Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – There was laughter and goodwill as Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed a select audience of law enforcement officials in Alexandria in Virginia saying, “We need better roads, we need better bridges, we need safer streets.”

Sending a message to Congress to pass the $450-billion American Jobs Act Biden said, “We’ve got to kick start this economy that’s stalled.”

Speaking at the spacious new headquarters of the Alexandria Police Department in Alexandria, Va., Vice President Biden announced that the hosting organization had won funds for the hiring of four new officers with the almost $859,000 it received from the more than $243 million in grant funds.

Keeping the focus on American Jobs Act, Biden said, “We need to be in a position where our kids are in classrooms where there’s enough qualified teachers, where they are in fact in classes where they are safe.”

“Look, we should be doing all of this stuff even if we were growing by 8%, even if there was a 3% unemployment rate in America,” Biden. The recent unemployment rate continue to hover above 9% although it was around 7% when President Barack Obama took office in 2008.

In November 2010 the unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent for the third time since Obama signed the first stimulus bill into law. In August 2011 the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent.

Education and jobs for teachers was another major thrust of Biden speech as he talked about getting hundreds of thousands of teachers back to work.

“If anyone is gonna define what the middle class is — which is what we say this is all about — it’s a school teacher, a firefighter, a law enforcement officer. That is the definition of middle class,” Biden stressed.

Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook thanked the Vice President for the federal grant of $900,000 but noted that he was still about 30 officers short of where he’d like to be as the department continued under pressure for nearly three years with budget cuts.

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La Paz, Bolivia (AHN) – Bolivian construction workers walked out on strike Wednesday in a protest the country’s president is claiming was aggravated by Americans.

The workers are protesting a planned highway project that would crisscross Bolivia from east to west.

Construction workers were joined by workers from other industries in a 24-hour general strike organized by labor unions.

Joining the protests were Isiboro Indians and environmentalists who say the $415 million highway would destroy rainforest where endangered species live.

Morales angered opponents of the highway when he said previously that the road will be built through the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory National Park “whether they like it or not.”

Some Indians threatened to shoot arrows at construction workers if they entered their reservation.

During a protest march Sunday near the capital La Paz, police fired tear gas at demonstrators and arrested several of them.

The demonstrators were participating in a march that began in August in the city of Trinidad. It was supposed to end in La Paz.

About 500 police attacked a tent camp of about 1,500 mostly Indian protesters. They beat some of them with batons, gagged others and forced dozens of them onto buses for relocation to neighboring towns.

The violence shown by the police toward the demonstrators contributed to Morales’ decision to suspend work on the highway, he said in a brief statement.

He called the acts of police “inexcusable” and promised an investigation. He also said “the highway project remains suspended in the Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory National Park” until officials in the regions that it would cross decide whether to continue it.

During another demonstration against the highway in August, Morales said Americans incited the protesters.

He spoke on state-run television to say he had phone records made from the U.S. embassy to leaders of a protest march that included about 1,000 Indians and their supporters.

“It’s a strategy of imperialism and the United States through its agencies to prevent national integration and provoke a confrontation between the people of western Bolivia and those from the east,” Morales said during the broadcast.

U.S. embassy officials acknowledged they made the phone calls, but said they were merely gathering information for updates they provided to the U.S. State Department. They denied they were trying to incite the Aug. 15 demonstration.

Morales’ accusations added to already strained relations with the United States.

In 2008, he expelled the U.S. ambassador and agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He accused them of trying to undermine his government.

Adolfo Moye, a Bolivian Indian leader of the demonstrations, has denied American agents tried to provoke the protests against the highway project.

Protesters also are concerned a highway would open the protected rainforest to oil exploration and lead to colonization of the area that is supposed to be reserved for Indians.

Morales says the highway is vital for Bolivia’s economy. It would greatly improve transportation between the eastern and western parts of his country.

The Bolivian president has said he wants to protect the native land of the Indians but he has not ruled out the possibility of extracting gas from the area. Bolivia’s economy relies heavily on mining and gas industries.

Morales did not back out of the highway project when he announced Tuesday it would be suspended. He merely expressed his outrage at the actions of police.

Bolivia’s deputy interior minister, Marcos Farfan, is being mentioned in the Bolivian news media as a possible target of investigation because of the police crackdown. He reportedly led the police action Sunday. Farfan resigned Tuesday.

Defense Minister Cecilia Chacon also resigned this week. She said she was resigning in protest of the way police dispersed the demonstrators.

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London, United Kingdom (AHN) – Retail sales in the United Kingdom weakened more in September, according to the latest monthly survey by the Confederation of British Industry released Tuesday.

Inflation has exceeded wage growth for months, leaving British consumers unable to spend.

The business group records the sales volume balance of its members. That is calculated from the percentage of retailers reporting an increase in sales versus those reporting a decrease. The group’s sales volume balance for September dropped to minus 15 from minus 14 in August, the CBI said.

Sales at furniture and department stores were most affected. The CBI warned retailers to prepare for a difficult Christmas season.

Analysts say weakening retail sales indicate the economy is slowing, and that it might be time for the Bank of England to reopen its quantitative-easing program of buying assets to boost the economy.

Along with stagnating retail sales and an inflation rate that has grown faster than wages, unemployment and the government’s austerity program are further battering the UK economy. Moreover, consumers face higher utility bills going into the winter.

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Los Angeles, CA, United States (AHN) – Employees at Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons approved a contract proposal over the weekend, ending a months-long labor dispute in southern California over increased health contributions.

Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers voted to ratify a deal with the companies that union President Rick Icaza said protects workers’ healthcare and pensions, and provides for “modest” wage hikes.

The agreement is retroactive, beginning in March this year, when the old contract expired, and ending in March 2014.

“This is a win for grocery workers, our communities, and our local economy,” Icaza said.”Without the unity and determination of our members, this deal would not have been possible. And without the unwavering support of consumers and the community, it would have been a much tougher fight.”

The union last week issued a 72-hour notice of cancellation of contract, a final and mandatorty step before declaring a strike. It accused the supermarket chains of pushing for pay cuts for clerk helpers, no wage hikes in the first two years for most employees, and only a 15-cent increase in the third year for some employees.

The main point of contention was decreased employer contributions for a workers’ healthcare plan.

Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons, which are owned by SuperValu, Kroger and Safeway respectively, had cited rising healthcare costs and the need to remain competitive as reasons for their proposal.

The union, however, said the chains had reported profitable quarters and had been paying some of the lowest employer contributions in the past decade.

The new contract affects 62,000 workers. A strike would have been the first in the region since late 2003, when employees walked off the job and refused to return for more than four months, costing companies $2 billion in sales.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – British Prime Minister David Cameron warned of a new economic crisis in his address before the Canadian Parliament on Thursday.

Cameron pointed to the failure of U.S. and European leaders to address government deficits that led to the threats to the stability of the world economy.

On the same day, stock markets across the globe dipped sharply again amid worries by politicians, central bank heads and investors that the rich nations would enter another recession because of huge government debts.

The British leader said that while Britain and Canada are not yet staring done the barrel, the indicators point to that direction and warned British and Canadian families could face a tough time in coming months.

He said the world is suffering from unparalleled debt levels not seen in decades, which clearly points to a debt crisis, not a traditional cyclical recession. To address the problem, Cameron said the usual solution of fiscal and monetary policies to stimulate the battered economies would not necessarily work.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in his introduction of Cameron, pushed for nations to resist trade protectionism, accept more flexible exchange rates and commit to reduce deficits and dangerous and unsustainable levels of national indebtedness.

Cameron challenged Western politicians to exercise more leadership and warned their indecision would worsen the crisis.

Prior to his Ottawa speech, Cameron headed a new group of nations from the G20 that wrote a letter to American and European leaders to blame them for their lack of action that led to the crisis. The letter was signed by leaders from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico and South Korea.

Similar warnings were previously made by the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

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Athens, Greece (AHN) – Thousands of Greek workers went back to the streets on Thursday to protest the fresh round of austerity measures the government had to put in place to qualify for more bailout from the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

To get $10.95 billion (EUR 8 billion) new tranche of aid, Athens had to reduce pensions further and stop hiring more public workers.

The “pound of flesh” cutbacks are part of a $150 billion (EUR 110 billion) loan package from the ECB and the IMF to help Greece avoid defaulting on its debt.

Among the drastic cuts made by Athens were to reduce by 20 percent of pensions that exceed $1,850 (EUR 1,200) a month, a 40 percent reduction on pensions over $1,370 (EUR 1,000) paid to Greeks below 55 years old and salary cuts for 30,000 state workers.

Athens also lowered the threshold on yearly salary to become subject to income taxation to $6,844 (EUR 5,000) from $10.952 (EUR 8,000).

Some teachers and civil servants joined the mass industrial action, while GSEE, the largest private sector union, called for more strikes in October to protest the new cost-cutting initiative.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The Senate plans to vote as soon as this week on a bill that would eliminate duties on some imports from 129 nations.

The trade preferences bill has been stalled in a dispute over whether free trade means more Americans lose their jobs to overseas competitors.

President Barack Obama has said he will support the trade preferences bill, but only if it includes a program to retrain American workers who lose their jobs to foreigners.

He is holding up action on three free trade agreements until a job retraining program is included in the trade preferences bill. The free trade agreements would be with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

Even Republicans who disputed whether to give in to Obama’s demands are saying they can wait no longer.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) said at a new conference, “Nothing has been done and the United States is losing its leadership in what we’ve done for 60 years in world trade, leading the rest of the world. The status quo has to end.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the bill, called the Generalized System of Preferences, would prevent the loss of 380,000 jobs.

The free trade agreements, and the duty-free imports bill, are at the heart of disputes over whether preferences for certain foreign imports help or hurt the economy.

Big businesses say the trade preferences give them access to cheaper raw materials and products they sell in the United States, thereby giving their customers a price break.

Labor unions say lowering tariffs for foreign companies with trade preferences results in more American factories and other businesses shutting down.

The National Association of Manufacturers issued a statement this week urging quick action in Congress to approve the Generalized System of Preferences.

“The vast majority of U.S. imports using [trade preferences] are raw materials, parts and components or machinery and equipment used by U.S. companies to manufacture goods in the United States for domestic consumption or for export,” the statement said. “The longer we wait to pass the agreements the more market share we lose to our competitors overseas.”

Companies that support the foreign trade preferences include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., General Electric Co. and Caterpillar Inc.

Since the old trade preferences lapsed Jan. 1, American companies claim to be paying an additional $1.8 million a day in additional tariffs on the goods they import.

The new Generalized System of Preferences bill, HR 2832, would lower tariffs on about 4,800 items, such as radial tires, machinery, silver jewelry and raw materials.

Other support for the bill comes from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The foreign trade preferences legislation would “create a path forward for approval of the pending trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, which are among the Chamber’s top legislative priorities this year,” said Bruce Josten, the Chamber’s executive vice president for government affairs.

Senate leaders working on the bill are hinting they will attach an amendment inserting the job retraining program Obama and other Democrats demand. They hope the amendment will give the bill the votes it needs to pass.

After the amendment is attached, the Senate is expected to send the bill back to the House for another vote. The House already approved its own trade preferences bill two weeks ago.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was optimistic about getting the trade bills passed. He said new agreements among senators have created a “path forward” for the proposed legislation.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The U.S. State Department is trying to smooth over relations with Mexico after a congressman implied the Mexican government is losing control over its own country.

Drug cartels are “undermining the Mexican state,” according to Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs western hemisphere subcommittee.

Mack’s statement during a subcommittee hearing last week prompted a backlash of criticism in Mexico.

Mexican political commentators also are upset by Mack’s statement that the Merida Initiative has shown few signs of success despite more than $1.5 billion in U.S. contributions.

The Merida Initiative is a 2008 treaty between the United States and Mexico designed to fight drug cartels. It has included transfers of military equipment to Mexico and training for the Mexican Army and police.

Mack’s committee is trying to find a replacement for the treaty, which expires this year. The Florida congressman suggests a “counterinsurgency plan” that targets hotbeds of drug cartel activity. He also wants a more comprehensive strategy that coordinates the efforts of several U.S. federal agencies.

“The Mexican drug cartels have evolved into what some call the greatest national security threat faced by the United States with the ability to severely damage the U.S. economy,” Mack said. “The administration has failed to set target dates or tangible goals to measure the success of U.S. programs and the Mexican drug cartels have capitalized on this failure, actively undermining the Mexican state through insurgent activities, such as violence, corruption and propaganda.”

Mack’s criticisms prompted political commentator Armando Alcocer to write in the Mexican publication Sexenio, “Perhaps our neighbors to the north are not satisfied with outright interventionism in the public policies and economics of Mexico. What’s next, armed occupation?”

The U.S. State Department responded with a statement of support for Mexico.

“Mexican authorities assert control throughout Mexico, in all Mexican states,” the State Department said. “Although organized crime tries to act with impunity, the Mexican government is using its resources to ensure that state authority will prevail and criminals will be punished, and we are supporting them.”

The State Department also described accomplishments of the Merida Initiative, which included training more than 6,800 federal police officers, transferring 14 helicopters to Mexico and improving information sharing that resulted in the capture of 29 top drug cartel leaders.

“We believe the [Merida] Initiative is already having a positive impact,” the State Department said. “Through its bold efforts, with U.S. support, the Mexican government has successfully dismantled drug smuggling routes, seized major amounts of illicit drugs and jailed drug kingpins.”

Nevertheless, complaints are rising among Mexico’s neighbors over how the five-year-old war with drug cartels is spilling over its borders.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer is demanding stronger legislation to keep illegal immigrants out of the United States.

Last year, 3,231 Mexicans filed for political asylum in the United States, up from 2,670 in 2005. To qualify for political asylum, they must prove they have a “credible fear of persecution or torture.”

Mexico’s southern neighbors also are feeling crimped by the drug war violence.

President Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic recently said a crime increase in his country’s central cities of Santiago and Jarabacoa was caused by Mexico’s drug cartels.

The executions of three Colombians and a Venezuelan, as well as the decapitation of a Dominican, were examples of Sinaloa Cartel activity, Fernandez said during a speech last week in Santiago.

“The seal of the murders for hire shows that the Mexican cartels are here, more than the Colombians,” Fernandez said.

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Business card is a small visual representation of a business. It is not only parts of your marketing strategy to get people know your contact information and company name but it is a viral marketing tool as well. Let me throw light on some effective business card design tips:

Color: Choose the color for your business card wisely. Choose light background color for your card with dark color text on it. If you keep it simple and just put your company contact information on the card plus one tagline about your business and what it does you will be better off. Choose colors according to your business; avoid choosing colors that are too funky. This would give your card a decent and professional look. But if your business is related to designer clothes or beauty and fashion or interior or outdoor decoration, floral business then you can choose dark color theme or themes that represent your business well.

Information: Include all the information related to your business but make sure the information should be precise but complete. Don’t forget to mention your email address and website URL, it will make easier for people to approach you.

Use call to action: You can draw more clients by using catchy phrases like “Visit Us for a Service” or “Visit Our Website for Exiting Offers”. Another good strategy to draw customer attention is to say them to present your card as a discount voucher for free gifts, price discounts or special introductory prices. Regardless of what phrases you use, the basic thing to do here is to persuade your prospective clients to act on your offer.

Size of card: Size of a business card also matters. Your business card should be Compaq and convenient to carry, it should not be huge and heavy. Better to go with standard size of business cards. In standard size cards you can choose different shapes like square or rounded angles or any other shape you like.

Always go for high-quality paper and printing. As your card embodies your company and you, as a person, it has to leave a lasting impression that will be advantageous for your business.

United States (AHN) – Emirates and Virgin America airlines has been found to give the best in-flight passenger experience among all global airline carriers today.

Emirates Airline topped the best overall passenger experience, based on an online survey conducted by the Airline Passenger Experience Association. Its’ 2011 Passenger Choice Awards awarded Emirates the top rank among airlines with a fleet of more than 50 planes outfitted with in-flight entertainment, while Virgin America led those with a fleet of less than 50 planes.

The awards survey had 14 categories, where both airlines lorded in most of them, including best in their respective regions and best in-flight video and ground experience for Virgin America.

V Australia, Virgin America’s sister airline, won for the best user interface in the skies, while Oman Air took the best in-flight connectivity award. Oman Air is the first global airline offering long-haul broadband.

For overall best cabin ambiance, American carrier JetBlue got the title, while the best single achievement in passenger experience went to Air New Zealand, for the fold-flat economy ‘Skycouch’ seats it introduced last year.

The awards were voted on only by the traveling public, in association with Nielsen.

The winners of the 2011 Passenger Choice Awards are:

• Best Overall Passenger Experience (Over 50 IFE EQUIPPED IN FLEET) – Emirates
• Best Overall Passenger Experience (Up to 50 IFE EQUIPPED IN FLEET) – Virgin America
• Best in Region: Africa – South African Airways
• Best in Region: Americas – Virgin America
• Best in Region: Asia and Australasia – V Australia
• Best in Region: Europe – Virgin Atlantic
• Best in Region: Middle East – Emirates
• Best Inflight Publication – Avianca
• Best IFE User Interface – V Australia
• Best Inflight Connectivity & Communications – Oman Air
• Best Inflight Video – Virgin America
• Best Cabin Ambiance – JetBlue
• Best Food & Beverage in conjunction with IFSA – V Australia
• Best Ground Experience – Virgin America

Meanwhile, Virgin America announced it will be introducing a new in-flight entertainment system, called Red, in late 2012. The airline will partner with Lufthansa Systems, whose BoardConnect platform will replace the traditional hard-wired arrangement with a WiFi-based network. Passengers will be able to access entertainment via a seat-back screen, at the same time an option to use their personal electronic devices.

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