10 METRO Tuesday, October 27, 2009 D Call now! Caroline Lang 01 472 7135 gencourses@irishtimes.com Social Media Seminars Want to build Visibility, Reputation, Profits? Then our upcoming social media seminars may be perfect for you! See how Facebook and Twitter can enhance customer service and attract more business. Social Media for Business Half-day 10 November Twitter and Facebook for Business Full-day 14 December METROWorld Firefighters search for survivors in the rubble of an apartment building that collapsed yesterday in Palma Picture: EPA spain: Seven people died and two were injured when an apartment building collapsed in Palma on the island of Majorca early yesterday. Rescue teams combed through the rubble of the four-storey building in search of survivors or bodies. The cause of the collapse shortly after midnight was not yet known. Police spokeswoman Janka Jurkiewicz said yesterday that several islanders had reported there were nine people listed as living in the apartment block. She described the building as old but did not know when it was built. A local radio station reported that some of the residents had been complaining about cracks in the walls before the collapse. iRaQ: The government blamed the bloodiest bombings in years on al-Qaeda and other extremists, but many Iraqis think political infighting before next years election is the cause and fear more attacks. Baghdad was ensnared in a major traffic jam a day after the twin suicide bombs that killed more than 150 people, as the government, facing criticism from opponents for sleeping on the job, set up extra checkpoints and searched every vehicle. Iraqs ballot in January is expected to focus on security gains under Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki, and questions of power and wealth distribution. The threat of more attacks looms as rivals and insurgents seek to undermine Mr al-Maliki. south KoREa: A court found scientist Hwang Woo- suk, credited with bringing the country to the forefront of stem cell research, guilty of fraud yesterday. Hwang (pictured) and his team at Seoul National University were thought to have made two major breakthroughs by cloning stem cells and tailoring them to a specific patient, raising hopes of generating genetically specific tissue to repair damaged organs or treat diseases, but investigators said they fabricated vital data in two papers on human embryonic stem cells. EngLanD: A London Underground worker has quit his job after being caught yelling at an elderly passenger on camera. The footage shows customer service assistant Ian Morbin calling a Tube passenger a jumped-up little git and telling him he was acting like a little girl and also seemed to suggest the man should be slung under a train at Holborn station. sauDi aRabia: King Abdullah has waived the lashing punishment for a female journalist charged with involvement in a TV sex show. Rozanna al-Yami was charged with involvement in a programme in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced to 60 lashes. Ms Al-Yami (pictured), who has denied the charges against her, is the first woman Saudi journalist to get a flogging punishment. The king ordered her case and that of another woman journalist also accused of involvement in the show be referred to an Information Ministry committee. afghanistan: Fourteen US troops were killed in helicopter crashes yesterday. In the first crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight with insurgents, killing seven troops and three civilians working for the government. Eleven troops, one US civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured. In a separate incident in the south, two other US helicopters collided while in flight, killing four American troops and wounding two more. US authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision. The Taliban claimed its fighters shot down a helicopter in the northwest Badghis provinces Darabam district. buLgaRia: The countrys new prime minister, Boiko Borisov, has banned entertainment allowances at the council of ministers and told employees to pay for their guests coffee as part of cost-cutting measures. Dinners and lunches for visiting delegations will be the only exception. The governments office had been spending 3,578 a month on flowers and refreshments, which will now be saved as the Balkan country struggles to avoid a budget deficit. We will set a personal example, said Mr Borisov (pictured). aMERiCa: President Barack Obamas hopes of healthcare reform were boosted yesterday after it emerged the industry wastes up to 850billion a year. His proposed changes could be paid for out of efforts to slow the fiscal bleeding, said a Thomson Reuters report. Unnecessary tests and drugs given purely to protect against malpractice account for more than a third of waste while fraud accounts for a fifth. The average US hospital spent a quarter of its budget on billing and administration. The good news is that by attacking waste we can reduce healthcare costs without adversely affecting the quality of care or access to care, the report stated. Karadzic boycotts his war-crime trialBy mike corder THE former Serb leader accused of ordering the massacre of 8,000 men and boys refused to turn up for day one of his genocide trial yesterday. Radovan Karadzic says he needs more time to prepare himself against 11 war crimes charges during the Bosnian war. He has been in custody and work- ing on his defence since his arrest on a Belgrade bus in July 2008. Judges will appoint a legal team for him if he doesnt appear in court in The Hague today. They are eager to get the trial of the tribunals highest profile defend- ant under way after his arrest 15 months ago. Judge O-Gon Kwon said the hear- ing would restart without him with plans for prosecutors to make open- ing statements. There are also cir- cumstances in which a chamber can assign a counsel to an accused if his self representation is obstructing the proceedings of a trial, said Mr Kwon. Karadzic, 64, is charged with gen- ocide over the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the bloody 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. More than 100,000 people died in the Bosnian war. The delaying tactics match those employed by former Yugoslav Pres- ident Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 before his trial ended. Yesterdays decision to adjourn the first day enraged survivors who had travelled by bus from Bosnia to The Hague to see Karadzic finally face justice. A small group briefly refused to leave the courtroom and one woman threatened a hunger strike. Karadzic, had been living openly, posing as bearded New Age healer Dr Dragan Dabic until his arrest. He insists he is innocent. He claims he cut a deal with US peace envoy Richard Holbrooke in 1996 in which he agreed to drop out of public life in return for immunity. Mr Holbrooke denies this. Wants more time: karadzic Iran could have nuclear bomb in 18 months if it wanted oneIntellIgence agencies estimate it would take Iran a minimum of 18 months to develop a nuclear weapon if it chose to build one. For years the cIA, Britains MI6, Israels Mossad, their French and german counterparts and other spy agencies have been struggling to penetrate Irans secretive nuclear programme, often disagreeing internally and with each other on when Iran could have a nuclear weapon. tehran insists its nuclear programme is peaceful and says Western spies are lying when they suggest Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Some officials at the Un nuclear watchdog in Vienna have warned against exaggerating the case against Iran, as happened with Iraq. But several Western diplomats said yesterday the top spy agencies generally agreed that tehran would need at least 18 months to build an atomic weapon if it decided to make one a much shorter timeline than some of the agencies publicly released assessments have said previously. Its not a formal assessment or formal agreement but a rough agreement that we can all work with more or less, said one Western diplomat on condition of anonymity. He added that it was a worst-case scenario, not the most likely one. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html