Daily Current Affairs: 17 March 2014

1) Crimea breaks away from Ukraine: Crimea’s Parliament on Monday declared the region an independent state, after its residents voted overwhelmingly to break off from Ukraine and seek to join Russia. Crimea declared independence from Ukraine and applied to rejoin Russia, hours after its residents overwhelmingly supported the historic passage in a referendum on Sunday. Nearly 97 per cent of voters said “yes” to revert to Russia, from which Crimea had been separated when the Soviet Union broke up just over 20 years ago. A mere 2.5 per cent voted in favour of staying with Ukraine.

2) Mahela Jayawardene to retire from Twenty20 cricket after World Cup: Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene said he will retire from international Twenty20 cricket after this month's World Cup in Bangladesh, days after a similar announcement from long-time team-mate Kumar Sangakkara. In comments posted on the International Cricket Council website, the 36-year-old said he had taken the decision as he knew this tournament would be his last World Cup and he did not want to block a younger player.

3) IPL 2014: Bailey to captain Kings XI Punjab: George Bailey, Australia's T20 captain, will lead Kings XI Punjab in the IPL this season. Bailey will be the second Australian to lead Kings XI after Adam Gilchrist, who lead the franchise in the last two seasons before retiring last year. Bailey was one of the four Australians purchased by the franchise at the player’s auction on February, along with Mitchell Johnson, Glenn Maxwell and Shaun Marsh.

4) Djokovic beats Federer to win Indian Wells ATP Masters: World number two Novak Djokovic of Serbia outclassed Roger Federer by tiebreaker to win the Indian Wells ATP Masters title for the third time. The Serb beat Federer 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) Sunday to add another title to those he captured in the California desert in 2008 and 2011.

5) NMPT gets new chief: PC Parida assumed charge as Chairman of New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) on March 15. Prior to this, he was Deputy Chairman of Chennai Port Trust since January 2011. He also worked as Deputy Chairman of Mormugao Port Trust from November 2008 to December 2010.

6) India is the world’s largest arms importer: SIPRI- A new data on international arms transfers released that India’s import of weapon systems is three times more than Pakistan and China. The report published by as Swedish Think Tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) has claimed that India continues to be the largest buyer of arms in the world.

7) Director Gyan Correa bags Gollapudi Srinivas National Award 2013: Gyan Correa, the debutant director of Gujarati movie 'The Good Road', has been selected for the Gollapudi Srinivas National Award 2013. The film was selected from 20 nominations across many languages including Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Kannada, a press release from the Gollapudi Srinivas Memorial Foundation said. The award has been instituted in memory of late Gollapudi Srinivasa, who died while directing his first film Prema Pustakam (Book of Love) in 1992.

8) India nominated Rani-ki-Vav and GHNP for UNESCO’s World Heritage Site Status: India nominated Rani-ki-Vav located in Patan, Gujarat and the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Himachal Pradesh for UNESCO’s World Heritage Site Status for 2014. The World Heritage Committee will convene in Doha, Qatar, in June 2014 to review the nomination and take a final decision.