Detainees released from Bahrain prison accuse security forces of using torture and other forms of abuse on them while they were imprisoned.

Authorities in Bahrain released more than 140 detainees, including two former ranking opposition members of the Parliament and a prominent opposition lawyer, on Monday.

Majority of the detainees who have been released included suspects who have remained imprisoned without being given a fair trial. The length of time that they served in prison, according to authorities, was the same length of time that they would have spent should they have been given one and have been found guilty.

Upon their release, nearly all of the former detainees began to cry out allegations of torture and abuse they had experienced in the hands of officials that guarded them since they were detained during protests held in the country back on February 14. Nabeel Rajab—president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights—told reporters that he believed about 98 percent of the people that were held in custody suffered physical abuse ranging from beatings to electrical shocks as well as instances of sexual assault.

“No one was immune,” he told reporters. “Very rarely will you find someone who was not abused.”

Former Al Wefaq MPs Matar Matar and Jawad Fairuz were among the many detainees that claimed they have been tortured while being held under the custody of Bahraini security forces. In an interview with reporters following his release, Matar said that he, Fairuz and a few other detainees were brought to an open area and told to raise their hands before five men began to beat them with sticks in an ordeal that lasted for about 30 minutes. He also claimed that he was also physically abused in another occasion, and was often denied sleep as he was often interrogated for long hours at a time.

“The security forces didn’t want information,” he said. “They wanted to send a message that [they] have a green light to do whatever they want [to us].”

The Bahrain government has not responded to the said allegations.

The Reserve Bank of India assures that it will remain strong in spite of the current global economic turmoil following the downgrade of the US’ credit rating by S&P.

India’s central bank authorities sought to calm down the markets on Monday, assuring them that the economy would remain resilient to the ongoing global economic turmoil brought about by the downgrade of the credit rating of the US.

According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), while the market behavior was not insulated from the effects of the downgrade of the US’s credit rating as with the other global markets, the impact would be very minimal, pointing to the fact that during the previous global financial crisis, it’s economy was one of the very few that actually experienced some form of growth.

“In the worst phase of the recent global financial crisis, the Indian economy [actually] grew by 6.8 percent, suggesting that we have a high resilience emerging from domestic factors,” it said.

The assurance of RBI echoed the comments made by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who insists that India’s economy, which is the third largest economy in Asia, will be able to weather out any “negative sentiments affecting the external world.”

Because of this, RBI stated that it did not see any immediate need for liquidity stress on the country’s banking system. Rather, their priority is to ensure that proper measures are taken to guard the economy from any turbulence that will be brought about by changing interest rates.

“In the immediate future, our priority is to ensure that adequate rupee and forex liquidity are maintained [within the] domestic markets to prevent excessive volatility in interest rates and exchange rates,” it said.

Participants in the recent DEF CON hacking contest proved how easy it was to break into the security of some of the largest companies and organizations in the world.

A contest held by the world’s largest hacking convention held over the weekend in Las Vegas exposed lack of security training of IT professionals working in the top global organizations as the primary reason why they are easily penetrated by cyber criminals.

In a statement issued by representatives of DEF CON—the organizers of the said hacking convention—computer hackers that participated in the contest, which was held during the weekend, found it very easy to trick employees working in the IT departments of large US companies like Sony Corp. and international organizations like the International Monetary Fund to divulge sensitive information which can be used by cyber criminals to launch cyber attacks.

DEF CON said event was meant to expose security vulnerabilities to companies and organizations in the hope that this would amount the pressure to fix them. Among those that were tested and found to be susceptible to cyber attacks include Oracle Corp (which was shown to have had employees giving out the most information), AT&T Inc, ConAgra Food Inc, Delta Air Lines, Symantec, Sysco, United Air Lines, and Verizon Communications.

The ease in acquiring sensitive information from these companies was viewed by the contestants and organizers as something to be extremely concerned about. Chris Hadnagy, one of the organizers of the contest, told reporters that the fact that it was so easy for them to get these pieces of information is a “scary call” that must be addressed.

“She was so willing to comply,” he told reporters, pointing to his ability to get information from one of the companies they tried to hack as part of the contest. “A lot of this could facilitate serious attacks if used by the right people.”

None of the companies whose weak security measures have been exposed were available to get a comment as of this posting time.

The once number one insurance company in the US, AIG, has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America and other financial institutions on allegations of fraudulent activities that led to it losing more than $10 billion.

Insurance corporation American International Group, Inc. (AIG) has filed a lawsuit on Monday against Bank of America Corp, further adding to the problems of the largest bank in the United States.

According to the formal complaint which has been filed in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, AIG is accused Bank of America along with Contrywide and Merrill Lynch of a “massive fraud” by misrepresenting the quality of mortgages placed in their securities which were sold to investors. The fraudulent acts, it stated, account for more than $10 billion worth of losses AIG experienced which resulted to its near collapse, forcing them to be bailed out through the aid of the government and taxpayers.

With the filing of the lawsuit, AIG has now become the latest in the growing number of investors who have filed similar complaints and lawsuits against major banks in the United States in the hopes to force them to become accountable and responsible for losses on troubled mortgages which have been pointed to be one of the major factors that brought about the global financial crisis back in 2008.

Bank of America rejects the allegations made by AIG, pointing to the losses acquired by the insurance company as a result of “its own excesses and errors.”

“AIG recklessly chased high yields and profits throughout the mortgage and structured finance markets,” Bank of America spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita, told reporters. “It is the very definition of an informed, seasoned investor, with losses solely attributable to its own excesses and errors. We reject its assertions and allegations.”

The aftermath of the weekend-long riot in London which the British government called as the work of ‘opportunistic criminals’.

The British government had branded the rioters who took to the streets of London and unleashing havoc by looting shops and setting buildings and vehicles on fire as ‘opportunistic criminals’ on Monday.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg condemned the events of what is now considered as the worst act of violence as “needless” and “completely unacceptable.”

More than 160 people were arrested by police across London in a series of riots and demonstrations which began a few miles from the Olympic park in the multi-ethnic, lower-income neighborhood of Tottenham. Nine police officers were injured as a result of altercations with the rioters who they referred to as “copycat criminals.”

Many neighborhood residents in Tottenham retaliated following the branding made by the British government, pointing to the high unemployment rate and massive cuts in  public offices as a major contributor to the anger experienced by the protestors.

Trouble reached paramount levels during a vigil held for a 29-year-old man who was shot by police in Tottenham last Thursday as police officers tried to arrest him. Britain’s police watchdog refused to comment other than they are currently investigating the incident. However, an article published by the Guardian newspaper suggests that the bullet that killed the young man was from a police gun.

However, other residents supported the viewpoints and sympathies of the British government. Local member of parliament David Lammy was one of them who said that those that were arrested did not come from Tottenham. Instead they came from other parts of the city who were brought together through the use of social messaging sites.

“The weekend’s violence was not a race riot,” he pointed out in a letter he wrote to Times newspaper. “It was an attack on the whole of the Tottenham community [which was] organized on Twitter.”

English actress Rachel Weisz stars plays the role of Kathy Bolkovac, a police officer who blew the whistle on the UN’s involvement in human and sex trafficking activities in post-war Bosnia.

The ten-year-long story about a police officer battling against sex trafficking with the United Nation’s corruption at its center has now been made into a film.

Actress Rachel Weisz plays the lead role as Kathy Bolkovac, a police officer from Nebraska who ended up uncovering sex trafficking while working for the UN in post-war Bosnia.

“The officers who were sent there to basically protect and to work on the issues of human rights were also involved in this,” Bolkovac told CNN during an exclusive interview. “[They were involved] not only [in] facilitating the trade through the use of the brothels, but also at times transporting victims across borders, outrightly purchasing these women to take home with them.”

“These women and girls were not prostitutes,” Weisz said. “They were slaves. They were owned by bar owners. Their passports were taken away from them, and they were not allowed to escape.”

Weiss also expressed her admiration towards the former police officer who said that she “wouldn’t have been able to face up to private contracting companies and the UN” the same way as Bolkovac did.

Martin Nesirky, spokesman for the UN Secretary General said that the organization welcomes the making and subsequent launching of the film which he hopes would make an impact despite expressed concerns that the behavior of a few would have an overall negative impact on the organization as a whole.

“The United Nations in 2011 is different from the United Nations in the 1990s. But there’s still many topics, issues and challenges that [have yet] to be addressed.”

The UN said that a total of 24 people who were involved in the scandal have been fired. Today, it said, it has a zero-tolerance global policy on such acts against human rights.

After years of delay, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner will soon be taking to the skies, shuttling passengers to different destinations in the world.

All Nippon Airways, one of the largest airlines and flag carriers in Japan, announced that it will be receiving the first of its 55 orders of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner by next month.

The announcement was made by Scott Fancher, Vice-President of Boeing who also serve as General Manager for the 787 program. The plane, which will be flown to Tokyo will be the first of the 787 Dreamliner series that will be carrying commercial passengers.

“We are rolling out the first delivery plane, the first 787,” he told reporters. “That’s an amazing thing for those who have worked on the program five, six, seven years, here at Boeing and out partners around the world.”

Mitsuo Morimoto, Senior Vice-President for All Nippon Airways, said that the arrival of the 787 Dreamliner will allow the airline to develop new routes which will result to the expansion of their business.

“We plan to use the 787 to expand our business, particularly our international routes,” he said. ” We plan to increase our revenue from international [flights] significantly and the 787 will play an instrumental role in this.

The Boeing 787 is the first commercial airliner that was constructed mostly out of carbon composites and super durable plastic, considerably reducing its overall weight. This, according to the South Carolina-based company, said would result to a decrease in air fuel consumption by up to 20 percent, making these aircrafts more environmentally-friendly and cost-effective.

A total of 800 orders for the aircraft have been made by different airline companies from all parts of the world who have been patiently waiting for their orders to be delivered after the company fell behind its original schedule by three years due to problems in manufacturing the plane.

In order to meet the demand and make up for lost time, the company announced that it will be stepping up its production quotas from two 787 Dreamliners a month to 10 a month by 2013. A feat, according to Flight International Magazine writer John Ostrower, that is considered to be an “extraordinary challenge.”

“No one has ever built a wide body aircraft at the rate of 10 per month before,” he said. “Boeing has its work cut out for it.”

Seeing Red. Stock markets in the Middle East suffered huge drops over the weekend after the US credit rating was downgraded by S&P from AAA to AA+.

Stock markets in the Middle East suffered massive losses over the weekend despite sources close to ratings agency Standard & Poor’s assured that the downgrade of the US credit rating would have minimal impact on the global markets.

The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) General Index took a nosedive on Sunday by falling by more than five percent, making this its biggest drop since January of this year, while the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index dipped more than 2.5 percent.

On Saturday, the Tadawul All-Share Index in Saudi Arabia also took a dive, falling nearly 5.5 percent.

The observed drops in the Middle Eastern stock markets came after S&P downgraded the US’ to a AA+ rating from its prized triple-A credit rating in spite of the country’s ability to submit an approved deal to deliver $2.1 trillion in saving within the next 10 years.

S&P’s global head of sovereign ratings David Beers explained to reporters that the decision of the rating agency to strip the country off its prized credit ratings was brought about by two important factors. The first, he stated, centered “around the uncertainty” they believed the political process in carrying out its fiscal policy is creating within the country.

The second reason, Beers pointed out, was that the debt reduction plan recently approved by the US Congress was simply just not enough in the agency’s eyes.

Earlier, rival ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s announced that they would maintain the country’s AAA credit rating. However, they did point out that they have lowered their outlook towards the country into a “negative” status, bringing in the possibility that the country’s credit rating given by these two agencies may also be downgraded with a year or two.

Protestors camp in tents in an affluent part of Tel Aviv as a sign of protests of the high cost of living experienced by the Israeli middle class.

Nearly a quarter of a million Israelis marched down along the streets of the country in what is now considered to be one of the largest social outcries in Israeli’s history.

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis marching on the streets of Tel Aviv and tens of thousands more in cities throughout the country, carrying slogans and demanding for social justice and for the government to address the mounting cost of living for the country’s middle class who claim that they have been left out despite the country’s growing economy.

“The middle class in Israel find it hard to live here,” Noga Klinger, one of the thousands of protestors, told reporters. “It’s hard to raise children here. It’s very hard to find suitable apartments. We cannot suffer anymore. We have to come to the streets and protest.”

One protestor accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of giving tax money “to the tycoons and to the rich people.”

“Nothing comes back to us,” she said. “Everybody who works, even [those] with a degree from [a] university, doesn’t have enough money to survive. We are all the time surviving instead of living.”

The demonstrations are the latest development in a string of protest movements that began on July 14 when a group of activists set up tents in an affluent neighborhood located right in the center of Tel Aviv as a sign of protest against the ever increasing rental costs, which has jumped by more than 40 percent since 2007.

While the announcement made by Netanyahu to present a plan to ease the financial burden on Israeli’s citizens may prove to be a sign that the government is paying attention, political analyst David Horovitz say that protestors are missing the important part which is a call for electoral reform in the country.

“A lot of the ills of Israel and a lot of inequalities of Israel are a consequence of a very problematic political system,” he explained. “It is comprised  purely of proportional representation by parties who are at the mercy of other parties with special interests.”

Through DEF CON Kids, young children are given the opportunity to learn the art of hacking.

DEF CON, the largest gathering of computer hackers, held its first of a series of classes that aim to teach children and teenagers on how to hack computers.

The series of classes, which the organization aptly named DEF CON Kids, launched at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The different sessions held during the day were targeted to cater to boys and girls between the ages of eight and 16.

In addition to learning how to hack computers, children and teenagers were also taught some rather questionable topics like how to pick locks with the use of toilet paper rolls and pen caps and how to find information about a person like his or her social security numbers out of corporate trash bins.

While the said convention may cause many parents to be worried, the organization—which is mostly composed of computer security professionals—assured that the said classes have been geared with good intentions, aiming to equip children and teenagers with knowledge and skills to help government and business organizations make the Internet less vulnerable to attacks carried out by computer criminals.

Adam Steed, a computer security professional in Salt Lake City, Utah, was one of the many parents that saw the benefits of bringing his 13-year-old nephew to attend the classes being given in the convention.

“You can watch lock-picking videos on YouTube,” he pointed out. “But where do you hear the ethical side of this? Not on YouTube. I would rather [have] someone learn [it] in a controlled environment. They (children and teenagers) are going to learn it anyway.”

Bo Holland, a father from Austin, Texas, said that it’s cool for kids like his 10-year-old daughter, Isabel, to see and learn how the technology and video games they use all the time actually work.

“Ultimately, it will make the kids safer,” he said, “especially in this age of social networking when the collective memory of the Internet has no expiration date. You can say ‘Oh we don’t want to hear how this (hacking) stuff works and that’s scary…But it’s really important kids know how to protect themselves.”