WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Iranian leader said on Wednesday he detected a better mood in talks over his country’s nuclear program as the top U.S. military officer called for more dialogue to avoid a confrontation with Tehran.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In impoverished Haiti, the government and aid groups hand out lunches at schools in slums. In Brazil, mothers who regularly take their children to medical check-ups qualify for small cash payments.

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HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday rejected talks on a unity government, saying President Robert Mugabe must first stop violence and accept him as the rightful election winner.

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A Palestinian construction worker rampaged in a bulldozer along one of west Jerusalem’s busiest streets on Wednesday, killing three Israelis as he crushed cars and overturned a bus before being shot dead.

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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq is expecting visits soon from Jordan’s King Abdullah and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, easing its regional diplomatic isolation, the foreign minister said on Wednesday.

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VIENNA (Reuters) - U.S. allies in NATO must provide better equipment and drop many restrictions on how their forces are used to help defeat Afghanistan’s resilient Taliban insurgency, the alliance’s supreme commander said on Wednesday.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge will decide whether Osama bin Laden’s former driver, held at the Guantanamo Bay prison, can stop his military tribunal from going forward, the U.S. District Court in Washington said on Wednesday.

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BOGOTA (Reuters) - French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans were rescued from leftist guerrillas by Colombian troops, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday.

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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani politicians should stop squabbling over the fate of President Pervez Musharraf and focus on pressing problems of rising Islamist militancy, soaring prices and energy shortages, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

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HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Wednesday accused U.S. diplomats of escalating anti-government activities in recent weeks and said its ideological foe, the United States, will be held responsible for whatever happens if the actions continue.

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PARIS (Reuters) - Jerome Kerviel, the trader accused of causing record losses at French bank Societe Generale , has found a new job, French magazine Le Point reported on its website on Thursday.

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PARIS (Reuters) - An official from a German market watchdog has said French bank Societe Generale “could not possibly have been unaware” of rogue deals carried out by junior trader Jerome Kerviel, a French newspaper said.

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PARIS (Reuters) - Jerome Kerviel, the Frenchman blamed by his company for the world’s biggest rogue trading scandal, left jail on Tuesday after winning a legal battle against detention.

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N’DJAMENA (Reuters) - Six French aid workers were sentenced to eight years of hard labor each after a court in Chad found them guilty on Wednesday of trying to kidnap 103 children from the African country.

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TEHRAN (Reuters) - Russia has agreed to sell an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran, Iran’s defense minister was quoted as saying on Wednesday, a report likely to irritate the United States.

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BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serb parliamentarians of all major parties lined up on Wednesday behind a resolution implicitly rejecting membership of the European Union and NATO if the West recognizes the independence of Kosovo.

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SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt rejected Israeli complaints about weapons smuggling into Gaza on Wednesday, after talks between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Shotgun in hand, rising Republican candidate Mike Huckabee bagged a pheasant on Wednesday as U.S. presidential hopefuls hunted for votes just eight days before the first contest in a wide-open nomination race.

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ANKARA/SULAIMANIYA (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes bombed Kurdish guerrilla targets in northern Iraq on Wednesday, Turkey’s general staff said, in the fourth such cross-border raid in five days.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco police combed the city’s zoo for clues as to how a tiger escaped from its enclosure on Christmas and killed one man and wounded two others, a zoo spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan vowed on Wednesday to boost intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was destroying both countries, Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf said.

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PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Rescue crews in Panama found an American girl on Tuesday who survived a plane crash that killed the other three people on board, including a wealthy California investor, authorities said.

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BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia agreed on Wednesday to allow Venezuelan planes and helicopters to land in the country and pick up three hostages held for years by Marxist guerrillas, including a child born in captivity.

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Your company’s website is available for all the world to see, so it is important to display yourself in the best light as possible. The web has reinvented the way that businesses emerge and grow, and now is the time to make sure you have the best foundation possible to capitalize on the changes.

Infogenix is a web design company offering solutions in areas including programming, corporate branding, and traditional and online marketing. Over the past nine years they have helped everyone from small business owners to Fortune 500 companies.

Their search engine submission packages are a great way to improve your sites rankings. The Fast Search Engine Submission Package is a great way to get your new or existing website indexed in the search engines to start gaining popularity and exposure. Your website will be indexed within a few days, much faster than normal submissions which can take up to three months. Your site will also be sent to over 50 of the top web directories where you will be listed within two days.

Infogenix understands that in order for a site to have a successful launch, there needs to be a comprehensive planning stage prior to beginning the web design. All specifications, design proofs, and storyboards will be subject to approval by the client to insure that the development team has captured the vision of the project.

If you have been on the web checking out business card templates because you are interested in printing your own then there are a few things you should keep in mind. The first thing you will want to keep in mind is the type of card stock used for your business cards. If you are not really serious about your career then choose crappy card stock. But, if you are serious about your job and really want to make a good impression then you will choose a nice, sturdy and professional looking card stock. The next thing you will want to keep in mind when printing your own real estate business cards is the color of ink. You may use black, or in a stretch dark blue, but don’t start using red or pink or other similar colors. You want to print your own business cards and have them look as professional as if you had them printed. The same idea works for flyer printing in marketing for your business. So, in order to do this you will need to focus on making professional decisions when it comes to ink color and the like. When you are buying the supplies you will need you may always ask the store clerk for assistance and you will surely find just what you are looking for.

Effective communication skills training can make all the difference to your career. iOpener Ltd is a UK-based management training consultancy with a lot of experience in training managers in effective communication skills. Below are a few tips iOpener offer on communicating effectively in situations where negotiation is key.

Experienced vs. inexperienced negotiators

Inexperienced negotiators often miss out by wanting to close too early or get what they want without really co-opting the other side. If you take this approach, you may miss out by playing too tough or too keen. Here are some options that you can try instead:

1. Pretend to throw yourself on the other side’s mercy; it’s amazing what you can get simply by saying, ‘help me out here, I’d really like to work with you but I’m in a difficult position being squeezed by my boss/sub-contractors/ channel partners/etc so what can you do to…’
2. Use ‘we’ a lot; if you want the other side to open up, paint a future in which it’s already happening. Use ‘imagine’ to open up the doors and work backwards from there.
3. Test the waters by using ‘how about… and following up with ‘what do you think?’ that shows you’re just floating an idea to see if they are interested. It doesn’t mean that you are wholly committed to it either. But you will get the other side to state where they are.

Tough negotiations

When you are taking part in a tough negotiation where the stakes are high there are 4 golden rules:

1. Go with a negotiating partner. You can’t pick up on all the clues, run the negotiation, remember all your points and stay on track without help. Take someone else with you.
2. Take plenty of breaks. You can’t focus for more than 30 mins if you are really listening hard. Plus you need to confer with your partner other than with eye-meets (too telling) or kicks under the table! If you set the ground-rules up front, no-one will be surprised by your need for breaks.
3. Summarise frequently. That way you show you are listening, that you have achieved movement together.
4. Leave the toughest thing until well beyond the half-way point. Then you’ll be able to talk about what you have agreed, the positive steps you have made and the progress you’re looking forward to. If you tackle the toughest thing first, you may hit stalemate and you then have no basis from which to move forward.

Negotiation no-nos

When you are negotiating here are some things that you need to avoid doing at all cost.

1. Don’t write any numbers or terms down. If you do, you are signalling acceptance to the other side and you don’t want to do this without getting something first.
2. Don’t say ‘this is a good/fair offer.’ That kind of comment is calculated to annoy. Good and fair for who? Probably for you not them.
3. Don’t say ‘this is my final offer’. It never is and it may act as a red rag to a bull if you do say it. There is no such thing as a final offer: there’s always more to talk about, you’ll always trade price for volume, so don’t say anything amateur and close the door on yourself.

If you found these tips useful visit the iOpener website to sign up to receive more work tips just like these by email.

(Inc.com) - President Bush’s expected veto of the Iraq funding bill this week will also halt small-business tax breaks aimed at offsetting an increase in the federal minimum wage.

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(Inc.com) - Ever wonder how much the office printer is costing your bottom line? Ricoh Americas, a West Caldwell, N.J.-based office-automation firm, has launched a low-cost application that tracks document output from copiers, printers, fax machines, and scanners, the company announced Tuesday.

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(Inc.com) - Anticipating record-high sales for Mother’s Day, a growing number of small businesses are shifting their marketing efforts online this year.

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(Inc.com) - Two American Indian sisters who launched a homegrown health-care business in Lumberton, N.C., were named national Small Business Persons of the Year at a gala awards ceremony on Tuesday in Washington.

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(Inc.com) - A combination of stress, long hours, and an inflexible schedule is the main driver of bad behavior in the workplace, according to a new survey.

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(Inc.com) - Does choosing the right communications system for your small business leave you feeling overwhelmed? A new service launched Wednesday on VendorGuru.com allows users to research an array of telephony vendors and systems in order to determine which system is right for their businesses.

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(Inc.com) - A year after rallying for immigration reform, hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers and their supporters were back on the streets Tuesday protesting a steady rise in workplace raids and deportations.

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(Inc.com) - It may seem like everyone you work with spends time standing around the water cooler, talking about the latest contestant to get kicked off “American Idol.” And now there’s evidence to prove it.

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(Inc.com) - Six years ago, Merrell Warshaw opened a bridal gown shop on top of a small hill in the village of Mamaroneck, N.Y., right across from the local fire department. That location saved his business this week.

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(Inc.com) - House Democrats on Wednesday were unable to override President Bush’s veto of the Iraq war spending bill, which also contained an increase in the federal minimum wage and $4.8 billion in tax cuts for small businesses.

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