If you're avoiding air travel after MH17 and more, let statistics be your guide | James Ball

Suddenly fear flying? There are so many better things to be scared of. Photograph: Stephen Strathdee/Getty Images

Is it really so irrational to avoid air travel in the wake of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, and the TransAsia crash off the coast of Taiwan, and now the Algerian airliner in Northern Africa?

Yes. Completely, totally and entirely irrational. You are probably not going to die in an airplane crash.

It's a widespread fear after planes go down, even though the truth is that air travel is almost always boringly safe and uneventful (whether we concentrate on major US airlines or other carriers around the world). The latest global airline safety report shows there were 90 commercial airplane accidents in 2013. Only nine involved fatalities

Fred returns to Shakhtar Donetsk having stayed away after MH17 disaster

A poster in Donetsk featuring Shakhtar players. Six of the squad refused to return to Ukraine after the MH17 disaster. Photograph: Robert Ghement/EPA

The Brazilian midfielder Fred has arrived back in Ukraine for training with Shakhtar Donetsk, having initially refused to travel in the wake of the MH17 disaster.

Fred was one of six South Americans who refused to return to the club after the Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

His fellow Brazilians Ismaily, Douglas Costa, Alex Teixeira and Dentinho, and the Argentinian striker Facundo Ferreyra, also refused to travel from France following a friendly against Lyon.

The club, which announced on Wednesday it would move its headquarters to Kiev and play Champions League and domestic games in the western city of Lviv, said in a statement:

Fighter jets escorted the plane to the airport in Canada after bomb threat

23: 1125.07.2014165 United States President Barack Obama has sent several hundred military advisers in Iraq, where extremists from the group the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" captured significant territory and a number of major cities.


WASHINGTON, 25 Jul-RIA Novosti. United States House of representatives adopted on Friday a resolution that prohibits President Barack Obama to send troops to Iraq for a "protracted war" without congressional authorization.

Obama previously has sent several hundred military advisers in Iraq, where extremists from the group the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" captured significant territory and a number of major cities. The United States says that is not going to send troops to the Iraqi Government for help.

Resolution of the House of representatives adopted by 370 votes to 40, could have only symbolic meaning, as the President of the United States in the past kept the right to unilateral decisions about the "limited" military operations abroad. While Obama has repeatedly changed his opinion on the matter. So, in preparation for the strike on Syria in the fall of 2013, the President of the United States at first intended to take the decision alone, then applied for permission in Congress, and then abandoned the operation without waiting for a possible rejection of the Congress.

Between the Administration and the House of representatives to continue the confrontation on a range of legal issues relating to the powers of the President. So, the Republicans who control the House of representatives, as early as next week to hold a vote on the President of United States on trial for abuse of power. This step, as the resolution on sending troops to Iraq, would have no practical value because it will block the Senate President Obama's Party in control of the Democratic Party.
00TweetNravitsâ23: 25/07/11 2014Ranee President of the United States Barack Obama has sent several hundred military advisers in Iraq, where extremists from the group the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" captured significant territory and a number of major cities. read more