4th May 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• International Firefighters' Day is being observed today.
• It was instituted after proposal emailed out across the world on January 4, 1999 due to the deaths of five firefighters in tragic circumstances in a wildfire in Australia. 
• May 4 used to be a traditional Firefighters' Day in many European countries, because it is the day of Saint Florian, patron saint of firefighters.

National Affairs

• The Punjab government today constituted a five member committee to give recommendations for ensuring the safety of women passengers in the public transport system across the state.
• The committee comprising state Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Principal Secretary (Transport), Secretary Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes and Additional Director General of Police (Traffic) would assess the ground realities for suggesting ways and means to ensure the safety of the passengers, especially women, commuting in the public transport system. 
• The committee has been asked to submit its report within a month.
• The International Buddha Poornima Diwas 2015 was celebrated today. 
  
• The programme is organized by the International Buddhist Confederation with the support of Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Deaths

• Former Union minister and veteran Congress leader Baleshwar Ram passed away.
• A five-term MLA from various assembly constituencies since 1952, Ram had served in ministerial capacity in various Congress governments in Bihar in 1960s and 1970s.
• He was elected to Lok Sabha from Rosera constituency in 1980 and went to serve in the Indira Gandhi government as the Union minister.
• Acclaimed crime writer Ruth Rendell (85) has passed away
•  Her best-known creation was Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford, whose first book in the series 'Doon with Death,' was published in 1964, followed by over 20 more, and it was even made into a highly successful TV series starring George Baker.

Awards & Honors

• The UN's cultural body today awarded its annual press freedom prize to Mazen Darwish, a Syrian journalist and rights activist who has been jailed by the regime for more than three years.
• Darwish was arrested on February 16, 2012 along with Hani Zaitani and Hussein Ghreir, his colleagues at the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression. 

Sports

• Railway Sports Promotion Board win 5th National women hockey championship title defeating Jharkhand.
• Gujarat's Maniram Patel claimed gold in the men's 20 km walk in the 19th Federation Cup senior athletics championship.
• Kuldeep of Tata Motors and Ankit Kumar Kumar of Indian Navy came second and third respectively.
• India's top shooters win three gold and two bronze medals at the International Shooting Competition at Hanover in Germany.
• The tournament, held at the National Shooting Center in the German city, featured more than 1000 shooters from around the world.
• Abhinav Bindra won both the individual and team gold in his pet 10m air rifle event.
• Chain Singh won gold in 50m men's rifle.
• Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event.
• Apurvi Chandela  won a bronze medal in women's air rifle event.

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