Important CURRENT AFFAIRS

25th & 26th August 2013

• Today(26Aug) is the 104 birth anniversary of Mother Teresa.Mother was born on this day in 1910 at Republic of Macedonia.

• April 6 declared International Sports Day.The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed April 6 as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

• India-born Satya Nadella may succeed Steve Ballmer as Microsoft CEO. Nadella, 44, as head of Microsoft's USD 19 billion Server and Tools Business, is credited with the transformation of the business and technology from client-server software to cloud infrastructure and services.

• The roll out of white-label automated teller machines (ATM) may still take a long time as most of the successful applicants are not still ready to start operations, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) official said.

• Ramya, who was Saturday elected to Lok Sabha from Mandya constituency in Karnataka, is the first female actor from the state toenter parliament. Glamorous Ramya is considered the "golden girl" of Kannada cinema as she has given several hits.

• The Indian classical singer and music director, Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi passed away on 25 August 2013 in Bhubaneswar. He was 80 years of age. He is known as the vocalist of Jayadeva’s Gita Govind. He died because of cardiac arrest.

•  Taukelina Finikaso, the Foreign Minister of Tuvalu was on an official visit to India from 21 to 25August 2013. This was the first visit of Finikaso to India after taking charge as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade, Tourism, Environment, and Labour, Govt. of Tuvalu.

• India and Iraq singed MoUs during the visit of Nouri al-Maliki to India. Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Republic of Iraq was on a state visit to India. This was the first visit of Maliki to India.

• India bagged a Gold medal in the Archery World Cup Stage 4 competition in Wroclaw, Poland yesterday. In the Women's Recurve Team final, the sixth seeded Indian team of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Rimil Buriuly defeated the top seeded South Korean team of Yun Ok-Hee, Ki Bo Bae, and Joo Hyun Jung, 219-215 to clinch the Gold.

• Bollywood actor and UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) Goodwill Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan on 23 August 2013 joined the UN and its humanitarian partners to promote The World Needs More global campaign. The campaign seeks to turn words into real assistance for communities affected by humanitarian crises. It was launched on 19 August 2013.

• The Chinese military has launched the first ingenuously developed military attack helicopter WZ-10 successfully for its first air-to-air missile.

• The fourth and final Grand Slam of the season, the US Open Tennis tournament, kicks off in New York today.

• India qualified for the semifinals of the Asia Cup hockey tournament with a 2-0 win over defending champions South Korea at the Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh on Monday.

• Indian tennis player Sania Mirza lifted the women’s doubles trophy at the WTA New Haven Open along with her partner Jie Zheng of China on 24 August 2013.