World Health Day being observed today

1.    World Health Day being observed today

i. The seventh of April happens to be the day when World Health Day is commemorated across the globe.

ii. The Day is observed on April 7 every year to mark the foundation of World Health Organization, WHO in 1948.

iii. It is seen as an opportunity by the organization to draw worldwide attention to a subject of major importance to global health each year.

iv. It is rather interesting to note that the theme which the World Health Organization (WHO) picked for World Health Day 2014 is vector-borne diseases (VBDs), and the campaign for World Health Day this year is 'small bite: big threat', the reason being the fact that this is a very important area of concern for public health across the world, especially in India.

v. The World Health Day campaign this year aims at increasing awareness levels about the dangers caused by insect vectors. The bacteria, viruses, and parasites they carry cause numerous VBDs. According to WHO, VBDs make up for more than 17 percent of diseases.

vi. Among these, malaria, dengue, schistosomiasis, Human African trypanosomiasis, Leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and Onchocerciasis, are the ones that are present globally. 

2.    Sri Lanka win maiden ICC Twenty20 World Cup title

i. Sri Lanka won their maiden Twenty20 Cricket World Cup, beating India by six wickets in the final at Mirpur, Dhaka last night.
ii. The victory ended Sri Lanka's inexplicable losing streak in World Cup final matches, while MS Dhoni and Co., who had won the 50-over World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy last year, missed by becoming the first team to hold all three major limited-overs titles.
iii. Sangakkara was named man of the match, while Virat Kohli was named Player of the Tournament for amassing 319 runs in the tournament.

3.    60 per cent voting till afternoon in Assam

i. Nearly 60 per cent of the total 64.4 lakh voters exercised their franchise till 3 PM today in the five Lok Sabha constituencies of Assam from where minor sporadic incidents were reported.

ii. Tezpur reported 56 per cent polling, Jorhat 60, Lakhimpur 52, Dibrugarh 52.5 and Koliabor 60 per cent, election office sources said.

iii. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's son Gaurav (Koliabor), besides Congress rebel and independent candidate Moni Kumar Subba and BJP state unit president Sabananda Sonowal (Lakhimpur) are also locked in the electoral battle.

iv. At least 40 EVMs malfunctioned in Dibrugarh, Kaliabor, Tezpur and Lakhimpur constituencies, the sources said adding 29 of them were replaced and snags in the others rectified for voting to continue uninterrupted.

v. "There is no Modi magic, but Tarun Gogoi magic is in Assam. Earlier, I had said we will win ten seats but now I am sure the Congress will get more than that," he asserted.
vi. Besides Congress and BJP, Trinamool Congress, AIUDF, AGP, AAP, SUCI, CPI(M), AIFB and SP are in the fray in the five seats.