According to the CIA, Monaco has the highest life expectancy at almost 90 years old. Countries with a good healthcare system, low rates of violence, and democracy, among other factors, are more likely to have a higher life expectancy. Certain places in Asia, such as Macau, Japan, and Singapore, range between 84 and 83 years.

Asia’s relative advantage is related not only to genetics, but also its universal healthcare system and better diet. The United States, with an average life expectancy of 77.49, ranks fiftieth, which is below middle income countries such as Gibraltar, Denmark, and Portugal. At the bottom of the list is the African country, Chad, with an average life expectancy of 49 years.

Why are Monacans expected to live so much longer than anyone else? Monaco borders the Mediterranean Sea on the southern coast of France, near the border with Italy, and is the second-smallest independent state in the world (after Vatican City). Monaco is home to 30,510 people and became independent in 1419 by the House of Grimaldi. Monaco is a popular resort, attracting tourists to its casinos and pleasant climate.

The state has no income tax and low business taxes and thrives as a tax haven both for individuals who have established residence and for foreign companies that have set up businesses and offices. Living standards are high, roughly comparable to those in prosperous French metropolitan areas. Monacans have access to good water, sanitation, and healthcare, and zero percent of the population has AIDS or HIV.

In contrast, Chad faces many health problems, such as malaria, Hepatitis A, and meningitis. The Chad government estimates that 11,000 people died due to AIDS or HIV in 2009. Currently, 210,000 Chadians are living in the country with AIDS or HIV. Residents of Chad have less access to healthcare than Monacans, mostly because of poverty.

Animals with diseases are another factor of risk for Chadians that sometimes consume poisonous foods due to the lack of regulations. Chad relies on foreign assistance and foreign capital for most public and private sector investment projects. At least 80 percent of Chad’s population relies on subsistence farming and raising livestock for its livelihood.

Transnational issues do not help the life expectancy of Chadians. There is a lot of crime and violence on the cross-border with Cameroon, Sudan, and Nigeria. Moreover, Chadian children are trafficked to Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria for forced labor and forced prostitution.

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U2 lead singer Bono denied the reports that he had been taken to hospital after complaining of chest pain while on holiday in the south of France. Singer’s spokeswoman claims he is in “good health” and his hospital visit was just a routine checkup.

Various websites published a story that Bono had been rushed to a hospital by his wife Ali Hewson, after she became concerned about him suffering from palpitations and chest pains. The 51-year old did go to the Princess Grace Memorial hospital in Monacoon Wednesday August 17, and the Irish Independent claimed he was examined by a leading heart specialist and ordered to get some rest.

Irish Central website claimed that he had undergone a battery of tests before being discharged, quoting an insider saying, “as I understand it he was seen by a doctor. He is okay now but he got a fright.” Bono’s health scare was first reported by the broadsheet newspaper, Irish Independent.

It’s clear now that the reports are false and it’s also confirmed that the only health problems Bono had were in the form of a back injury, which he obtained while he was on a record-breaking world tour in 2010. “Despite press stories to the contrary, Bono has not suffered a recent health scare.

Reports of his being rushed to hospital for emergency treatment are untrue. Bono is in good health and enjoying a family holiday in the south of France,” the spokeswoman for Bono said in a statement to Reuters. Bono was later spotted relaxing in Monaco’s nightspot, Saas Café, with his wife, Julian Lennon and Irish designer John Rocha on Friday, August 19.

The group was forced to cancel several gigs in 2010 and pulled out of the Glastonbury music festival in England when Bono injured his back while rehearsing in Germany for the tour. He recovered in time to resume the gruelling schedule and the band returned to perform on the main stage at Glastonbury this summer.

U2 recently wrapped up their mammoth 360° world tour in Canada. The jaunt grossed a record-breaking $736,137,344 (£448 million). The success of the 360° Tour, which began in Barcelona on June 30, 2009, has been attributed to the band’s ground-breaking 360-degree production, which can increase the capacity of stadiums by as much as 25 percent.

Meanwhile, U2 are donating $7.2m to support the education system in their native Ireland following the hardship measures introduced in the aftermath to the world banking crisis. The cash will be provided over the course of the next four years and will mainly be used to buy music equipment and pay music teachers wages.

The head of Music Generation, a U2- affiliated charity, Rosaleen Molloy, says: “While we have a very rich musical culture and heritage, access to music tuition is like a geographic lottery. There is an assumption that music is being provided in mainstream schools- while the reality is it’s not.

The band had been looking for a way to invest and support music education in Ireland; they want to give something back.”
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The beginning of this Formula 1 season bears many similarities with the Brawn GP-dominated 2009 championship in which Ross Brawn’s team had won 5 of the 6 opening races. It looked a foregone conclusion back then: Brawn GP could have won the next few races and have basically secured victory in both the drivers and constructors championships with ease. Fortunately for the other teams, and most importantly the fans, resurgence from Red Bull Racing made the end of the 2009 season a much more closely fought affair.

So will Red Bull be so kind this year and make the rest of the season less predictable? It’s going to be a tall order for the other teams, but like we saw in 2009, the tables can quickly turn and the team who looked invincible can fall foul to reliability issues and the advances of their rivals. The former is probably less likely to impede Red Bull because, bar a few KERS issues, their reliability has been excellent. It will be up to the other teams to raise their game.

So what can the chasing pack do? Or more accurately: what can McLaren do? Fernando Alonso has already resigned Ferrari’s chances to that of a mathematical possibility. He believes unless Ferrari can win the next three races, with Red Bull failing to score, his team have already lost sight of championship victory.

McLaren, despite a 58 point gulf between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel and a 61 point gap in the constructor’s standings, are most likely to stage a comeback. We saw last weekend at Monaco how the speed of the Red Bulls was matched by McLaren, with Jenson Button clawing back seconds per lap towards the ends of the race only to fall foul to a monumentally inconvenient red flag deployment.

Its seems that despite formidable qualifying performances (Sebastian Vettel has started on pole position in all but the Spanish Grand Prix) the pace of the Red Bull cars can be matched by McLaren during a race. The superior tyre strategy of the McLaren team in Monaco meant Sebastian Vettel was exposed to attack from Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton has shown his capability to overtake Sebastian Vettel in race conditions as he did so during the closing laps of the Chinese Grand Prix in which he claimed victory .

The Red Bulls have been less than convincing off the line too: Button and Hamilton snatched the lead into turn one at China, Alonso laughed in the face of the Red Bull front row in Spain and Mark Webber has often lost track position at the first corner.  In the races that Vettel has dominated from the off (Australia, Malaysia and Turkey) he has led from the start and has had the opportunity to forge a comfortable cushion between him and the chasing cars. It seems that if the young World Champion is sitting in pole, his rivals must intervene at the first corner to force the Red Bull team into changing to a backup race strategy.

The technology gap between Red Bull and the other teams is also decreasing. Red Bull began the season with the fastest car no-doubt, their formidable speed at the front of the pack in Australia and Malaysia showed this, however their rivals have been adding new technological additions to their vehicles every race. There were no additions to the RB7 chassis in Monaco and Spain, could that be confidence in their machine or a window of opportunity for McLaren who have brought extensive technical modifications to the last few races?

There is still over half of the season to go and in theory the championship is still anyone’s for the taking. However, the fact remains that the man in front is the reigning World Champion, a supremely fast driver who is sitting in arguably still the fastest car on the grid. McLaren and Ferrari are going to have to pull something out in the next two races: Montreal and Valencia, both street circuits which will not allow the Red Bulls to stretch their legs on lots of open track. They will need to use every ounce of their racing expertise, not to mention some of the fortune which has favoured Sebastian Vettel this season to stay in the running.

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