US-IRAN: Sanctions Are the Talk of the Day Mohammed A. Salih WASHINGTON, 8 Feb (IPS) - If there were any doubts about what exactly U.S. President Barack Obama meant when he warned Iran of "growing consequences" during his State of the Union address last month, they seem to be dispelled by recent statements from top administration officials, who are beating the sanctions drum loud and clear. more...   RIGHTS: Group Urges Bahrain to Stop Torture of Detainees Charles Fromm WASHINGTON, 8 Feb (IPS) - Bahrain's security forces should immediately cease the use of torture to elicit confessions from prisoners suspected of security offences, says the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). more...   YEMEN: Development Recognised as Crucial for Stability Mohammed A. Salih WASHINGTON, 6 Feb (IPS) - Amid growing concerns here over the threat posed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a consensus is emerging among U.S. experts that Washington and other donors to Yemen must place at least as much or greater emphasis on promoting sustainable development in the Arab world's poorest country as on counterterrorism. more...   POLITICS: Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators' Plan Gareth Porter* KABUL, 5 Feb (IPS) - If peace talks do ultimately begin between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leadership, they may well follow a "road map" to a political settlement drawn up by a group of ex-Taliban officials who have been serving as intermediaries between the two sides. more...   RIGHTS: Legal Experts Slam "Targeted Killings" of US Citizens William Fisher NEW YORK, 5 Feb (IPS) - Civil liberties advocates and legal authorities struck back Friday at what they describe as the "deliberate targeted killing of U.S. citizens far away from any active hostilities, as long as the executive branch determines unilaterally that they meet a secret definition of who the enemy is." more...   MIGRATION: Lost in the Desert? There's an App for That Enrique Gili SAN DIEGO, California, 5 Feb (IPS) - Over the past two decades, Ricardo Dominguez has made a career for himself tweaking the sensibilities of government officials and developing software tools meant to disrupt the status quo. more...   HAITI: U.S. Lawmakers, NGOs Call for Debt Cancellation Jim Lobe WASHINGTON, 4 Feb (IPS) - Three weeks after Haiti's devastating earthquake, nearly 100 U.S. lawmakers joined with key civil society groups here Thursday to urge the Group of Seven (G7) leading western nations to commit to cancelling all of the Caribbean country's multilateral debt. more...   U.S.: Immigration Enforcement Prone to Abuses William Fisher NEW YORK, 4 Feb (IPS) - A little-known programme run by the Department of Homeland Security is using inaccurate databases and functioning "as little more than a dragnet to funnel even more people into the already overburdened" detention and deportation system of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. more...   U.S.: Ill Omens for Senate Climate Legislation Matthew Berger WASHINGTON, 4 Feb (IPS) - Delivering his State of the Union address before both houses of Congress and a global audience on Jan. 27, U.S. President Barack Obama asked for passage of "a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America." more...   AFGHANISTAN: Iraq Lessons Ignored at Kabul Power Plant Pratap Chatterjee* WASHINGTON, 4 Feb (IPS) - A diesel-fueled power plant, nearing completion just outside Kabul, demonstrates that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its contractors have failed to learn lessons from identical mistakes in Iraq, despite clearly signposted advice from oversight agencies. more...