DAILY GK UPDATE 13TH AUGUST

1.    Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won Mali Presidential Elections

i. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita won Mali's Presidential elections on 12 August 2013 after his opponent Soumalia Cisse conceded defeat before official results were announced.

ii. Soumalia Cisse's concession allows Mali to avoid a protracted election fight and to move ahead with establishing a democratically elected government, one of the international community's caveats for unlocking some 4 billion US dollars in promised aid.

iii. Keita had been expected to win easily, having pulled nearly 40 percent of the vote in the first round.

iv. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is a Malian politician and the country's president-elect. He was Prime Minister of Mali from 1994 to 2000 and President of the National Assembly of Mali from 2002 to 2007.

v. He founded a political party, Rally for Mali (RPM), in 2001 and he has led the party since then. In addition to serving in the National Assembly, Keita was a member of the Parliament of the Economic Community of West African States. 
vi. Ibrahim Boubacar Keita is popularly known as IBK.

2.    Ace shooter Sodhi picked for Khel Ratna, Kohli for Arjuna

i. Trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi, the first Indian to win two back-to-back World Cup gold medals, was, on Tuesday, recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, while cricketer Virat Kohli was among the 14 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna award by the selection committee.

ii. Rising badminton player P V Sindhu, who became the first Indian woman shuttler to clinch a bronze medal at the recent World Championships, was also in the list of 14 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna award.

iii. Apart from Sindhu, triple-jumper Renjith Maheshwary, who won a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games with a national record, and rising golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar were among the sportspersons picked for the Arjuna award this year by the selection committee headed by billiards legend Michael Ferreira.

iv. Sodhi, who had a disastrous outing at the London Olympics last year, is a former world number one.

v. This year's Arjuna awardees list features just one boxer, World Championship bronze medalist Kavita Chahal.

vi. The list includes quite a few women with veteran squash player Joshna Chinappa, former hockey captain Saba Anjum, paddler Mouma Das, wrestler Neha Rathi and shooter Rajkumari Rathore recommended for the award.

3.    Nadal beats Raonic to win Montreal Masters

i. Fourth seed Rafael Nadal of Spain routed Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-2 to capture the ATP Montreal Masters Title on Monday.

ii. It was a dominating victory in which the big-hitting Canadian's serve was all but nullified by precision returns from Nadal.

iii. Nadal lifted his eighth trophy of the season to run his career title total to 58.He remains undefeated this season on the hardcourts after winning the Indian Wells title in March. He also won in Canada in 2005 and 2008.

iv. Raonic fell short in his bid to become the first Canadian to win the title since 1958.Despite the loss he became the first Canadian to be ranked in the top 10 on the ATP Tour. Nadal will move back to third place on the ATP world rankings on Monday while Raonic vaults into No. 10.

4.    Indian-American Trio won World Geography Championship

i. A team of three Indian-American students defeated teams from 17 other regions to win top honours at the 11th National Geographic World Championship in Russia's St. Petersburg city.

ii. The team included Captain Gopi Ramanathan, 15, from Sartell, Minnesota, Asha Jain, 13, from Minocqua, Wisconsin, and Neelam Kaur Sandhu, 14, from Bedford, New Hampshire.

iii. The Indian-American trio won by correctly identifying a country’s flag which had six small stars representing the mainland and its five offshore islands. The answer was Equatorial Guinea.

5.    Eng clinch 3rd straight Ashes by wining 4th test

i. England clinched a third straight Ashes series as they won the fourth test by 74 runs following a dramatic Australian batting meltdown in the face of some inspired bowling from paceman Stuart Broad on Monday.

ii. Set a victory target of 299, Australia collapsed from 168-2 to 224 all out in a memorable final session at Chester-le-Street on day four.

iii. England lead the five-match series 3-0 with one test left, starting at The Oval on 21^st Aug.

6.    Renowned Naturalist and Ornithologist Zafar Futehally passed away

i. Zafar Futehally, (93 years) India’s best known naturalist and ornithologist passed away on 11 August 2013 at Kihim in Maharashtra.

ii. Zafar Futehally led the early years of the conservation movement in India and served as a link between conservationists and corporate.

iii. He was founder editor of the Newsletter for Birdwatchers and this publication helped the birdwatchers to document observations at a time when there was no digital documentation and there were few scientific studies on wildlife in the country.

iv. Zafar Futehally was associated for 60 years with the Bombay Natural History Society, of which he was honorary secretary for 16 years. He also served as a member in project Tiger in 1973-83.