Talking points

Our editors will be looking ahead today to these developing stories ...

A White House welcome for Aquino

Philippine President Benigno Aquino visits US President Barack Obama at the White House, highlighting his nation's growing importance in Washington's strategic thinking. The meeting comes after the United States began helping Manila beef up its modest military capacity in the face of a confrontation with Beijing over conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea. The US is formally neutral on the issue, which also pits China against Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations.

Democrats keep up pressure on Donald Tsang

Democratic Party lawmakers will table motions in a meeting of Legco's House Committee urging Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to resign and repay the cost of his luxury accommodation on overseas trips. Another motion will ask the government to submit to Legco an audit report on Tsang's spending on foreign trips. The motions are expected to be defeated.

Nuclear watchdog seeks access to Tehran's sites

Representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Iran hold a meeting in Vienna at which Tehran will come under pressure for access to sites at where its engineers are suspected of working on nuclear weapons, particularly at the Parchin military base. The Iranians insist their nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only, but Western powers and Israel suspect otherwise. The UN agency will be looking for progress after its director-general, Yukiya Amano (left), signalled that differences between the two parties had 'narrowed'. However, the US has dampened expectations that a deal can be struck in Vienna.

Release of more tickets for London Olympics

More tickets for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies and six sporting events go on sale. More than 43,000 contingency tickets for the ceremonies, and for athletics, swimming, football, volleyball, table tennis and boxing, will be sold on the official website from 6pm Hong Kong time. Some of the last tickets to be released for the ceremonies start from GBP995 (HK$11,920) each. More than eight million tickets have been sold for Olympics (July 27 to August 12) and Paralympics (August 29 to September 9).

Libyan foreign minister visits Beijing and Shanghai

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi arrives in China tomorrow. Vice-President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will discuss bilateral, regional and international issues with him, the Foreign Ministry said. Obeidi will also visit Shanghai before his departure on June 13.

Euro 2012: three weeks of late nights in Tuen Mun

If you can't afford a ticket to Warsaw (left), you can always visit Tuen Mun in the New Territories, where the entire Euro 2012 tournament will be shown free of charge. Starting from midnight tonight, when hosts Poland play Greece, all 31 games will be shown at Tuen Mun Town Plaza live. It's going to be a late-night affair: only eight of the games kick off at midnight, with all the rest, including the final on July 1 in Kiev, starting at 2.45am.