"UK bars trash cans from tracking people with Wi-Fi"
LONDON (AP) — Officials demanded Monday that an advertising firm stop using a network of high-tech trash cans to track people walking through London’s financial district.
With the information turned over the GCHQ, I'm sure.
The Renew ad firm has been using technology embedded in the hulking receptacles to measure the Wi-Fi signals emitted by smartphones, and suggested that it would apply the concept of ‘‘cookies’’ — tracking files that follow Internet users across the Web — to the physical world.
Wi-Fi also enables your phones and electronic instruments to be hacked.
‘‘We will cookie the street,’’ Renew Chief Executive Kaveh Memari said in June.
But the City of London Corporation insisted that Renew pull the plug on the program, which captures smartphones’ serial numbers and analyzes signal strength to follow people up and down the street. Renew didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on whether it would comply with the authorities’ demand.
The trash cans join a host of everyday objects from televisions to toilets that are being manufactured with the ability to send and receive data, opening up new potential for interaction — and surveillance.
Related: Is Your TV Watching You?
It’s unclear how Renew had planned to use the data, which were gathered by its reinforced, shoulder-height pods stationed near St. Paul’s Cathedral and Liverpool Street Station.
But if a company could see that a certain smartphone user spent 20 minutes in a McDonald’s every day, it could approach Burger King about airing an ad on the bin’s video display whenever that user walks by at lunchtime. Or it could target its commercials in real time by distinguishing between people who work in the area and visiting tourists.
The prospect drew comparisons to the creepy ‘‘Good evening, John Anderton’’ ads from the Tom Cruise thriller ‘‘Minority Report.’’
Renew first tested the technology using 12 trash cans in May, but the story didn’t get traction until an article on news website Quartz led to a burst of media coverage.
WhereTF were you, corporate media? Picking through the trash?
‘‘Anything that happens like this on the streets needs to be done carefully, with the backing of an informed public,’’ read a statement from the City of London Corporation, which is responsible for the city’s historic ‘‘square mile,’’ home to financial institutions, law firms and tourist landmarks.
A spokesman for the body said it had been blindsided by the tests, which he said it learned about through the press only last week.
They don't even know what is happening in the most surveilled city on the planet? That sorta stinks. Sounds like Obama's lame-ass denial when the NSA scandal broke.
Britain’s data protection watchdog said it would investigate, while Nick Pickles of the privacy advocacy group Big Brother Watch said questions need to be asked ‘‘about how such a blatant attack on people’s privacy was able to occur.’’
In a recent statement, Memari said media coverage of the ‘‘spy bins’’ had been a bit breathless.
‘‘A lot of what had been extrapolated is capabilities that could be developed and none of which are workable right now,’’ he said.
--more--"
Speaking of trash:
"Report details abuse by BBC star; Savile allegedly molested more than 200 people" by Alan Cowell and John F. Burns | New York Times, January 12, 2013
LONDON — British police and the country’s leading child welfare group drew a horrific picture of more than 200 cases of sexual abuse of children as young as 8 by the television host Jimmy Savile in a report released Friday, and prosecutors admitted for the first time that they could have brought Savile to trial before his death in 2011 but failed to do so.
The depiction of what Peter Spindler, a police commander, called a ‘‘vast, predatory and opportunistic’’ record of misconduct offered the latest gruesome indictment in a scandal that has plunged the BBC, Savile’s longtime employer, into crisis; drawn in a mounting tally of suspects and victims; and raised questions about the protection of children in supposedly safe institutions.
In the process, Savile’s public image has been transformed. Once seen as a zany national treasure with a near-saintly commitment to charitable work with children, — knighted by Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II — he is now blamed for one of Britain’s most extensive catalogs of abuse.
What you come to realize it that these sick sex scandals more often than not reach into the layers of power. That is why it is always covered up or ignored.
What you come to realize it that these sick sex scandals more often than not reach into the layers of power. That is why it is always covered up or ignored.
“It is clear that Savile cunningly built his entire life into gaining access to vulnerable children,’’ said Peter Watt, a senior official of the children’s advocacy group, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
The report said Savile used his status as a celebrity to ‘‘hide in plain sight’’ as he committed criminal offenses in 28 police jurisdictions over nearly six decades.
The locations included the premises of the BBC, Britain’s public broadcaster; a home for disturbed adolescent girls; and 14 medical facilities like hospitals, mental health units, and a hospice. The cases covered the years 1955 to 2009. The youngest victim was an 8-year-old boy, the report said, and the oldest was 47.
Separately, the Crown Prosecution Service acknowledged that three victims who accused Savile of abuse in 2009 were not taken seriously enough.
“I would like to take the opportunity to apologize for the shortcomings in the part played by the Crown Prosecution Service in these cases,’’ Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, said in a statement.
The report also did not challenge the assertions of Mark Thompson, the head of the BBC at the time, that he had no role in killing the Savile investigation and was unaware of the sexual abuse accusations until he left the BBC last September. Thompson is now chief executive of The New York Times Co.
Somehow seems appropriate.
Somehow seems appropriate.
According to the report, 73 percent of the victims were under 18. A total of 450 people came forward to accuse Savile after the scandal exploded in October, and the police concluded that the number of crimes he is accused of committing totals 214, 34 of them rapes.
The offenses peaked between 1966 and 1976, the report said.
“His peak offending came with the peak of his success,’’ said Detective Superintendent David Gray, who works in a Scotland Yard unit investigating sexual crimes against children.
The report raised some questions about the culture of the era in which Savile rose to prominence as television audiences grew, feeding in part on a revolution in pop music.
“It was an age of different social attitudes, and the workings of the criminal justice system at the time would have reflected this,’’ the report said.
In an introductory passage of the 37-page report, the authors addressed an issue that has caused concern among legal experts, Savile family members, and others who have argued for caution in face of the avalanche of allegations: Savile, who died in October 2011, cannot defend himself, nor can the accounts of his accusers be tested in criminal proceedings.
Looks like he's had enough people doing it for him.
Looks like he's had enough people doing it for him.
“An issue that has understandably been raised is that as Jimmy Savile is dead there can be no criminal prosecutions against him and the testimony of his victims cannot be challenged in the courts,’’ the report said.
In other words, he got away with it.
In other words, he got away with it.
But the authors, in effect, turned this argument on its head, saying that the ‘‘lack of criminal proceedings — and justice for victims’’ convinced them that the information gathered in their three-month investigation ‘‘should be put into the public domain.’’
--more--"
Related: Behind the Curtain of the BBC
You may not want to look.
"BBC officials criticize company; Cushy culture turned blind eye" by Raphael Satter | Associated Press, February 23, 2013
LONDON — The BBC is a bloated, top-heavy, and poorly led corporation staffed by dull executives and backbiting journalists — and that’s just what the company’s leadership says.
Typical corporate news operation.
In 3,000 pages of e-mails and interviews published Friday, the BBC’s top officials have harsh words for the institutional culture of their respected media group, whose image has been damaged by a scandal over a top entertainer who police say sexually assaulted hundreds of women and children.
Respected by who?
“These documents paint a very unhappy picture,” said BBC Trust Chairman Chris Patten, and said in a statement that the taxpayer-funded corporation needed “to acknowledge these shortcomings and learn from them.”
The documents, consisting of appendices, interviews, and e-mails, are supporting material for the BBC’s investigation into its handling of the sex crime allegations against the late entertainer Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011 at the age of 84.
Savile was among the BBC’s biggest stars, but he was dogged for years by rumors about relationships with young girls. After he died, BBC reporters dug into his past but the investigation was shelved under disputed circumstances.
It's called a cover up.
When the pedophilia story eventually broke anyway — on a rival television network — the BBC was plunged into a double scandal: One over how the network could have hosted one of the nation’s most prolific sex offenders for so long, the other over why the broadcaster canceled its posthumous expose.
The BBC’s internal report, published in December, said that chaos and confusion, not coverup, was to blame. But the material published Friday fleshes out institutional problems.
That is a weak lame-ass excuse, and certainly doesn't reflect well on their newsgathering acumen.
The BBC’s director of global news, Peter Horrocks, described executives struggling to get their story straight.
“The organization, even at that last gasp, did not know what was going on,” he said.
Patten said the corporation’s cushy jobs were “one of the reasons why people get into the BBC and then never leave.”
BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman said that the corporation had given too much deference to officialdom over the testimony of abuse victims.
You are reading why the corporate world pre$$ is such shit.
“I thought that we had behaved just like many other authorities,” he said. “And I didn’t like it.”
--more--"
Also see:
Royal Opera chief will head scandal-plagued BBC
Related: Behind the Curtain of the BBC
You may not want to look.
"BBC officials criticize company; Cushy culture turned blind eye" by Raphael Satter | Associated Press, February 23, 2013
LONDON — The BBC is a bloated, top-heavy, and poorly led corporation staffed by dull executives and backbiting journalists — and that’s just what the company’s leadership says.
Typical corporate news operation.
In 3,000 pages of e-mails and interviews published Friday, the BBC’s top officials have harsh words for the institutional culture of their respected media group, whose image has been damaged by a scandal over a top entertainer who police say sexually assaulted hundreds of women and children.
Respected by who?
“These documents paint a very unhappy picture,” said BBC Trust Chairman Chris Patten, and said in a statement that the taxpayer-funded corporation needed “to acknowledge these shortcomings and learn from them.”
The documents, consisting of appendices, interviews, and e-mails, are supporting material for the BBC’s investigation into its handling of the sex crime allegations against the late entertainer Jimmy Savile, who died in 2011 at the age of 84.
Savile was among the BBC’s biggest stars, but he was dogged for years by rumors about relationships with young girls. After he died, BBC reporters dug into his past but the investigation was shelved under disputed circumstances.
It's called a cover up.
When the pedophilia story eventually broke anyway — on a rival television network — the BBC was plunged into a double scandal: One over how the network could have hosted one of the nation’s most prolific sex offenders for so long, the other over why the broadcaster canceled its posthumous expose.
The BBC’s internal report, published in December, said that chaos and confusion, not coverup, was to blame. But the material published Friday fleshes out institutional problems.
That is a weak lame-ass excuse, and certainly doesn't reflect well on their newsgathering acumen.
The BBC’s director of global news, Peter Horrocks, described executives struggling to get their story straight.
“The organization, even at that last gasp, did not know what was going on,” he said.
Patten said the corporation’s cushy jobs were “one of the reasons why people get into the BBC and then never leave.”
BBC presenter Jeremy Paxman said that the corporation had given too much deference to officialdom over the testimony of abuse victims.
You are reading why the corporate world pre$$ is such shit.
“I thought that we had behaved just like many other authorities,” he said. “And I didn’t like it.”
--more--"
Also see:
Royal Opera chief will head scandal-plagued BBC
New chief of NY Times testifies in BBC scandal inquiry
UK publicist Max Clifford arrested in abuse case
"Longtime British entertainer faces sex charges" New York Times, April 20, 2013
LONDON — In the latest twist in a sexual abuse scandal, one of the country’s best-known television entertainers, Rolf Harris, for whom Queen Elizabeth II once sat for a portrait, has been arrested on suspicion of unspecified sexual offenses, British news reports said Friday.
Harris, 83, was arrested March 28, but only identified by name Friday by The Sun newspaper.
The BBC followed suit, having previously refrained from identifying him for what the network called ‘‘legal reasons.’’
The BBC said Friday that the entertainer had not been formally charged.
He was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, an investigation police opened last year after hundreds of accusations of sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile, a onetime disc jockey and television personality who died in 2011 at the age of 84.
An Australian who moved to Britain in 1952, Harris made his name decades ago with humorous and sentimental songs, like ‘‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport,’’ and “Jake the Peg.”
In 2005 he unveiled his portrait of the queen at Buckingham Palace as she approached her 80th birthday.
--more--"
"British TV star admits abuse charges" by Sarah Lyall | New York Times, May 03, 2013
LONDON — An elderly British television and radio personality has admitted to 14 counts of sexually abusing girls age 9 to 17 decades ago, it emerged Thursday. The broadcaster, Stuart Hall, 83, pleaded guilty to the charges last month, but the news media was barred from reporting the plea until now.
Hall, a familiar figure on radio and television in a career spanning five decades, was first arrested in December and questioned as part of Operation Yewtree, a far-reaching criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse from as long as 50 years ago.
He initially denied the charges, calling them ‘‘pernicious, callous, cruel, and, above all, spurious.’’
His crimes, prosecutors say, took place between 1967 and 1986 and included putting his hands under the clothes of a 9-year-old girl, groping a 16-year-old girl’s breasts, and kissing a 13-year-old girl on the lips while telling her it was a way to ‘‘show thanks.’’
I don't even like reading this stuff.
Hall had also been charged with raping a 22-year-old woman in 1976, and was to have faced a separate trial.
But after he pleaded guilty to the other charges, prosecutors said Thursday, the rape charge was withdrawn when the complainant in the case decided she did not want to give evidence in court.
A dozen well-known figures from the entertainment world, mostly men in their 70s and 80s, have been identified as suspects in Yewtree.
Hall, known mainly as the host of the game show ‘‘It’s a Knockout’’ and as a witty sports commentator, is the first to admit any wrongdoing.
Two of the other suspects have been formally charged with crimes; the rest are facing further questioning while prosecutors decide whether to charge them.
It is notoriously hard to secure convictions in sexual assault cases, particularly ones from long ago.
Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor for the North West, said Thursday that in Stuart’s case, a number of women came forward with similar accusations, establishing a pattern of behavior....
--more--"
"Jimmy Savile case report criticizes police" by Stephen Castle | New York Times, March 13, 2013
LONDON — Police failures over five decades allowed Jimmy Savile, one of Britain’s best-known television personalities, to escape investigation for a lifetime of sex offenses dating back to the early 1960s, according to a report published Tuesday.
The review of police conduct revealed a catalog of poor procedures and missed opportunities and an unwillingness to pursue accusations against one of the country’s most famous celebrities, whose renown also inhibited many possible victims from coming forward.
‘‘One of the reasons why allegations were not made at the time or investigations were not conducted as they might have been centers on Savile’s status,’’ the report said.
‘‘He was a well-known national celebrity, praised for his substantial fund-raising efforts, and a household name to many.’’
Theresa May, the home secretary, said, ‘‘This report brings into sharp focus police failings that allowed Savile to act with impunity over five decades. While we can never right this wrong, we must learn the lessons to prevent the same from ever happening again.’’
The disclosures that Savile, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, was one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders have shocked Britons who for decades watched his popular BBC programs, ‘‘Top of the Pops,’’ a music chart countdown show, and ‘‘Jim’ll Fix It,’’ in which Savile promised to grant young viewers’ wishes.
You have to watch these children's charities since they are most often started by perverts.
Claims that he abused some of his victims on BBC premises, and journalistic errors in the broadcasters’ coverage of the accusations, plunged the BBC into crisis.
But while the aftershocks of Savile’s behavior are still being felt, the police were first alerted to allegations against him in the early 1960s in Cheshire, according to Tuesday’s report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, an independent body that assesses police forces and policing.
It is just horrifying to think people knew and this abominable behavior was allowed to continue.
On that occasion, a male victim reported a rape accusation against Savile to a local police officer the day after it occurred but was told to ‘‘forget about it’’ and ‘‘move on,’’ according to the document, which added that no official report was made or investigation undertaken....
I think I will.
--more--"
"No evidence that police shielded UK celebrity from sex abuse charges" by ALAN COWELL | New York Times, May 11, 2013
LONDON — The police force in the hometown of the disgraced British television presenter Jimmy Savile said Friday that there was no evidence that its officers shielded Savile from arrest or prosecution in any of scores of cases of sexual abuse, mainly of teenage girls, that have surfaced since he died in 2011 at age 84.
The cover-up continues!
But the inquiry uncovered evidence of what seemed a cozy and largely unknown network of contacts between Savile and the police and other members of the elite at a social gathering known as the Friday Morning Club in his apartment.
What did I say above? That's why police were so cavalier about everything.
It also found that even after complaints against Savile were made elsewhere in Britain, the police in Leeds, his hometown, continued to turn to him for help promoting crime prevention campaigns, relying on his celebrity status as an entertainer known for charitable works.
‘‘It seems to me that West Yorkshire Police over the years failed to join up the dots,’’ said Alan Collins, a lawyer representing 40 of the hundreds of people who have made accusations against Savile. ‘‘They had intelligence that something wasn’t right, if I can put it as mildly as that, and, against that background, they were using Savile for crime prevention campaigns and so on.”
They weren't even looking at them.
The finding after an internal inquiry threw light on his relationship with officers in West Yorkshire, where 68 abuse complaints were filed in a scandal that has rocked the BBC.
Aren't they the station that called the WTC 7 collapse half-an-hour before it happened?
--more--"
"BBC faces new sexual abuse claims" by Sarah Lyall | New York Times, May 31, 2013
LONDON — Since the case involving television personality Jimmy Savile came to light in October, the BBC has received 152 new allegations of sexual abuse and harassment by 81 current and former employees, the broadcaster said Thursday.
Thirty-six of the new accusations are from complainants who were younger than 18 at the time of the alleged assaults.
The disclosures raise new questions about the workplace culture at the BBC, the behavior of its employees, and what it may have condoned or overlooked.
It must have been HELL to work there!!
They also show how the broadcaster is still consumed with the fallout from the case of Savile, a larger-than-life BBC star who died in 2011 at the age of 84 and who was later unmasked as a serial sexual predator with dozens of victims over four decades.
Larger-than-life, huh?
The Daily Telegraph unearthed the new figures through a Freedom of Information request. The BBC subsequently made its response available to other organizations....
The report shows that 40 of those accused currently work for or contribute to the BBC, while 41 are dead or employees from long ago. Of the 152 separate complaints, 48 involve Savile, who died before the revelations about him came to light.
May they rest in peace.
Some of the allegations did not involve criminal acts and were investigated internally, the BBC said, while the rest were reported to the police. The police have investigated or are investigating the allegations against 25 of the current employees or contributors as far back as 1965, the broadcaster said.
Little late to be getting on the case, ain't it?
--more--"
Other things I found at the bottom of the Globe's British barrel:
Floods, insurance talks roil Britain
With more storms on the way, the government and the insurance industry are engaged in mutual finger-pointing. All this comes as the European Environment Agency reported that global warming has caused an overall rise in sea levels globally and along most of the region’s coasts.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: The Rising Level of Bulls***
And there it is again!
UK publicist Max Clifford arrested in abuse case
"Longtime British entertainer faces sex charges" New York Times, April 20, 2013
LONDON — In the latest twist in a sexual abuse scandal, one of the country’s best-known television entertainers, Rolf Harris, for whom Queen Elizabeth II once sat for a portrait, has been arrested on suspicion of unspecified sexual offenses, British news reports said Friday.
Harris, 83, was arrested March 28, but only identified by name Friday by The Sun newspaper.
The BBC followed suit, having previously refrained from identifying him for what the network called ‘‘legal reasons.’’
The BBC said Friday that the entertainer had not been formally charged.
He was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree, an investigation police opened last year after hundreds of accusations of sexual abuse against Jimmy Savile, a onetime disc jockey and television personality who died in 2011 at the age of 84.
An Australian who moved to Britain in 1952, Harris made his name decades ago with humorous and sentimental songs, like ‘‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport,’’ and “Jake the Peg.”
In 2005 he unveiled his portrait of the queen at Buckingham Palace as she approached her 80th birthday.
--more--"
"British TV star admits abuse charges" by Sarah Lyall | New York Times, May 03, 2013
LONDON — An elderly British television and radio personality has admitted to 14 counts of sexually abusing girls age 9 to 17 decades ago, it emerged Thursday. The broadcaster, Stuart Hall, 83, pleaded guilty to the charges last month, but the news media was barred from reporting the plea until now.
Hall, a familiar figure on radio and television in a career spanning five decades, was first arrested in December and questioned as part of Operation Yewtree, a far-reaching criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse from as long as 50 years ago.
He initially denied the charges, calling them ‘‘pernicious, callous, cruel, and, above all, spurious.’’
His crimes, prosecutors say, took place between 1967 and 1986 and included putting his hands under the clothes of a 9-year-old girl, groping a 16-year-old girl’s breasts, and kissing a 13-year-old girl on the lips while telling her it was a way to ‘‘show thanks.’’
I don't even like reading this stuff.
Hall had also been charged with raping a 22-year-old woman in 1976, and was to have faced a separate trial.
But after he pleaded guilty to the other charges, prosecutors said Thursday, the rape charge was withdrawn when the complainant in the case decided she did not want to give evidence in court.
A dozen well-known figures from the entertainment world, mostly men in their 70s and 80s, have been identified as suspects in Yewtree.
Hall, known mainly as the host of the game show ‘‘It’s a Knockout’’ and as a witty sports commentator, is the first to admit any wrongdoing.
Two of the other suspects have been formally charged with crimes; the rest are facing further questioning while prosecutors decide whether to charge them.
It is notoriously hard to secure convictions in sexual assault cases, particularly ones from long ago.
Nazir Afzal, chief crown prosecutor for the North West, said Thursday that in Stuart’s case, a number of women came forward with similar accusations, establishing a pattern of behavior....
--more--"
"Jimmy Savile case report criticizes police" by Stephen Castle | New York Times, March 13, 2013
LONDON — Police failures over five decades allowed Jimmy Savile, one of Britain’s best-known television personalities, to escape investigation for a lifetime of sex offenses dating back to the early 1960s, according to a report published Tuesday.
The review of police conduct revealed a catalog of poor procedures and missed opportunities and an unwillingness to pursue accusations against one of the country’s most famous celebrities, whose renown also inhibited many possible victims from coming forward.
‘‘One of the reasons why allegations were not made at the time or investigations were not conducted as they might have been centers on Savile’s status,’’ the report said.
‘‘He was a well-known national celebrity, praised for his substantial fund-raising efforts, and a household name to many.’’
Theresa May, the home secretary, said, ‘‘This report brings into sharp focus police failings that allowed Savile to act with impunity over five decades. While we can never right this wrong, we must learn the lessons to prevent the same from ever happening again.’’
The disclosures that Savile, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, was one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders have shocked Britons who for decades watched his popular BBC programs, ‘‘Top of the Pops,’’ a music chart countdown show, and ‘‘Jim’ll Fix It,’’ in which Savile promised to grant young viewers’ wishes.
You have to watch these children's charities since they are most often started by perverts.
Claims that he abused some of his victims on BBC premises, and journalistic errors in the broadcasters’ coverage of the accusations, plunged the BBC into crisis.
But while the aftershocks of Savile’s behavior are still being felt, the police were first alerted to allegations against him in the early 1960s in Cheshire, according to Tuesday’s report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, an independent body that assesses police forces and policing.
It is just horrifying to think people knew and this abominable behavior was allowed to continue.
On that occasion, a male victim reported a rape accusation against Savile to a local police officer the day after it occurred but was told to ‘‘forget about it’’ and ‘‘move on,’’ according to the document, which added that no official report was made or investigation undertaken....
I think I will.
--more--"
"No evidence that police shielded UK celebrity from sex abuse charges" by ALAN COWELL | New York Times, May 11, 2013
LONDON — The police force in the hometown of the disgraced British television presenter Jimmy Savile said Friday that there was no evidence that its officers shielded Savile from arrest or prosecution in any of scores of cases of sexual abuse, mainly of teenage girls, that have surfaced since he died in 2011 at age 84.
The cover-up continues!
But the inquiry uncovered evidence of what seemed a cozy and largely unknown network of contacts between Savile and the police and other members of the elite at a social gathering known as the Friday Morning Club in his apartment.
What did I say above? That's why police were so cavalier about everything.
It also found that even after complaints against Savile were made elsewhere in Britain, the police in Leeds, his hometown, continued to turn to him for help promoting crime prevention campaigns, relying on his celebrity status as an entertainer known for charitable works.
‘‘It seems to me that West Yorkshire Police over the years failed to join up the dots,’’ said Alan Collins, a lawyer representing 40 of the hundreds of people who have made accusations against Savile. ‘‘They had intelligence that something wasn’t right, if I can put it as mildly as that, and, against that background, they were using Savile for crime prevention campaigns and so on.”
They weren't even looking at them.
The finding after an internal inquiry threw light on his relationship with officers in West Yorkshire, where 68 abuse complaints were filed in a scandal that has rocked the BBC.
Aren't they the station that called the WTC 7 collapse half-an-hour before it happened?
--more--"
"BBC faces new sexual abuse claims" by Sarah Lyall | New York Times, May 31, 2013
LONDON — Since the case involving television personality Jimmy Savile came to light in October, the BBC has received 152 new allegations of sexual abuse and harassment by 81 current and former employees, the broadcaster said Thursday.
Thirty-six of the new accusations are from complainants who were younger than 18 at the time of the alleged assaults.
The disclosures raise new questions about the workplace culture at the BBC, the behavior of its employees, and what it may have condoned or overlooked.
It must have been HELL to work there!!
They also show how the broadcaster is still consumed with the fallout from the case of Savile, a larger-than-life BBC star who died in 2011 at the age of 84 and who was later unmasked as a serial sexual predator with dozens of victims over four decades.
Larger-than-life, huh?
The Daily Telegraph unearthed the new figures through a Freedom of Information request. The BBC subsequently made its response available to other organizations....
The report shows that 40 of those accused currently work for or contribute to the BBC, while 41 are dead or employees from long ago. Of the 152 separate complaints, 48 involve Savile, who died before the revelations about him came to light.
May they rest in peace.
Some of the allegations did not involve criminal acts and were investigated internally, the BBC said, while the rest were reported to the police. The police have investigated or are investigating the allegations against 25 of the current employees or contributors as far back as 1965, the broadcaster said.
Little late to be getting on the case, ain't it?
--more--"
Other things I found at the bottom of the Globe's British barrel:
Floods, insurance talks roil Britain
With more storms on the way, the government and the insurance industry are engaged in mutual finger-pointing. All this comes as the European Environment Agency reported that global warming has caused an overall rise in sea levels globally and along most of the region’s coasts.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: The Rising Level of Bulls***
And there it is again!
"Team starts historic Antarctic trek" by Christopher Torchia | Associated Press, January 08, 2013
JOHANNESBURG — It’s a six-month expedition in almost constant darkness, in the coldest place on the planet, with no chance of rescue if things go wrong. British explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes calls it one of the last remaining polar challenges: crossing Antarctica during the region’s winter....
--more--"
Also see:
Court faults airline for making worker remove her crucifix
Shakespeare’s Globe building new indoor theater
Court faults airline for making worker remove her crucifix
Shakespeare’s Globe building new indoor theater
Why would anyone care what Phony Tony or Bliar the liar says?
