News headlines in June 2010

England coach Fabio Capello has bemoaned the unpredictable trajectory of the Jabulani World Cup ball, calling it 'the worst ball' in the history of the tournament. But labour rights groups have a greater complaint.

Twenty-four-year-old Li Jun sits where he sits most nights of the week, in front of a computer in his local Internet cafe in the east of the Chinese capital, playing ‘World of Warcraft’.

In a major victory for anti-embargo forces, a key Congressional committee voted here Wednesday to lift restrictions on travel by U.S. citizens to Cuba.

Last week's meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in New Zealand brought statements of concern over China's planned nuclear deal with Pakistan, but U.S. State Department officials avoided taking a strong position on the deal when pressed by reporters this week.

One year after the creation of the Global Jobs Pact, members of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) are considering the measure's impact - and what comes next.

Venezuela's Minister of Interior and Justice, Tarek El Aissami, presented a report Oct. 29, 2009, to his country's National Assembly. That report is believed to have resulted, two days later, in the murder of two people on a farm in neighbouring Colombia, near the capital.

Liberian efforts to enact economic and governance reforms came to a head Tuesday as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund announced they were supporting 4.6 billion dollars of debt relief for the West African country.

The government of Ecuador has issued its third request in eight months to Colombia for complete and detailed information on alleged telephone espionage committed against Ecuador's President Rafael Correa.

With the U.S .government and oil giant British Petroleum under fire for their handling of the more than two-month-old Gulf Coast oil spill disaster, environmental and community activists across the country are taking matters into their own hands.

When China designed the 2010 Universal Expo in Shanghai as a showcase for its new public diplomacy, it probably did not envision the exhibition will play a much bigger role as a magnet for recession-hit European businesses.