the produce has a long and complicated route to get from fields like Um Hajjar and into a French housewife’s strawberry shortcake.

Hamas as the de facto ruler of Gaza had to approve the exports, but because Israel and the European Union don’t recognize the Islamic organization as the official government, representatives of the PA had to act as intermediaries. Indeed, at Kerem Shalom the PA will have an official presence as the produce moves over the border to Israel.

Israel will also need to deploy scanning machines that can x-ray cargo containers and ensure that terrorists or arms aren’t being smuggled out of Gaza. Israel has been wary about letting goods leave Gaza after two Palestinian teenagers infiltrated the Israeli port of Ashdod in 2004 by hiding in a shipping container. They blew themselves up, killing 10 people.

But Israel’s security needs have to be measured against the need for perishable produce and flowers to reach their final destination in Amsterdam and other points in Europe. Last year, Gaza suffered big losses when Israel delayed export permission by two months.

As well, farmers, in particular flower growers, need a host of inputs as well as packaging materials, which require Israeli approval to be imported.

The exports underway these days, however, aren’t enough for Gaza farmers, who form a major component of the Strip’s economy. About 900 acres is devoted to growing strawberries, which will yield a harvest of 1,000 tons, about 40% more than the current export quota. Gazans grow a cornucopia of other fruits and vegetables as well. Their natural market is Israel or the West Bank, but so far Israel has barred sales to those markets. Shaath said this is unfair as Israel now exports some $3400 million of produce to Palestinian areas and under the Oslo peace accord should accept Palestinian imports in return.

Nevertheless, Shaath is sanguine about next year’s export prospects. Gaza crops tend to mature earlier than competing ones, so that if the complicated chain of political and security arrangements can be preserved and developed, the Strip’s farmers will be the first on the market.

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If you’re a small business owner, you certainly require business cards. Exactly how else are you going to attract brand new customers in case they don’t understand how to contact you? They are the easiest ways to get your information quickly into the hands of one’s audience and are especially handy whenever networking. You could go to your closest Kinko’s or Copy Max and rapidly print out easy ones you design, or you might buy credit cards through a graphic designer, but the cheapest, easiest and quickest way to get quality business cards is to buy them online. 1 reason small business owners order cards online is cost. Local company card printing companies, even the large chains, will be pricier, more frequently than not, than online business card printing websites, such as VistaPrint or iPrint. Traditional cards with these sites can easily price as low as one penny per card. What do you know 4 color process printing?

In case you would like nontraditional cards, express having a special design or a different texture, you can use a nearby graphic designer who can easily print out your credit cards, but this will certainly be a lot more expensive than ordering your business cards on the internet. And there are even a few websites, this kind of as Andreoni, that have a full design team that may create custom cards for you from scratch.

They are extremely adaptable, allowing you to upload a background image and move your text around. For cards which are even simpler than that, you should use templates from these sites, which ought to take little time to master. If you take your card needs to a local printer, you might end up spending a lot more time trying to produce the credit cards than in case you ordered them on the internet.

For instance, many lawyers like the raised print choice on their credit cards. A creative profession might appreciate a glossy card rather than a plain, matte one. You wouldn’t want a flimsy card if you’re passing them close to to hundreds of innovative contacts at a trade show or other business function. More places are now ready to offer free business cards template.

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates Michael Grubb – Dubai International Airport, the largest in the Gulf, is outpacing the world aviation industry’s recovery this year as it capitalizes on its role as a pivot for business travelers arbitraging between a struggling Europe and the burgeoning economies of Asia. But analysts warn that Dubai’s success makes it a likely magnet for new competition.

Traffic through Dubai International rose by close to 16 percent in the first nine months of the year, well ahead of the 12.9 percent average increase in the Asia-Pacific market, making it the world’s fastest growing, according to Airports Council International. The pace of growth for Dubai continued in October, when traffic exceeded 4 million people for the second time ever, Dubai Airports reported Wednesday.

Aviation is a big and thriving business for tiny Dubai, whose economy is otherwise struggling with some $100 billion of real estate debt. Dubai is home to the world’s 14th busiest airport, just behind New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and ahead of Amsterdam’s Schiphol. The number of people passing through the airport in October alone was equal to more than twice the country’s entire population.

Dubai Airports has ambitious plans for expanding. Annual capacity at Dubai International will grow from 60 million passengers to 75 million next year when it dedicates Concourse 3, the world’s only facility dedicated to servicing the Airbus A380, the largest passenger airliner in the world.

Meanwhile, a second airport, the Al-Maktoum International, is under development next door. Al-Maktoum began cargo operations six months ago and will be opening for passenger travel in March 2011.

Dubai Airports is expecting growth to continue at a strong double-digit rate in 2011, with annual passenger traffic jumping 13.1 percent to 52.2 million from a forecast 46.1 million for all of 2010. Dubai’s flag carrier Emirates is counting on its passenger numbers growing 10 percent next year while the discount carrier Flydubai forecasts its traffic doubling.

“Before the end of the decade passenger numbers will approach 90 million making Dubai International the busiest airport in the world in terms of international passenger traffic,” Paul Griffiths, chief executive officer of Dubai Airports, said last week.

But Dubai’s airports – and its airlines — are vulnerable to emerging competition because it is entirely dependent on funneling passengers from Europe and Asia through its airports and sending them on to their final destinations, he said. The airport has no domestic market and a tiny regional one. Indeed, measured by international traffic alone, Dubai rises in the world airport rankings to No. 6.

“They will have competition, the dynamics will definitely change,” Philip Butterworth-Hayes, lead consultant of the aviation advisory firm PMi Media, told The Media Line. “I would look at Indian airlines in particular. Once you have a strong home market like India, you have the ability to capture traffic.”

Dubai has not only benefited from huge investment in its airport and carriers but also from low costs, the absence of environmental constraints to airport expansion and its strategic location. Demand for Europe-Asian travel has grown as European companies focus sales on the growing economies of China and the rest of Asia while newly wealthy Asians have the disposable income to travel to Europe for holidays. Dubai is about 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) from London and 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) from Shanghai.

Adding to world-class airports, Dubai’s state-owned Emirates airlines has been an aggressive competitor, taking market share from hobbled European rivals by adding capacity – the airline has the biggest fleet of the giant A380s on order – and is keeping fares and costs low.

But India could match many of these assets. Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital is about 7,200 kilometers (4,500 miles) from London and 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) from Shanghai, on top of being a business and tourism destination in its own right.

As India’s economy grows, demand for domestic air travel for its 1 billion people has also increased. Domestic air traffic in India grew 15 percent in October compared with a year ago to 4.6 million passengers, the government said last week. What the country still lacks to take on Dubai is a competitive airline to service an Indian hub, Griffiths said.

“If you were to have an Emirates-like operation in India, you could make it a major hub,” he said. “But they would also benefit from the presence of a huge domestic market.”

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Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines (AHN) – The Philippines registered a 6.5 percent gross domestic product growth rate for the third quarter of 2010. Compared to the same quarter last year, this quarter’s economic growth rate was slower because of lower government spending and a decline in agriculture production from the El Nino weather system.

The National Statistical Coordination Board, which released the GDP data Thursday, said it was the highest economic growth rate logged for the first quarter of a new presidency.

The current Q3 growth rate broke the 5.6 percent recorded during the first quarter rule of immediate past President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004. The two prior presidents had lower GDP growth rates during their honeymoon quarter at 0.7 percent during the time of Fidel Ramos in 1992 and 1.3 percent during the term of Joseph Estrada in 1998.

Based on the robust figures, the Office of the President said it indicates that the Philippines may hit its 2010 economic growth rate target of at least 7 percent.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga forecast that given the low interest rates, business confidence will continue to improve, which would likely lead to a rise in production.

He said that the Q3 GDP growth rate compared with Asian neighbors such as Indonesia, which grew 5.8 percent, Malaysia at 5.3 percent and South Korea at 0.7 percent, but trailed behind China at 10.6 percent, Singapore 10.6 percent, Vietnam 7.2 percent, Thailand 6.7 percent and Hong Kong 6.8 percent.

Paderanga said in a statement, “Moving forward, the Philippine government will continue with the formulation and implementation of the needed policies and reforms that would keep the economy afloat amidst the fragile world economy, concerns on rising oil prices, and anticipated diminishing base effect. We expect growth to moderate in the second half of 2010 but we remain quite optimistic that we will exceed the 5 to 6 percent target.”

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Concord, NC, United States (AHN) – Due to the economy and lack of sponsorship the future of Richard Petty Motorsports was uncertain, but after a restructuring the team will reportedly downsize from four to two fulltime NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entries in 2011.

Driver AJ Allmendinger is the only holdover from 2010 and the team also added Marcos Ambrose, who came over from JTG Daugherty.

“Richard Petty Motorsports has completed its restructuring process and is now in the process of moving forward. RPM will shift from running four cars to two in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and that is never an easy process for the people involved,” said team owner Richard Petty in a statement.

“Currently, we are concentrating on building two solid programs with AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel of the No. 43 entry and Marcos Ambrose in the No. 9 Ford.”

Kasey Kahne drove the No. 9 entry most of 2010 and will drive for Red Bull Racing in 2011, but has already signed a long-term deal to drive for Hendrick Motorsports in 2012.

Elliott Sadler, who wheeled the team’s No. 19 entry the past couple of seasons, recently announced he will run for the NASCAR Nationwide Series title in 2011 for Kevin Harvick Inc.

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• Non-tabbed pages
• 8.5 x 11 inch pages fit any standard 3-ring binder
• Each sheet holds ten 2 x 3.5 inch cards
• Acid free, archival safe, polypropylene
• 10 pack

Product Description
The quality, style, and innovation of Wilson Jones binders, report covers, and presentation supplies prove why the brand has been trusted and used for over 100 years. Providing superior protection for document presentation, organization and storage applications – Wilson Jones document protection products range from the ultra-durable “Super Heavy Weight” to the more cost-effective “Economy Weight” sheet protectors. In addition, Wilson Jones offers specialty products for protecting, storing and organizing trading cards, business cards, CD/DVDs and more! The Wilson Jones Business Card Binder Pages provide superior protection from stains and moisture for all of your important business cards. Each versatile sleeve is acid free and archival safe, and holds ten 2 x 3.5 inch cards. The clear, non-stick finish allows for easy viewing and fits all standard 3-ring binders. Available in both tabbed and untabbed formats for easy referencing, the Wilson Jones Business Card Binder Pages are a great alternative to a desktop business card file. Wilson Jones school, office and presentation supplies are the easy choice for the right products, every time!

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Detroit, MI, United States (AHN) – Some General Motors workers and their families have extra reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving holiday. The automaker announced a $163.2-million investment in its operations in Flint and Bay City, Michigan, and Defiance, Ohio, to support engine production of three of its models and protect 184 jobs at three sites.

“This investment is essential in ensuring we can meet the expected high demand for the Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Cruze and a small car that will be produced at our Orion Township facility,” said Kathleen Dilworth, Flint Engine Operations plant manager. “These three facilities will continue to play a key role in GM’s resurgence and efforts to bring to market vehicles with segment-leading fuel economy.”

The announcement brings the total of new U.S. investment to more than $3.3 billion, and GM has created or retained more than 8,000 jobs in 21 U.S. plants since emerging from bankruptcy in July 2009.

The investments include:

• Flint Engine Operations: $138.3 million and 135 jobs

• Bay City components: $12.7 million and eight jobs

• Defiance castings: $12.2 million and 41 jobs

The investments will be used to support increased production of the Ecotec 1.4-liter engine that is used in the Chevrolet Cruze and a 1.4L variant used in the Chevrolet Volt. Flint Engine is expected to start production of 400 engines a day in early 2011 and ramp up to 800 engines a day in late 2011. The newest investment increases its capacity to 1,200 a day in late 2012.

In the last two years, GM has invested nearly $700 million and protected more than 600 jobs at the three facilities.

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There are a number of things you need to take into account to ensure your business cards look professional. Below are some guidelines to ensure your business cards look professional and contain all the information that is needed. To make your business card even more unique, remember to include a slogan. Make sure your slogan is easy to remember. Slogans can become so popular that people will always remember them when thinking of a specific type of business. It is also vital that all your contact details be included on your card. You need to make it easy for your clients to get hold of you as this will increase your business. Also include your business logo and make sure it is prominent.

Be sure to include contact details that are current. Your name, e-mail address, telephone numbers and extension numbers should all be included as part of your contact information. Always include your business address and a fax number. Always remember to only include ways in which you want to be contacted. Never include private contact information unless your are comfortable with your clients having that information. Remember, if you include an e-mail address, you need to make sure you check your e-mail regularly and often. Likewise, if you are not very good at answering your cell phone, don’t include the number. The most important factor regarding contact information is that it is correct. It should also be helpful to clients in some way.

The colour and composition of your cards is another important element to consider when designing your cards. This aspect needs to be done well so as to not harm the image of your business. Graphic design can be very tricky to master as every single thing needs to be in place for the business card to look professional. When designing business cards, white backgrounds are recommended. Making use of a white background is the safe way to go as it is a simple concept that works well with most designs. If you have no other choice then black can also be used as a background, but with care and forethought. Also, remember to choose your fonts carefully as nothing says “amateur” like bad font choices. Funny looking fonts aways look amateurish and never really work in business card designs. It is always better to stay with fonts that are basic such as Ariel or Roman fonts.

Also avoid using strange colours and strange combinations of colours. Black on white is always the best choice for business cards but if you want to use colour, use it sparingly with only three colours per design. Restricting the colour use will give you the best results when designing business cards. In ending, don’t try and be bold. Simple is a much better way of getting a message across. When designing business cards, one of the biggest mistakes you can make in the composition is trying to be bold. Sufficient white space and clearly legible text is the most important component of your business card. You will be sure to design business cards that are professional and beneficial to your company if you follow the above mentioned design rules.