News Headlines - 02 July 2012

▽Japan's ruling party suffers mass defection | guardian.co.uk

Japanese political heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, one of the key figures behind the ruling party's rise to power, led a defection of dozens of politicians on Monday. However, the government will retain its majority in the powerful lower house of parliament.

▽Libor scandal: George Osborne to announce independent inquiry | guardian.co.uk

George Osborne is expected to announce an independent inquiry into the future operation of Libor, the inter-bank lending rate, but will stop short of setting up a full scale Leveson-style investigation into banking culture and practices.

▽Mexico Returns Former Ruling Party to Power - ABC News

Mexico's old guard sailed back into power after a 12-year hiatus Sunday as the official preliminary vote count handed a victory to Enrique Pena Nieto, whose party was long accused of ruling the country through corruption and patronage. The second place candidate, leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, refused to concede, saying he would wait for a full count.

▽Sony set to buy Gaikai cloud gaming service - The Independent

Sony is set to buy the Gaikai cloud gaming service in a deal worth ￡242m. The company will allow the service - which streams games to players rather than having them as downloads or physical media - to be used on PlayStation 3 consoles.

▽BBC Sport - Euro 2012: Spain's Andres Iniesta named player of the tournament

The Barcelona player, 28, was selected by Uefa's technical committee after helping Spain beat Italy 4-0 in Sunday's final.