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.
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