11th World Hindi Conference was inaugurated by Mauritian Prime Minister Praveen Kumar Jagannath in capital city Port Louis today. 

A two minute silence was observed in the beginning of the conference to pay tribute to former Prime Minister and poet Atal Bihari Vajpayee. 

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Governor of Goa Mridula Sinha and West Bengal Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi are attending the conference. Speaking in the inaugural session Ms Swaraj said that today there is a need to preserve, spread and maintain the purity of Hindi language.

AIR correspondent reports more than 2000 delegates are attending the three day conference. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has wished for the success of the conference.

Former United Nations chief and Nobel Peace Prize laureate General Kofi Annan passed away at the age of 80, following a short illness. Annan, a Ghanaian national, died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Announcing the news of the leader’s demise, the Kofi Annan Foundation wrote on its Twitter page, “It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan  Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the  United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on  Saturday 18th August after a short illness.”

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has been re-elected as president after beating opposition candidate, Soumaila Cisse, in a runoff vote.

The Ministry of Territorial Administration on Thursday declared Keita the winner of the repeat poll held on Sunday with 67 percent of ballots cast.

Cisse, a former finance minister, who also ran against Keita in 2013, secured 32 percent of the votes.

Keita will serve his second five-year term as Malian leader.

Cisse had accused the incumbent's camp of cheating in the first round, which saw him secure 18 percent of the vote against Keita's 41 percent.

The repeat poll was marred by a low turnout amid security concerns and voter apathy.

Threats by armed fighters forced nearly 500 polling stations - about two percent of the total - to stay closed during the runoff, the government said. One election official was killed in northern Niafunke, in the Timbuktu region.

Keita, who is 73, will take office on September 4. His immediate challenges include strengthening a 2015 peace accord between the government, its allies, and former Tuareg rebels.

The peace agreement raised hopes of stability, but its meaningful implementation has been challenging.

Mali is a landlocked nation home to at least 20 ethnic groups where the majority of people live on less than $2 a day.

The country has battled attacks by armed groups and intercommunal violence for years.

Mr Abdo Benítez is the son of a close aide to ex-military dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and has faced criticism for defending the former leader's record.

He replaces Horacio Cartes. Both are from the conservative Colorado Party.

The 46-year-old says he will take a law-and-order stance and implement business-friendly policies.

Paraguay has enjoyed strong economic growth in recent years.

Tumors once considered untreatable have disappeared and people previously given months to live are surviving for decades thanks to new therapies emerging from the work of three scientists chosen to receive a $500,000 medical prize.

The recipients of the annual Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, announced Wednesday, are being recognized for their studies of the immune system that have led to innovative treatments for cancer, HIV and other diseases.

They are James Allison of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Dr. Carl June of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; and Dr. Steven Rosenberg of the National Cancer Institute. They'll receive the award at a ceremony Sept. 26 in Albany, New York.

Smitha V. Crishna, a third-generation heir of the Godrej family, ranks first in the Kotak Wealth Hurun-Leading Wealthy Women 2018 list with an estimated wealth of ₹ 37,570 crore. Ms. Smitha owns one-fifth of the Godrej Group. In 2014, she made news with the purchase of a bungalow that belonged to Dr. Homi J. Bhabha for ₹ 371 crore.

Roshni Nadar, CEO and executive director at HCL, ranks second in the list with an estimated wealth of ₹30,200 crore. Ms. Roshni, who joined HCL in 2013 at the age of 28, is the daughter of Shiv Nadar, the founder of the IT behemoth. She also heads the Shiv Nadar Foundation.

The chairperson of the Times Group, Indu Jain, ranks third in the list. Her wealth is estimated at ₹26,240 crore.

The Directors Guild of America has selected director Ang Lee, Fox Searchlight chairman Nancy Utley, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, SAG-AFTRA senior adviser John McGuire, and costume designer Ann Roth for its annual DGA Honors.

The awards will be held at the DGA Theater in New York City on Oct. 18. The DGA Honors recognizes individuals and institutions that have made distinguished contributions to American culture through the world of film and television, and recognizes the diversity of achievement — in business, government, and labor —required to produce the best entertainment in the world.

“There is nowhere more fitting to celebrate the confluence of entertainment, labor and politics than New York, our cultural epicenter,” said DGA president Thomas Schlamme. “It’s where a legendary director like Ang Lee, as a budding Taiwanese filmmaker, came to get started – and costume designing great Ann Roth made her mark in film and on Broadway. The success of creators is made possible by collaborative business leaders who support and elevate their creative visions like Fox Searchlight chair Nancy Utley, labor leaders who fight for their rights like SAG-AFTRA senior advisor John McGuire, and lawmakers like Senator Amy Klobuchar who advocate for them and safeguard their work. Our culture is enriched by such a critical support system, resulting in the best film and television in the world.

Coming out of a slumber after thousands of farmers committing suicides or accidentally inhaling toxic pesticides, the Union Ministry of Agriculture on 8 August put out a gazette notification banning 18 neonicotinoid pesticides in the country. While 12 of them are banned with immediate effect, six will be phased out by December 2020. The notification bans all manufacture, import, formulate, transport, sell the pesticides listed. It all specifies that all certificates that anyone holds to sell these pesticides be returned within three months. “Every state government shall take such steps under the said Act (Insecticides Act, 1968)..,” read the notification.

While there are 104 pesticides that are used in India but are banned in other countries, the Central government’s is reviewing only 66 pesticides of them. “This is a good start, but in the same breathe I would like to say that we are disappointed,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, the lead petitioner in a Supreme Court public interest litigation, looking into pesticides violating the right to life of farmers and agricultural workers.

In 2013, some 23 children died when their mid-day meal was cooked in the same vessel that used for storing monocrotophos. In 2017, of the 40 who died in Yavatmal due to accidental inhalation of pesticides, 12 were died by inhaling monocrotophos.

Earlier this week, the California Superior Court ruled that Roundup, which contains glyphosate, was the cause of cancer for Dewayne Johnson, a school groundskeeper. It ordered Monsanto, the manufacturer of the weedicide, to pay $289 (US dollars) million in damages. In India, glyphosate is the most commonly used weedicide.

According to the Directorate Of Plant Protection, Quarantine and Storage, 148 of the 414 metric tonnes of weedicides consumed in the country in 2014-15 was glyphosate. In 2015-16, a little more than 370 metric tonnes of monocrotophos was used on Indian soil.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee died today in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi after a long illness. The 93-year-old BJP leader was suffering from multiple ailments and was admitted to AIIMS in June. He was put on life support system by the doctors after his condition became critical in the last 24 hours. 

He was a diabetic and had only one functional kidney. He suffered a stroke in 2009 that weakened his cognitive abilities. Subsequently, he developed dementia. 

Vajpayee was admitted to the AIIMS on June 11 with kidney tract infection, chest congestion, urinary tract infection and low urine output. 

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Nitin Gadkari today launched three short films for generating public awareness towards road safety. Film actor Shri Akshay Kumar has featured in these films, which are directed by Shri R.Balki. In a function attended by MoS Shri Mansukh L Mandavia in New Delhi, Shri Gadkari announced the appointment of Shri Akshay Kumar as Road Safety Brand Ambassador.

Appreciating Akshay Kumar’s concern for social activism, the Minister recalled his recent movies ‘Padman’and ‘Toilet : Ek Prem Katha’ which have gone a long way in passing the government’s message of cleanliness and hygiene. Shri Gadkari called upon people to adopt good practices in road safety to build a better society free of accidents.

Shri Akshay Kumar shared his experiences of producing the short films. He said, he feels proud to join the government’s efforts to make Indian roads safe, and is participating in road safety campaign for the betterment of the society.  Shri Mandavia enumerated the large number of deaths in the country due to road accidents. He said, over 65 per cent of the deaths on roads were of the people in employable age, which seriously impacts their families. He said, reducing accidents means increasing prosperity in the country.