Daily Current Affairs Updates: 18 June 2014

1) FIFA World Cup 2014: Defending champions Spain knocked out: Defending champions Spain, the dominant global football power for the past six years, were eliminated from World Cup contention Wednesday with a 2-0 loss to Chile. Spain's famed passing game failed against a high-tempo, tenacious Chile team, its era ending in the storied Maracana Stadium filled mostly with noisy Chilean sunpporters. In simpler terms, Spain, the world champion side, became the first team to crash out of the 2014 World Cup.

2) Ex-Norwegian PM Gro Harlem Brundtland awarded Asian 'Nobel Prize': Former Norwegian premier Gro Harlem Brundtland was named today as the first recipient of the Tang Prize, touted as Asia's version of the Nobels, for her work as the "godmother" of sustainable development. Brundtland was awarded the debut prize, created by one of Taiwan's richest men with a USD 100 million donation, with winners in three other categories to be announced this week.

3) Rajiv Topno appointed Modi's private secretary: Rajiv Topno, a Gujarat-cadre IAS officer of 1996 batch, has been appointed private secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier, Topno had served at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) under Manmohan Singh too for almost five years. His five years of central deputation was to end this month but his term has been extended. Under Manmohan Singh, Topno was a director at the PMO. Now he has been appointed to the crucial post of PS to the Prime Minister. He will be the youngest IAS officer to serve at this post.

4) India Successfully Test Fired Medium-Range Akash Missile:  India successfully test fired the medium-range surface-to-air missile Akash on Wednesday from a defence base in Odisha, an official said. The indigenously developed missile, with a 27-km range and an effective ceiling of 15 km, was test fired from the Integrated Test Range in Balasore district, 230 km from Bhubaneswar.

5) India-born scientist Sanjaya Rajaram chosen for World Food Prize: India-born plant scientist Dr Sanjaya Rajaram has been named the winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize for his contribution in increasing global wheat production by more than 200 million tonnes in the years following the Green Revolution. 

Dr Rajaram's breakthrough achievement in successfully cross-breeding winter and spring wheat varieties, which were distinct gene pools and had been isolated from one another for hundreds of years, led to him developing plants that have higher yields and a broad genetic base. The World Food Prize was established in 1986 by Borlaug in order to focus the world's attention on hunger and on those whose work has significantly helped efforts to end it. This year marks the 28th anniversary of the prize.

6) Facebook released messaging app Slingshot: Social media giant Facebook announced the release on Tuesday of its latest messaging app Slingshot. Slingshot lets users share selfies and other short-lived videos and pictures, but friends have to share something before they are able to see images from others, according to the announcement. Slingshot is an attempt to take users away from the popular messaging app Snapchat.