‘People are fighting with their guns, we are fighting with our voices,’ says FB 17, named after day rebellion broke out in Libya Bands the world over complain about how tough it was in the early years: no money, no gigs, money-grabbing producers. But such annoyances pale alongside the travails of Libya’s FB 17. Try cutting your first CD in Misrata, with the city under siege and missiles crashing down around you, in a studio that is no more than a bombproof room and a laptop which only works between long power cuts. That was how FB 17 – named for 17 February, the day rebellion broke out in Libya – recorded No More Lies, an album of five tracks which has become a hit across this besieged city. The English lyrics and Arabic rap of the album’s title song blare out of car stereos, shopfronts and crackly radios on the frontline trenches: “No more silence, no more fear, no more lies, no more tears, no more violence, no more screams.” The album was recorded between late March and late April, while rebel fighters were battling with Muammar Gaddafi’s tanks to push government forces out of the city . “When there was electricity we took the chance,” said Mohammed Derrija, 22, nicknamed Modee, who worked as a translator before the war. “The problem was we all lived far from each other so some guy would get a car and collected everyone. Then we would start immediately, and save [each track] immediately in case the electricity was cut.” The seed for the band was sown by Abdullah Elwafi, a 24-year-old singer-songwriter who wrote the first song, We Have a Dream, with his 19-year-old brother, Hakim on 17 February. Abdullah, nicknamed Abdo, lived a life of frustration under the Gaddafi regime. Studios would let a artist cut a song only if it namechecked Libya and its dictator. “Before we could do nothing, just write nothing,” he explains. “We had ideas but because of Gaddafi, he said you write about his family or his legion and that’s it.” When Gaddafi responded to the February protests by sending in the tanks, Abdo and other band members joined the rebels. Guitarist Mohamed Jibril – nickname Haq – was operating a rocket- propelled grenade launcher on Tripoli Street . “I was fighting, but now it’s about the music,” he says. “We are writing new songs all the time. We have many ideas. ” Once the front stabilised and the immediate crisis passed, the five friends decided to cut the album. “After the revolution a lot of bands came out,” says Nidal Hassen, a journalist at Radio Misrata. “In Benghazi there are hundreds of them, but in Misrata there is one band. Their songs, they are not only words. They capture everything we feel.” On a recent evening the band were in their new recording studio, which has a sound booth the size of a phone box, cutting a new album, this time to remember the dead. The sun had gone down and the nightly rumble of Grad rockets slamming into the city to the east was echoing through the streets. Modee said that the work was very different from conventional songwriting: “Just writing lyrics imagining something, thinking about it, and writing about it? No, we’re not doing this any more,” he said. “We’re just writing what we see in front of our eyes.” The band see themselves as plugged into a system in which all citizens do their bit – whether fighting, patching up the wounded, or organising food supplies. Initially, they were surprised by their popularity but now see themselves as on a mission. “People are fighting with their guns, we are fighting with our voices,” said Modee. “We are inspiring them, giving them the courage to fight.” Libya Middle East Africa Chris Stephen guardian.co.uk
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Graeme Reeves removed patient’s clitoris during surgery and assaulted two others, Australian court hears A former Australian gynaecologist was sentenced on Friday to three and a half years in prison for mutilating a patient’s genitals, indecently assaulting two other patients and ignoring a ban on practising obstetrics. Graeme Reeves, 60, was sentenced in the New South Wales district court after judge Greg Woods found him guilty in April of assaulting two patients during internal pelvic examinations at his clinic in the farming town of Bega in 2002 and 2003. The judge found Reeves not guilty on charges of similarly sexually assaulting three other patients. In March, a jury convicted him of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm by removing a 58-year-old patient’s clitoris during surgery in 2002 to remove a lesion from her labia. A jury had been unable to reach a verdict on the same charge in a trial in November last year. The jury in the latest trial accepted the prosecution’s case that Reeves never mentioned to the patient that he intended to remove her clitoris. His lawyer, John Stratton, told the court his client wanted to save her life by ensuring no cancer could spread from the genital area surrounding the lesion. The lesion was later found to be benign. The jury heard evidence that Reeves suffered from clinical depression and a personality disorder at the time of the offences. Woods said Reeves must spend at least two years in prison before he can be considered for parole. The judge ordered Reeves never again practise medicine involving contact with patients. The patient who suffered genital mutilation condemned the sentence as too lenient. “My sentence is for life,” she said. “Never did I consider for one second he was going to do what he did.” Reeves pleaded guilty in February to a charge of obtaining money by deception through charging for obstetric procedures, despite his ban. He pleaded not guilty to all other charges. The state medical board had banned him from practising obstetrics in 1997 after complaints from nine patients led to an official finding of unsatisfactory professional conduct. Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen told the judge in her sentencing submission that Reeves had continued to deliver babies by caesarean section after the ban because he was “too proud” to admit he had been found incompetent. Australia Doctors guardian.co.uk
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Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 34, plead not guilty at the Old Bailey via videolink Two men appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday to deny the murder of Stephen Lawrence 18 years ago. Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 34, pleaded not guilty to the charge when they appeared in court via videolink from Belmarsh prison in south-east London. Lawrence was a black 18-year-old A-level student who was stabbed to death in Eltham, south-east London, in April 1993. Dobson and Norris, both of south London, remain in custody. They are to face trial on 14 November. A pre-trial hearing will take place on 29 September. Lawrence’s mother Doreen, 58, was in court for Friday’s brief hearing. The judge, Mr Justice Treacy, appeared via a videolink from Birmingham crown court. Crime guardian.co.uk
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Simon Kelner has lost the editorship of The Independent. He is being replaced by Chris Blackhurst, currently the business editor of the London Evening Standard. Kelner will take the title of editor-in-chief, but will have no responsibility for the day-to-day running of the Indy and its stablemate, the Independent on Sunday. The decision to appoint Blackhurst, a former deputy editor of the Indy, was taken by Evgeny Lebedev, son of the Russian business tycoon, Alexander, who negotiated the acquisition of the titles last year. Evgeny emailed staff to announce the appointment ( full text here ). It brings to an end Kelner’s control of The Independent after 13 years. He was appointed as editor in 1998 by the then owner, Tony O’Reilly’s Irish company, Independent News & Media. At the time, Blackhurst was deputy editor to Rosie Boycott. Both of them then went on to run the Daily Express. Blackhurst, 51, has spent most of his journalistic career as a business journalist, though he started off in the law after graduating from Cambridge, (Trinity Hall). Following a stint as assistant editor of International Financial Law Review in the mid-1980s, he worked for a business magazine until becoming deputy editor of the Sunday Times’s Insight team in 1990. He went on to be business editor of the Sunday Express – lured to the paper by his Sunday Times colleague, Robin Morgan – before joining the Independent on Sunday as a business writer. Translated to The Independent, he spent time as a Westminster correspondent, returning to the Sindy as assistant editor. Then came the years as Boycott’s deputy, first at the Indy and then the Express. He left in the aftermath of the Richard Desmond takeover of Express Newspapers, spent a year back with the Indy before accepting an offer from the Standard’s then editor Veronica Wadley, to head up her paper’s business coverage. He has won several awards, most recently being named business journalist of the year in the London Press Club awards last month. Sources: Confidential The Independent Simon Kelner Evgeny Lebedev London Evening Standard Newspapers Newspapers & magazines Roy Greenslade guardian.co.uk
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Work and pensions secretary will use speech to thinktank in Spain to say of school-leavers: ‘We need businesses to give them a chance’ The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, will appeal to businesses to recruit young and unemployed British people ahead of “labour from abroad”. Duncan Smith will use a speech to a thinktank in Spain to say of school-leavers: “We need businesses to give them a chance”, and appeal for industry to assist the government in giving Britons jobs. While stressing that immigration plays a vital role in British society, he will argue that many immigrants end up doing jobs that could easily be done by British citizens. Official figures unearthed by the Labour MP Frank Field show that 87% of the 400,000 jobs created over the first year of the coalition government went to workers from abroad. “We have to ensure that our immigration system works in the interests of Britain, enabling us to make a realistic promise to our young school-leavers,” he will say in his speech to the Foundation for Analysis and Social Studies thinktank in Madrid. “It is part of our contract with the British people.” Extracts released in advance show Duncan Smith will insist that the government is “reforming welfare to make work pay, and to help people back to work … and we are toughening sanctions against those who refuse to take jobs when they are available”. He will add: “But we also need an immigration system that gives the unemployed a level playing field. “If we do not get this right, then we risk leaving more British citizens out of work, and the most vulnerable group, who will be the most affected, are young people.” Gordon Brown was criticised after his 2007 pledge to provide “British jobs for British workers” was followed by figures which showed that around 80% of jobs created during Labour’s time in power went to migrants. Duncan Smith will say that controlling immigration is “critical” to avoid “losing another generation to dependency and hopelessness”, but will appeal for help in ensuring that British citizens are awarded jobs. “Government cannot do it all,” he will say. “As we work hard to break welfare dependency and get young people ready for the labour market, we need businesses to give them a chance and not just fall back on labour from abroad. “If government and business pull together on this, I believe we can finally start to give our young people a chance. A chance to experience the benefits of work that so many of the rest of us take for granted. A chance to become productive members of our society. And a chance of a better future.” Iain Duncan Smith Liberal-Conservative coalition Unemployment Young people Immigration and asylum Adam Gabbatt guardian.co.uk
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Scottish Labour party candidate Iain McKenzie wins 53% of vote despite well-resourced campaigning effort by SNP The Scottish Labour party has welcomed its “stunning” victory in the Inverclyde byelection after it held the seat by an unexpectedly convincing margin, claiming it was a triumph. Labour won the contest with a majority of 5,838, far higher than many of its MSPs and MPs had expected following an intense and heavily resourced campaign by the Scottish National party (SNP), which included repeated visits to the seat by the first minister, Alex Salmond. Iain McKenzie, the local council leader, was elected with 53% of the vote, a similar margin won at the general election by his predecessor, David Cairns, a former Labour minister whose sudden death in May prompted the byelection. The SNP’s share of the vote nearly doubled, surging to 33%, after the Liberal Democrats’ vote collapsed by more than 10 points to 2.2%, losing the party its deposit. In a result which is likely to depress the Lib Dems further after their rout at the Holyrood election, its candidate, Sophie Bridger, attracted just 627 votes. The Tories’ vote also fell by two points, to less than 10%. It was the first test for Labour and its UK leader, Ed Miliband, since the party was humiliated by the SNP’s landslide victory in the Scottish parliament elections on 5 May. Boosted by sunny weather, the turnout was higher than many had predicted, at 45%. Ann McKechin, the shadow secretary of state for Scotland, said the result was a significant blow for the SNP and Salmond, the party’s leader. The day before polling, the first minister had hoped for a victory of “earthquake proportions” in the seat, west of Glasgow. “Just 56 days since losing the Holyrood election, Labour has shown we are able to win back the trust of the electorate in Scotland,” McKechin said. “This is a real setback to the SNP and a personal humiliation for Alex Salmond, who campaigned here no fewer than seven times and told his party members he would win before a single vote had been cast. “I think voters were turned off by the SNP’s arrogant and negative campaign and responded to Labour’s positive vision for our future.” The SNP’s optimism about winning the seat, repeating its shock byelection victory in Glasgow East in 2008, had increased in the later stages of the campaign after its candidate, Anne McLaughlin, attracted significant levels of support on the doorstep. Kenny Gibson, the SNP’s campaign manager, said the party had still achieved a swing of 9% and cut Labour’s majority by more than half in just three weeks. This was a larger swing than it achieved in the equivalent seat in the Holyrood elections in May, he said. “The SNP campaign and the popularity of Anne McLaughlin cut Labour’s majority and puts Labour on notice that they can no longer take voters here for granted,” he said. “There will be real questions for Labour’s leadership after letting such a safe seat come so close to defeat.” Labour’s hopes of holding the seat had been buoyed up by indications that it had done significantly well in the postal votes cast in the first days of the campaign. About 12,000 residents had postal votes, which were sent out several days before the SNP had been able to post its free election address to all voters, party officials said. Scottish politics Labour Scottish National Party (SNP) Liberal Democrats Conservatives Scotland Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tells the nation he has had surgery to remove a cancerous tumour, in his first television address since flying to Cuba for treatment Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, has finally returned to the public eye, admitting in a nationwide address that doctors had diagnosed him with cancer, following furious speculation about the true state of his health. In his first live appearance since undergoing emergency pelvic surgery in Cuba on 10 June, Chavez said doctors had removed “cancerous cells” from his body. “This [is] the new battle that life has placed before us,” he said. Flanked by a Venezuelan flag and a portrait of Simon Bolivar, the South American liberator, Chavez said he had committed a “fundamental mistake” in not taking better care of his own health. “I neglected my health and I was reluctant to have medical check ups. It was a fundamental mistake for a revolutionary,” he said, directing his speech “to the Venezuelan people and the international public opinion”. Chavez slipped off the radar at the start of June when he embarked on a tour of South America and subsequently underwent emergency pelvic surgery in Cuba. In his Thursday night address, broadcast on national television, an unusually reserved looking Chavez who read rather than improvised his speech, said Cuban doctors had detected “a strange formation in the pelvic region” following the first round of surgery. During a second operation they found “cancerous cells”, he said, without specifying which kind of cancer had been detected. Normally a media animal, Chavez had all but disappeared since being admitted to hospital in Havana earlier this month, virtually abandoning his Twitter account and appearing only in the occasional photograph or video. His extended absence has sent Venezuela’s rumour-mill into over drive. Allies had continued to insist that the Venezuelan president would shortly return to Caracas, but rumours that Chavez was suffering from prostate cancer or had slipped into a coma spread like wild fire. In Brazil, gossip columnists suggested Chavez was also suffering from lung complaints after starting smoking again. “I have also been aware of a certain degree of concern and uncertainty that has… [affected] the Venezuelan nation on top of the attempts at manipulation by some sectors of society that are well known to all. Those feelings are inevitable and are part of human nature,” he said. But the Venezuelan leader gave no hint as to when he might return home, closing his speech with the words: “Hasta el retorno” or “Until my return. “We have full confidence that he will be victorious in his battle, as in all his battles,” Elias Jaua, Venezuela’s vice-president, told state television immediately after Chavez’s speech. “We are the sons and daughters of Bolivar. There is no time for sadness; only for courage to face the recovery period. We need to be united. We call on you to unite.” Venezuela’s usually outspoken president had been tipped for a triumphant homecoming on 5 July, when his country celebrates 200 years of independence from Spain. But on Wednesday authorities in Caracas announced he had cancelled a summit of Latin American leaders that would have coincided with the independence celebrations. With a 2012 election on the horizon, analysts are divided on the impact Chavez’s absence could have on the presidential race. Most agree, however, that his sudden withdrawal from frontline politics has underlined a lack of leadership alternatives. “The absence reveals even more clearly how dependent on the president the top leadership of the ruling party has become,” said Javier Corrales, a political scientist and Venezuela expert, from Amherst College in Massachusetts. “The notion of a chavismo without Chavez… seems to be inconceivable for chavistas.” Venezuela Hugo Chávez Cuba Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
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Glenn Beck’s last show airs tonight on Fox News. A new mashup reminds us why this is a sad, sad moment for comedy. Everyone’s favorite (self-described) rodeo clown Glenn Beck will depart Fox News today, after two-and-a-half years. To honor Beck’s work, lefty outfit Media Matters has compiled a mashup of his most outré moments,
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Iain McKenzie tells supporters ‘Labour’s fightback has started here’ after winning majority of 5,838 Labour held on to the Westminster seat of Inverclyde in the party’s first real test since its defeat in the Scottish parliamentary elections. Iain McKenzie was elected with 15,118 votes in the byelection, a majority of 5,838, with the Scottish National Party’s Anne McLaughlin coming second with 9,280 votes. Although Labour’s majority was down by around 9,000 from last year’s general election, the result was welcomed with relief by the party as the SNP came within 500 votes of winning the equivalent Holyrood seat in Scottish elections in May. The Lib Dems’ support collapsed. Their candidate Sophie Bridger won only 627 votes, down from 5,007 in the general election. The Conservative candidate David Wilson won 2,784, and Ukip’s Mitch Sorbie took 288. The byelection was called after the sudden death of Labour MP and former minister David Cairns, shortly after the SNP’s landslide victory in May’s Scottish parliament elections. Despite holding the Westminster seat and its near equivalents for some 80 years, Labour had been struggling to defend its 14,416 vote majority against the SNP. But the partypressed activists into a surge of campaigning, drafting in ex-deputy PM Lord Prescott the day before polling. In his victory speech, McKenzie said: “First can I say this is an election none of us wanted. “We would have much preferred that our dear friend, and widely respected MP David Cairns was still among us and still selflessly serving the people of Inverclyde as he did for 10 years before he was tragically taken from us. “Can I say I’m enormously humbled to be elected to succeed David, and continue his work, standing up for our communities, fighting for fairness and opportunities for our people? “Make no mistake. This was a good night for Inverclyde – and a good night for Labour too. “I’m proud to be part of the Labour party, renewing itself under the leadership of Ed Miliband, listening more, working harder and challenging for better, to get back in touch with those we seek to serve. “And I’m proud that my community of Inverclyde has paid an important step in Labour’s mission to win back the trust of the people both here in Scotland and south of the border. “Remember, only weeks ago the SNP came within 511 votes of winning here, but tonight the voters of Inverclyde have rejected them – this time giving myself and the Scottish Labour Party not a 500 majority, but over 5,000 of a majority. “Labour’s fightback has started right here in Inverclyde – my home town.” Scottish politics Labour Scotland Severin Carrell David Batty guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media This afternoon, Glenn Beck broadcast his last Fox News show. We’ll have some thoughts on the particulars in the morning. Meanwhile, I thought it might be useful to look back on his “greatest hits,” as it were, and reflect on the mess he leaves behind : Now, there are plenty of things to object to about Glenn’s trainwreck of a career at Fox, particularly the noxious and yet little-noticed way he almost effortlessly mainstreamed extremist ideas and rhetoric , most recently with his full-bore descent into promoting John Birch Society conspiracism . Undoubtedly, Beck’s relentless fearmongering and the vicious eliminationism of his rhetoric were important components of what made Beck so toxic. Media Matters has compiled an impressive list of the “50 Worst Things Glenn Beck Said On Fox News” that gives a pretty good rundown — but is really only a start. Ultimately, the worst damage he caused was to the shape of our national discourse — from all these factors, but especially in the way he wrapped it up in a “zany” morning-zoo-show format, dragging that discourse down to the level of a prearranged pro-wrestling match. Of course, he’s planning to build on his apocalyptic cult, which is a disturbing prospect, no doubt. And Beck has been promising that his plans for Total World Domination will make us whining, mewling liberals “crap ourselves”. We tremble in anticipatory fear. Meanwhile, I’m drinking a nice cold beer and toasting his departure.
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