WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has told smartphone and email users "You're all screwed", as he unveiled his latest publications. - The whistle-blowing website has released details of companies it says are selling information obtained by monitoring people's mobile phones and computers. According to Mr Assange, more than 150 organisations around the world have the ability to use phones as tracking devices as well as intercept messages and listen to calls. Those companies then sell the wholesale information, often the telecommunications data of "entire populations". He told a press conference at City University in London that the publication of the "Spy Files" is a "mass attack on this mass surveillance industry". The 40-year-old asked the audience of students and press: "Who here has an iPhone? Who here has a BlackBerry? Who here uses Gmail? Well, you're all screwed.

Wikileaks: The Spyfiles
AFP: New WikiLeaks 'spy files' show global surveillance industry
ZD Net: New Wikileaks files expose widespread mobile phone, email hacking capability

Kelly Ayotte, a freshman Republican senator from New Hampshire, has proposed legislation that would repeal current laws that make harsh torture techniques illegal, a move that the American Civil Liberties Union says would "dangerously roll back" restrictions that Congress approved in 2005’s McCain Anti-Torture Amendment.

Ayotte’s amendment, snuck into the Defense Authorization bill that will soon go up for vote, would cancel in-part both the 2005 legislation and the 2009 Executive Order issued by President Obama that allowed only “lawful” interrogations. Additionally, officials would draft a list of top-secret techniques that would be used to interrogate suspected terrorists and war criminals. The ACLU reminds lawmakers of the photos from the Abu Gharib that caused international outrage over America’s torture and interrogation abuses, which it says cost the United States “hearts and minds that are critical to US counterterrorism and counterinsurgency efforts.” While the amendment has a worthy opponent in the ACLU, contenders for the Republican Party’s nomination for the presidency have also gone on the record as of late to say that current torture policies are too lax. Michele Bachmann stated recently that the “CIA has no ability to have any form of interrogation for terrorists,” and declared that President Obama had forfeited its ability to torture alleged criminals by siding with the ACLU. Texas Governor Rick Perry has added that the Obama administration has been an “absolute failure” at expanding intelligence gathering amongst the military and CIA.

Andrew P. Napolitano: Can Congress Steal Your Constitutional Freedoms? - Can the president use the military to arrest anyone he wants, keep that person away from a judge and jury, and lock him up for as long as he wants? In the Senate’s dark and terrifying vision of the Constitution, he can.

Some members of the Occupy Montreal movement are considering legal action against the Montreal police after they were branded without their consent. - Police expelled the group of protesters from Victoria Square last Friday, as part of the group handcuffed themselves to the outdoor kitchen. "The police asked us to move and we did not comply," said activist Bed Godin. "They removed us by using force." Protesters were taken to a bus, where officers processed them, and marked some with an ink that could only be seen under a UV light. "They took pictures and then they wrote one number. I got the number 5 in black marker," he said.

The violent police assaults across the US are no coincidence. - US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

Rafael Azul: Police attack Occupy camps in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, arresting 350 - Embedded with the police officers, which carried out their work with military precision, was a pool of selected reporters from the mainstream media—a well-known tactic designed to control the public’s access to information. The media, along with police officials and Villaraigosa have sought to present the police operation as a “peaceful” and “orderly” raid. Eyewitnesses to the events reported that as the operation was proceeding out of sight from the embedded reporters. Police used batons against independent reporters who were trying to photograph and videotape the operation. One reporter was forced out of the park after being hit in the chest with a baton.

A judge wants former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis, whereabouts unclear, to face murder charges in the death of freelance journalist Charles Horman. The case was dramatized in the 1982 film 'Missing.' - Judge Jorge Zepeda wants former U.S. Navy Capt. Ray E. Davis, whose whereabouts were not immediately clear Tuesday, to face trial in Chile for his alleged involvement in the deaths of Horman and U.S. student Frank Teruggi. The two Americans were arrested and executed by Chilean forces shortly after President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a military coup on Sept. 11, 1973. Horman, 31, was working as a screenwriter for state-run Chile Films when military rebel forces led by Gen. Augusto Pinochet attacked the presidential palace La Moneda. Allende committed suicide that day rather than surrender. Horman was arrested Sept. 17 and executed the next day, according to court documents. His body later was found on a Santiago street. Teruggi, 24, was killed Sept. 22 and his body also dumped on a street in the capital. Davis then was head of the U.S. military group attached to the American Embassy in Santiago. A recent truth commission found that 41,000 people were arrested, tortured or killed during Pinochet's 16-year reign of terror. At least 3,200 are thought to have died.

The US is like a drunkard who charges to war with anyone who might pose a threat, ex-Senator and former US presidential candidate Mike Gravel says.

After the UK withdrew its diplomatic mission from Iran, Germany, France and the Netherlands have also recalled their ambassadors to Tehran "for consultation". - On Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said London is withdrawing its diplomatic staff from Tehran after Iranian students demonstrated outside the British Embassy. Hague went on to say that the Iranian Embassy in London would also be immediately closed and Tehran must remove its diplomatic mission within 48 hours. Following Hague's statement, France, Germany and the Netherlands also announced that they are recalling their ambassador to Iran "for consultation". Hundreds of Iranian students staged a protest rally outside of two UK diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, pulling down the UK flag and demanding the expulsion of the British envoy. Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Wednesday that Tehran considers any attack against diplomatic missions and buildings and the violation of international law as unacceptable. He added that the incident in Tehran was the result of the anger of demonstrators at British policies and was unexpected.

The Guardian: William Hague seeks joint EU action against Iran over embassy attack
Russia Today: Iran to become diplomatic outcast?
AWIP: UK cries foul over Iran mission incident
Robert Fisk: Sanctions are only a small part of the history that makes Iranians hate the UK
Reuters: Why Iranians hit UK embassy
ABC News: US Embassy in Iran? Michele Bachmann’s ‘Oops’ Moment

Former director of the Mossad spy agency Meir Dagan has warned that an Israeli military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would lead to a regional war. - Dagan said in a television interview on Tuesday that Iran, and the Hezbollah and Hamas resistance movements will respond with massive rocket attacks on Israel if the Tel Aviv regime attacks Iranian atomic sites, Haaretz reported. He noted that Syria would also join Iran in that scenario. Dagan added that such a war would take a heavy toll in terms of lost lives and would paralyze life in Israel. Earlier in May, Dagan publicly argued against an airstrike against Iran's nuclear facilities. He described the possibility of a future Israeli airstrike on Iran as “the stupidest thing he has ever heard.”

Jason Ditz: Would Israel Tell US Before Attacking Iran? Gen. Dempsey Not Sure

The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party seems set to emerge as the biggest winner in Egypt's elections with some analysts estimating it will capture about 40% of seats in the new legislature. Al-Nour, a more conservative Salafist party, looks likely to secure second place. Official results from the first round will be announced today , before a series of runoff ballots on Monday.

New York Times: Early Results in Egypt Show a Mandate for Islamists

A surprising (if you don't want to say secretive) meeting of the world's most influential central bankers produced even more surprising results. The US Central bank – the Federal Reserve – promised the cash-strained European Central bank a practically unlimited amount of American taxpayer money for cheap, effectively bailing out the Euro. Markets are rallying, traders are full of optimism and the Euro is up. The only loser is the dollar: the good old buck has weakened compared to other currencies. The reason? An announcement from the Fed, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank reveals that they are going to provide troubled European banks with massive amounts of cash – cheaper and faster than ever before. Obviously, the lion’s share of assets will be provided by the US Federal Reserve.

Paul Craig Roberts: Bankers have seized Europe: Goldman Sachs Has Taken Over
Stephen Lendman: At Risk Eurozone Sovereign Credit Ratings
Ellen Brown: The E.C.B. Fiddles While Rome Burns
Nick Beams: Central banks seek to avert global meltdown

Fifteen years ago, both Bulgaria and Romania went through rampant inflation linked to a financial crisis. Bucharest narrowly avoided the collapse, but Sofia was less fortunate and experienced a meltdown of the sort Greece is currently trying to prevent.

"Those were very bad times. Every day my salary was worth less and less, and there were fewer things I could buy with it," says Krassimira Komneva from the Sofia-based Most Foundation, an employment and education outfit. Back in 1996, Komneva was doing office work in a construction company. She recalls how the salary was late when the currency collapsed. "When I received it one month later, it was worth much less than expected. We all hurried to buy food, bread, oil. The prices were just crazy," she recalls.

According to the International Institute of Finance, inflation in Bulgaria hit 174.4 percent in 1996 and a record of 1,077.5 percent the next year. Its curency, the lev, went from 500 per US dollar in late 1996 to 2,200 per US dollar in February 1997. Food shortages and a harsh winter drove people to despair, with mass rallies ultimately forcing out the post-Communist government largely blamed for the disastrous policies that led to the currency collapse. "For the average people, it was just terrible. Nobody really understood what happened, the only thing we could see was that it all ended in disaster," says Komneva. The central bank was subsequently stripped of its powers as the country entered in a "currency board" agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international lenders in July 1997, with the lev being pegged to the German D-Mark. Aimed at lowering inflation, boosting national reserves and restoring market confidence in the country, the currency board nevertheless seriously dented Bulgaria's sovereignty.

Hazara people are Turkic people and descendants of the Kushans. There are also Mongol influences in ten percent of Hazaras. Hazara People are living in Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and central Asian countries like Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Hundreds of thousands of Hazara people live in EU, USA, Canada, and Australia. - Hazara People International Network: This Timeline has been developed to provide a snapshot of the Hazara’s situation in Afghanistan since 1890. Hazara people are the most persecuted people in the world. They are victims of genocide, slavery, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This timeline shows how the systematic crimes against the Hazaras is continuing. PDF

A new legal regulation has come into force in Hungary making homelessness punishable by a fine of around $600 (£384) or prison. - MPs from the ruling conservative party proposed the regulation, on the grounds that Budapest could not cope with the large number of people on the streets. Critics, including charities for the homeless, say it is unenforceable and that hostels lack sufficient places. The Hungarian capital is said to have some 10,000 homeless people. According to an amendment to the local government act, passed by a strong majority in parliament last month, those found sleeping on the streets will first receive a warning. They can subsequently be imprisoned or ordered to pay the fine.

Gunmen in Brazil are brazenly intimidating indigenous communities with a hit list of prominent leaders, following the high profile murder of Nísio Gomes last month. - Reportedly employed by powerful landowners in Mato Grosso do Sul state, the gunmen are creating a climate of fear to prevent Guarani Indians from returning to their ancestral land. The tactics employed in recent incidents have been almost identical. Gunmen encircle vehicles transporting Guarani, force them to stop, and then verbally abuse and interrogate passengers about the names on the hit list. One Guarani leader told Survival, ’They’ve pinpointed us and they’re set to kill us. We’re at great risk. Here in Brazil, we have no justice. We have nowhere left to run.’