Alice Ross

Police Were Aware Of Child Sex Grooming For Years

Today’s Times reveals that South Yorkshire Police had detailed knowledge of how young girls were being groomed, pimped and sexually abused for more than a decade – yet nobody was prosecuted using this information. In the past two years the Times has broken a string of child sexual abuse stories, highlighting how networks of men, usually […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
Two prostitutes wait for clients beside a suburban road in this file photo. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, file)

Today’s Times reveals that South Yorkshire Police had detailed knowledge of how young girls were being groomed, pimped and sexually abused for more than a decade – yet nobody was prosecuted using this information. In the past two years the Times has broken a string of child sexual abuse stories, highlighting how networks of men, usually of south

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UK Government Ramps Up Controls On FinSpy Surveillance Software

Exports of a British-made cyber-spying package are to be monitored by the government, after privacy activists challenged the government to clamp down on the UK’s thriving surveillance sector. FinSpy is now classed as a ‘dual use’ technology, capable of being used for both civilian and military purposes.  As such, it now will require an export […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
Backdropped by a British flag, closed-circuit surveillance cameras keep watch, in central London, Tuesday July 26, 2005. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Exports of a British-made cyber-spying package are to be monitored by the government, after privacy activists challenged the government to clamp down on the UK’s thriving surveillance sector. FinSpy is now classed as a ‘dual use’ technology, capable of being used for both civilian and military purposes.  As such, it now will require an export

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CIA Faces New Accusations Of Waterboarding

President Bush and his CIA director Michael Hayden have each claimed that the US has in the past only used the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding on three prisoners. This number, however, is being called into question by a Libyan dissident who has contradicted these claims with a detailed description of being waterboarded by US […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
Iranian dermatologist Ali Hosseini, shows the foot of Iranian diplomat Jalal Sharafi, during a news conference at Iran's Foreign Ministry in Tehran, Iran Wednesday, April. 11, 2007. The Iranian diplomat has accused the CIA of torturing him during his detention in Iraq. Claims of torture have not been independently verified. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)

President Bush and his CIA director Michael Hayden have each claimed that the US has in the past only used the controversial interrogation technique of waterboarding on three prisoners. This number, however, is being called into question by a Libyan dissident who has contradicted these claims with a detailed description of being waterboarded by

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Shell Spends $383M On Security In Niger Delta

Oil giant Shell has spent almost $400m in three years guarding its installations in the Niger Delta, including maintaining its own 1,200-strong internal ‘police’ force, running a network of plainclothes informants and supplying government forces with equipment, according to Platform, a campaign group. Platform combed through leaked internal documents and WikiLeaks diplomatic cables to unpick Shell’s […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
In this photo taken Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012, Charles Wiwa, 44, poses for a portrait in Chicago. Wiwa, fled Nigeria in 1996 following a crackdown on protests against Shell’s oil operations in the Niger Delta. He and other natives of the oil-rich Ogoni region claim Shell was eager to stop protests in the area and was complicit in Nigerian government actions that included fatal shootings, rapes, beatings, arrests and property destruction. U.S. Supreme Court justices will hear arguments Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, over the reach of the Alien Tort Statute and a 20-year-old law that allows victims of torture to pursue civil lawsuits against the responsible individuals. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Oil giant Shell has spent almost $400m in three years guarding its installations in the Niger Delta, including maintaining its own 1,200-strong internal ‘police’ force, running a network of plainclothes informants and supplying government forces with equipment, according to Platform, a campaign group. Platform combed through leaked internal

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In The Fields With California’s Child Laborers

The hours are long, the work is back-breaking, and the workers can be as young as 12: an NBC Bay Area investigation into child labour in the US reveals thousands of children working in farming. Reporters encountered over two dozen children working in large farms in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento, picking and trimming fruit and […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
An orange grove is shown here in Prospect Park in Redlands, Calif. (Photo by Don Graham via Flikr)

The hours are long, the work is back-breaking, and the workers can be as young as 12: an NBC Bay Area investigation into child labour in the US reveals thousands of children working in farming. Reporters encountered over two dozen children working in large farms in the San Joaquin Valley and Sacramento, picking and trimming fruit and vegetables

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Mormons And Money: The Business Of A Religion

Most religions exhort their members to take care of their eternal souls; the unusual thing about Mormonism is that it also urges its members to profit in more earthly ways, too. A lengthy article in Bloomberg Businessweek unpicks the business dealings of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, showing how the faith’s emphasis on profitable enterprise […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
Lavish fountains in the City Creek Center mall in Salt Lake City, built by the Mormon church. (Photo by Photo Dean via Flikr)

Most religions exhort their members to take care of their eternal souls; the unusual thing about Mormonism is that it also urges its members to profit in more earthly ways, too. A lengthy article in Bloomberg Businessweek unpicks the business dealings of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, showing how the faith’s emphasis on profitable enterprise has

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Injustice: Fighting Back From Death Row

Kris Maharaj is a British-born businessman who was convicted of the execution-style murder of his former business associate Derrick Moo Young and his son Duane, in a Florida hotel room in 1986. Despite a garbled alleged motive, a dodgy witness who changed his story multiple times, a convincing alibi and a complete absence of any […]

Alice Ross
By Alice Ross
A prison cell is shown in this undated photo. (Photo/AP )

Kris Maharaj is a British-born businessman who was convicted of the execution-style murder of his former business associate Derrick Moo Young and his son Duane, in a Florida hotel room in 1986. Despite a garbled alleged motive, a dodgy witness who changed his story multiple times, a convincing alibi and a complete absence of any kind of violent

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