Latest news clips 2012.06.22

1.      Mexico elections: failure of drugs war leaves nation at the crossroads

On 1 July, Mexicans will vote in vital presidential elections. But the issue no candidate dares to address is the cartel violence tearing the nation apart. Diplomats say the time has come to challenge drug policy – but can they get the US to agree?

23 June 2012

Two policemen pass an anti-violence sculpture based on one made by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon, in Mexico City. Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

One after another, Mexico's presidential candidates sat in silence amid the grand setting of Chapúltepec Castle while, across the room, the leader of the country's movement of victims of drug war violence – a poet – chastised them.

"The 60,000 dead, the more than 20,000 who've disappeared, the hundreds of thousands of people displaced, wounded and hunted, the tens of thousands of widows and orphans that this stupid war against drugs is costing us, do not exist for you and your parties," Javier Sicilia accused. "For you, the national emergency does not exist." One after the other, the candidates promised action and showed concern, then they left. It was time to get back to the real business of running for president.

The meeting with Sicilia last month was unavoidable, given the moral weight of the movement he represents, but it was also the only time in the entire three-month campaign when the undisputed issue of the day was the drug war ravaging Mexico.

Polls show that most Mexicans consider security, along with the economy, to be the two biggest issues facing their country, but neither has featured particularly heavily. "Everybody asks me where the security issue is. Why the candidates don't talk about the economy. The elephant in the room is President Felipe Calderón's record, and that is hardly talked about," says pollster Jorge Buendía. In Ciudad Juárez, which has just lost its title as the world's most dangerous city, now ranked second, the chronicler of the violence, journalist Julián Cardona, says: "To look at the candidates speak, you would think they were talking about another country."

2.      Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis separate after 14 years

Announcement by Depp's publicist that couple have 'amicably separated' follows months of rumours

Guardian    20 June 2012

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, pictured at the Academy Awards in 2008. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Johnny Depp has separated from his partner of 14 years, French singer and actor Vanessa Paradis, a representative of the actor said on Tuesday.

"Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis have amicably separated. Please respect their privacy and, more importantly, the privacy of their children," Depp's publicist said in a statement.

The announcement follows widespread reports earlier this year that the couple's relationship was on the rocks, although Depp denied rumours in May of a split.

Depp, 49, began dating Paradis, 39, in 1998, following the end of his relationship with supermodel Kate Moss. The couple appeared together in Roman Polanski's film The Ninth Gate.

Depp and Paradis have two children, Lily-Rose, 13, and Jack, 9, and set up homes in France, Los Angeles, and on a private island in the Caribbean.

The couple never married, although Depp has been married once before, to Lori Anne Allison between 1983 and 1985, and had a high-profile relationship with actor Winona Ryder in the early 1990s.

Depp rose to fame in the 1980s in the Fox television series 21 Jump Street, leading to films including Donnie Brasco, Chocolat, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and numerous collaborations with the director Tim Burton.

Latest news clips 2012.06.22

1.   Armstrong to Face Doping Charges

The Wall Street Journal   June 13, 2012

The U.S. agency that polices drug use in sports has informed Lance Armstrong that it intends to bring formal doping charges against him, in an action that could ultimately cost the retired cycling champion all seven of his Tour de France titles.

In a 15-page letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, or USADA, told Mr. Armstrong and others that it spoke with "numerous riders, team personnel and others" who "will testify based on personal knowledge" of Mr. Armstrong's alleged doping.

The letter, which paints a picture of a wide-ranging conspiracy by a succession of the country's top cycling teams over a period of years, comes just months after federal prosecutors closed a two-year investigation into Mr. Armstrong's U.S. Postal Service-sponsored cycling team without bringing charges.

As a result of the USADA action, triathlon authorities suspended Mr. Armstrong from competing. The athlete, who focused on the sport after retiring from cycling in 2011, can't compete in triathlons until the charges are resolved.

In a statement, Mr. Armstrong said, "I have been notified that USADA, an organization largely funded by taxpayer dollars but governed only by self-written rules, intends to again dredge up discredited allegations dating back more than 16 years to prevent me from competing as a triathlete and try and strip me of the seven Tour de France victories I earned."

Mr. Armstrong added, "I have never doped."

2.  Greece's super-rich maintain lavish lifestyles and low profiles

      Guardian    June 13, 2012

Since the outbreak of the Greek crisis, the country's moneyed class has been notable mainly by its absence

Locals fear the island of Spetses is at risk of becoming a 'club for the rich'. Photograph: THE TRAVEL LIBRARY / Rex Feature

Nearly three years into their country's worst crisis in modern times, life goes on as normal for Greece's super-rich. As the sun sets, oligarchs, shipowners, singers and media stars gather at the Poseidonion hotel on the island of Spetses opposite the little bay. They tuck into a menu that includes pasticcio laced with foie gras. Among them is a middle-aged man in a T-shirt proclaiming: "More is less".

Three days before Greeks cast their ballots in a make-or-break election, their country could not be more divided. Here there is no talk of the pain of crisis – the only topic of conversation elsewhere in Greek society. The destitution and despair of Athens is a world away – and for many quite clearly it is best kept that way.

Greek shipowners, who have gained from their profits being tax-free and who control at least 15% of the world's merchant freight, have also remained low-key. With their wealth offshore and highly secretive, the estimated 900 families who run the sector have the largest fleet in the world. As Athens' biggest foreign currency earner after tourism, the industry remitted more than $175bn (£112bn) to the country in untaxed earnings over the past decade. Greece's debt currently stands at €280bn.

An estimated €8bn flowed out of the Greek banking system in May as speculation over the country's possible exit from the Eurozone mounted. Another €4bn was reported to have been withdrawn in the last two weeks – on top of an estimated €20bn since the start of the crisis in late 2009. Stories of rich Greeks sending their wives and best friends on "shopping missions" to remove secret hoards kept in banks in Switzerland and Cyprus are legion.

Latest news clips 2012.06.15

 1.   Melting Arctic 'blooms' with algae

CNN     June 11, 2012

A satellite image of the Chukchi Sea, between Alaska and Russia, shows phytoplankton bloom (in green).

(CNN) -- Scientists in the Arctic have discovered the largest ever under-ice bloom of phytoplankton, likening the discovery to "finding the Amazon rainforest in the middle of the Mojave Desert."

Researchers were amazed to discover a colossal 100 kilometer (62 miles) stretch of phytoplankton blooming under Arctic ice, north of Alaska, in July last year.

It had previously been assumed that sea ice blocked the sunlight necessary for the growth of marine plants. But four times more phytoplankton was found under the ice than in ice-free waters nearby.

Scientists now believe that pools of melting ice actually function like skylights and magnifying glasses, focusing sunlight into sea water, providing the perfect conditions for the intense phytoplankton bloom, which makes the water look like pea soup.

Undiscovered until the 1970s, the ocean's phytoplankton is now understood to be responsible for about as much of the oxygen in our atmosphere as plants on land.

2.   Putin Arrives in China for Regional Summit

New York Times   June 5, 2012

BEIJING — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia arrived in China on Tuesday, a visit that contrasted with his shunning of a summit of world leaders hosted by President Obama last month and was intended to drive home the existence of an alternative group, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which excludes the United States.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin shake hands during a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 5, 2012.

Admired by the Chinese for his staying power as leader of Russia for 12 years, Mr. Putin and President Hu Jintao of China will discuss their approaches to Syria, Iran and their efforts to squeeze the United States out of Central Asia, Chinese and American analysts said. Both countries are also opposed to an American plan for a missile- defense system in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe that is designed as protection against Iran.

In what appears to be a show of solidarity, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting as an observer, and the Kremlin announced that Mr. Putin would meet with him. Russia is scheduled to host a next round of talks later this month among world powers on the Iranian nuclear program.