On June 25, ABC News Radio reported 79 occupation soldiers had been killed so far that month, the highest number in any month since the October 2001 US-led invasion.
On June 23, US President Barack Obama sacked the commander of US-led occupation forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal 鈥 but not for the rising body count.
The sacking was in response to a July Rolling Stone article in which McChrystal and his aides regularly refer to civilian leaders of the occupying powers (including Obama) using terms such as 鈥渃lown鈥 and 鈥渇ucking gay鈥.
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on June 22 the formation of a three-member panel to advise him on whether Sri Lanka committed crimes during the last months of its war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Reuters said that day.
On June 1, part-Peruvian US actor and indigenous rights activist Q鈥檕rianka Kilcher was arrested for 鈥渄isorderly conduct鈥 after chaining herself to the White House fence while Peruvian President Alan Garcia met with US President Barack Obama.
Garcia refers to the Amazonian indigenous peoples of his country as barbaric savages. Kilcher had doused her body in black paint, symbolic of the oil killing the Amazon and its people.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa began its final round of 16 on June 26. it came amid the unrelenting drone of vuvuzela horns, the knockout of big teams such as Italy and France, and street protests by local residents angry at the 40 billion rand the government has spent on the corporatised event.
Meanwhile, South Africa鈥檚 poor suffer substandard housing and access to basic services.
Football, or 鈥渟occer鈥 in Australia, is the 鈥渨orld game鈥, played by millions of people around the world and watched by hundreds of millions more. But is it truly the 鈥減eople鈥檚 game鈥?
On June 14, Muhammad Juma Abu Wardeh, a 17-year-old Palestinian labourer, was shot and wounded by Israeli snipers along the 鈥渂uffer zone鈥 in eastern Gaza as he collected materials for a cement plant in Jabaliya, north of Gaza City.
Israel鈥檚 ongoing blockade against the Gaza Strip has prevented access to raw construction materials, forcing workers to risk their lives to trawl open agricultural areas for resources.
On June 20, US group Act Now to Stop War and Racism (ANSWER) released a statement, abridged below, on the blockade of the docks in Oakland that prevented an Israeli ship unloading its goods as part of the global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targetting apartheid Israel.
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Australia鈥檚 leading conservation groups said in a joint statement on June 21 that concern about lack of action to provide safeguards against large-scale oil spills in Australia will be a high-profile issue in the next federal election.
Thirty-two environment groups 鈥 including the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF Australia and Pew Environment Group 鈥 have called on all political parties to commit to a network of large marine sanctuaries this coming election to provide safeguards for Australia鈥檚 unique marine life.
Women, the unemployed, the ill and frail will be the biggest losers from the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government鈥檚 slash-and-burn budget 鈥 and there will be no economic recovery.
That was the dire warning on June 23 from Canadians who have bitter experience of an identical right-wing assault on the public sector.
In the weeks leading up to the June 22 budget, the Con-Dem coalition sought advice from Canada鈥檚 former finance minister Paul Martin, who wielded the axe on his country鈥檚 public spending in the 1990s.
Labour history was made as New Zealand had its first mall workers strike on May 25. Workers in JB Hi-Fi in Albany, organised with the Unite union, went on strike for better pay and against a culture of bullying and intimidation against union members. Unite had already organised the first strike at a JB Hi Fi store on April 16. Unite member Jack Lucas said: 鈥淥ur manager told me that I would never get a pay rise if I stayed with the collective. There was a lot of pressure put on me to resign.
A hastily convened caucus of Australian Labor Party federal MPs replaced former prime minister Kevin Rudd with his deputy, Julia Gillard, on June 24. This made her Australia's first woman PM. Treasurer Wayne Swan replaced Gillard as deputy PM.
The dramatic takeover unfolded publicly the previous night when the chiefs of Labor's right-wing factions withdrew their support for Rudd.
More than a year after its victory over the pro-independence Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) continues to hold large areas of land in the predominantly Tamil north and east of Sri Lanka as 鈥渉igh security zones鈥 (HSZ).
Many of the Tamil inhabitants who were evicted from these areas to create the HSZs during the decades-long war are still unable to return to their homes.
The United States has renewed military aid to Honduras with a donation of 25 heavy trucks valued at US$812,000, Spanish website infodefensa.com said. On June 18, US ambassador Hugo Llorens also announced Washington would give Honduras $75 million through USAID for various development projects and $20 million as part of the Merida Program to enhance 鈥渟ecurity鈥.
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