1) Grant Elliott retires from ODIs.
- New Zealand all-rounder Grant Elliott, 37, has retired from ODIs. Elliott is yet to take a call on his T20 career.
- The highlight of Elliott`s international career came in his final year of ODI cricket, after he received a surprise recall for the 2015 World Cup.
- In the innings of his life - an unbeaten 84 off 73 balls - in the semi-final against his country of birth, South Africa, at Eden Park, Elliott propelled New Zealand into their first World Cup final.
- Elliott`s unbeaten 84 was also New Zealand`s top score in the final, which they lost to Australia at the MCG.
- He finished his ODI career with 1976 runs in 83 matches, including two centuries and 11 half-centuries, at an average of 34.06.
2) Australia pacer Clint McKay announces retirement from international cricket.
- Australian pacer Clint McKay has announced his retirement from international cricket after his first-class team Victoria Bushrangers won the Sheffield Shield tournament
- He is expected to continue playing for Sydney Thunder in the lucrative Big Bash League (BBL) and for Leicestershire in the County Championship.
- McKay played in 59 one-day internationals, six T20 internationals and a Test for Australia.
- The high-point in McKay`s career came when he was named Australia`s ODI player of the year in 2013 in which he took 34 wickets from 24 matches at an average of 27.82. However, a poor series in India in which he fared at an average of 74.50, saw the `beginning of the end` of his cricket career.
3) Veteran U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly says goodbye to NASA.
- NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who recently completed a year-long mission on the International Space Station (ISS) during his 20-year-long association with the U.S. space agency, retired
- The veteran astronaut bid goodbye to his illustrious career with the U.S. record for most cumulative time in space - 520 days.
- He will continue to participate in the ongoing research related to his one-year mission, providing periodic medical samples and supporting other testing in the same way his twin brother and former astronaut Mark Kelly, made himself available for NASA’s twins study.
- He was ``humbled and excited by new opportunities`` for him that support the work NASA was doing to help people travel farther into the solar system.
- He joined the astronaut corps in 1996 and flew in space four times.
- He completed a 340-day mission aboard the ISS earlier this month, the longest continuous stay in space for an American astronaut.
4) Manish Sharma first Indian to be Executive Officer Panasonic Corporation.
- Panasonic elevates India MD Manish Sharma as executive officer.
- Panasonic Corporation has appointed India subsidiary managing director Manish Sharma as an executive officer, roping him into a group of top officials in the parent Japanese company that works like a corporate management committee.
- Sharma, 44, will be the first Indian and the fourth non-Japanese to be part of this 24-member team. He is the youngest executive officer for Panasonic.
5) Debraj Pradhan appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Norway.
- Shri Debraj Pradhan (IFS: 1981), presently Ambassador of India to Chile, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Norway.
- He is expected to take up his assignment shortly.
- From August 1995 to July 1998, he was posted as First Secretary and later Counsellor overseeing Commercial matters in Embassy of India, Buenos Aires.
- He became Deputy High Commissioner of India, Lagos from September 1998 to July 2001.
- From August 2001 to December 2005 he was moved to Embassy of India, The Hague as Counselor and then as Minister.
6) Vietnam Parliament approved Nguyen Xuan Phuc as Prime Minister.
- Vietnam’s parliament approved a new Prime Minister, marking the completion of a reshuffle of the country’s Communist Party leadership.
- A former provincial governor and the previous Deputy Prime Minister, Nguyen Xuan Phuc was voted in by 446 out of 490 members of the National Assembly, the Associated Press reports.
- He joins newly elected President Tran Dai Quang - the former Public Security Minister.
- Phuc, 61, succeeded Nguyen Tan Dung who was removed from office on 6 April 2016. Dung had served a maximum two terms in office and is no longer part of the Communist Party`s top brass.