Cannes 2012 was the dampest festival in recent memory and one of the more muted. The Croisette – the main sea-front thoroughfare – was as crammed as ever but the European film industry is clearly feeling the pinch. The yachts seemed smaller this year, the restaurants emptier. The sales agents presenting new films in the market grumbled privately that Italian and Spanish distributors simply weren't buying any more.

Nearly nine weeks after Bashar al-Assad's regime formally agreed the UN six-point peace plan, and six weeks after the ceasefire was supposed to come into effect, the killing continues unabated.

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, was buried yesterday in a quiet family ceremony, ignored by most Libyans.

Enjoy a three-course meal in the RSC’s Rooftop Restaurant and Bar, followed by a performance in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for just £40 per person

The Olympic flame is on its way. Visitors and loaded, devoted Royalists, sports fans and politicos are so excited. I come to spoil the party. It feels impolitic, uncivil ... callous too. Buried evidence of destitution and hopelessness crawls out from official assurances (and excuses) and spin. Phone calls to Mind, the mental-health charity are up by 100 per cent. Research by the Church Urban Fund finds that in parts of Manchester and Liverpool, average life expectancy is 70 and 65 per cent of children live in poverty, while in parts of Surrey and Berkshire, life expectancy is 85 and 1 per cent of children live in poor households. As shocking as the statistics is the indifference of all of us who can, in hard times, still have very good times.

The Serb nationalist Tomislav Nikolic has won the presidential elections in Serbia, defeating the pro-European and reform-oriented incumbent Boris Tadic.

Despot comedy is no laughing matter

An unmasked Sacha Baron Cohen has revealed that the United Nations barred him from shooting The Dictator at its New York headquarters because his comic portrayal of a Middle East tyrant would embarrass the heads of member states.

The first laugh comes before the film has even started. "In loving memory of Kim Jong-il" reads the dedication title. It pretty much sets the tone for The Dictator, a broad, hit-and-miss satire about an Arab tyrant's indulgence of his capricious – and murderous – will.

'The Dictator' knows how to make a scene.

Baron Cohen's back, with jokes to make Colonel Gaddafi wince

Islands' government wants to 'renew' its image in UK and US after months of conflict

Only outstanding valour and luck saved British soldiers trapped by Iraq's feared Republican Guard

A secret intelligence report - compiled just as Hitler embarked on the Final Solution - found the Nazi leader had a "messiah complex" and increasingly turned to "Jew-phobia" as defeat loomed.