Rare glimpse of Barack Obama’s daughter causes online stir
WASHINGTON: After years of careful White House control over her few public appearances, a mysterious online image of first daughter Malia Obama, 16, has gone viral.The rare glimpse of a personal side of President Barack Obama’s oldest daughter — sister Sasha is now 14 — shows her wearing a tee-shirt printed with the name of the Brooklyn rap group Pro Era. The photo shows the lanky high school student — or someone who looks very much like her — mouth agape, looking directly into the camera as she arranges her long ponytail. But no one seems to know who took the picture, or how it came to be circulated on the internet. The viral dissemination of the image underscored the perils of life in the White House fishbowl — particularly when its occupants are trying to raise children there — in the age of the internet and social media. The White House — which has jealously guarded the Obama girls’ privacy — so far has not commented on the photo. (AFP)
Australian flag carrier Qantas world’s safest airline
Canberra: Australian flag carrier Qantas has been named the world’s safest airline in a report published by a website on Wednesday. Using a system that takes into account audits from aviation governing bodies and governments, as well as fatality records, Qantas was named the safest and most experienced airline going into 2015, it was reported. Qantas, which is in its 95th year of operation, was hailed for “an extraordinary record of firsts” in terms of its safety history and ranked the best of 449 airlines, including low-cost carriers, assessed by the website. AirlineRatings.com praised Qantas for the way it monitors the engines of its aircraft using satellite communications, saying “doing so allows the airline to detect problems before they become a major safety issue”. The report follows the worst year for fatal air accidents over the last decade, with AirlineRatings.com mentioning the Malaysia Airlines flights MH370 and MH17, in addition to the AirAsia Flight QZ8501, as the industry’s worst incidents. However, despite the record amount of deaths, the overall number of accidents throughout 2014 was at an all-time low. “Certainly, 21 fatal air accidents with 986 fatalities — higher than the 10-year average — is sickening,” the report said. “However, the world’s airlines carried a record 3.3 billion passengers on 27 million flights.” It said the crashes of flights MH370 and MH17 “were unprecedented in modern times and claimed 537 lives”. “Flashback 50 years and there were a staggering 87 crashes killing 1,597 when airlines carried only 141 million passengers — 5 percent of today’s number.” The website went on to marvel at Qantas’s fatality-free record in the jet era, given the aforementioned statistics. The remainder of the top 10 in terms of the world’s safest airlines are Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. (IANS)
‘Smart’ helmet to warn about imminent crash
London: A ‘smart’ helmet that can spot an imminent crash and allow cyclists to avoid collision with a vehicle has been developed. The prototype helmet, created by Swedish auto giant Volvo also warns a vehicle when it gets too close to a cyclist. The helmet lets cyclists know if they are in a vehicle’s blind spot so they can take action to avoid a collision. It works with smartphone fitness monitoring apps that track the location and speed of a cyclist, BBC News reported. The information is shared with any vehicles nearby that are equipped with the firm’s City Safety system. This alerts drivers to the presence of a cyclist even if the rider is in a blind spot or when visibility is poor. The system calculates potential trajectories of both bicycle and car and warns when a collision is imminent. It can also take control of a car to apply brakes if it gets too close to a cyclist. Drivers are alerted through the car’s head-up display and the rider is warned via a light mounted on the helmet. (PTI)
In US, six people die daily from alcohol poisoning
Washington: An average of six people die from alcohol poisoning every day in the United States, according to a US government report out on Wednesday. Most of the 2,200 people who die from excess drinking each year are middle-aged white men, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, as a proportion of the population, American Indians and Alaskan natives have the most alcohol poisoning deaths per million people. Alaska has the nation’s highest alcohol poisoning death rate, coming in at 46.5 deaths per million residents each year. “Alcohol poisoning deaths are caused by drinking a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time,” said the CDC Vital Signs report. “This can result in very high levels of alcohol in the body, which can shut down critical areas of the brain that control breathing, heart rate, and body temperature — resulting in death.” Over 38 million American adults say they binge drink on the weekends, consuming an average of eight drinks per bender. (Agencies)