NPR 2011-01-29

Protesters and police continue to clash in Egypt despite a nighttime curfew. It's the fourth and largest day of anti-government protests. Black smoke and tear gas fill the air but they aren't quieting demands that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak end his nearly 30-year rule. Demonstrators are trying to take over the central Tahrir Square where the ruling party headquarters is on fire. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Cairo and tells us authorities are trying to hold the crowd back.

There are protesters in the square but as you can hear in the background that the police are still very actively 1 engaging them, firing tear gas, cannon 2 surge, rubber bullets. Now we've had protestors complaining that there had been live fire as well. And certainly I saw some very seriously injured people earlier on in the day. But there's no way of confirming any of this because all of our communications are down. We have no way of talking by Internet, by telephone. I mean this line, the landline, is the only thing that works out of Egypt at the moment.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Cairo. Egyptian authorities have disrupted Internet and phone services in several areas, a move Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today criticized.

"We urge the Egyptian authorities to allow peaceful protests, and to reverse the unprecedented 3 steps it has taken to cut off communications."

But not all communications are cut off. Arab satellite stations are broadcasting a constant stream of live pictures from the protests to people across the Middle East. As NPR's Deborah Amos reports from Riyadh, that's inspiring demonstrators elsewhere to take to the streets.

Jordanian youths were in the streets to demand the resignation of the prime minister despite the government's attempt to get ahead of the discontent with a half-billion dollars worth of new subsidies 4 to reduce the prices on food and cooking oil. Thousands of Yemeni students protested after Friday prayers. And in Saudi Arabia's port city of Jeddah, a protest march was quickly stopped by police. Jeddah has been in chaos 5 after the heaviest downpour in 17 years, collapsing 6 buildings and sweeping 7 cars away. There's an online call for more protests on Saturday. Deborah Amos, NPR News, Riyadh.

In Afghanistan, a suicide bomber 8 detonated explosives in a grocery store in Kabul, killing 9 at least nine people. The supermarket is located in the capital's embassy district and next to the British Embassy. It's popular with foreigners, that grocery store. The Taliban are claiming responsibility for the attack. Kabul has been largely spared from attacks since the US invasion, but today's bombing is the fourth strike in the capital in just over a month.

Lower-than-expected earnings 10 reports from Amazon and Ford 11 are driving stocks down at this hour. The Dow is up 160 points. The NASDAQ is down 63.

This is NPR.

Consumers helped boost the economy in the fourth quarter of last year. The government says Gross Domestic Product strengthened at a 3.2% annual rate. That was less than expected, but as NPR's Giles Snyder reports, economists 12 are not disappointed.

Over the summer, there was concern the economy would fall back into recession. But Phil Orlando, the chief strategist at Federated Investors 13, says the government's latest GDP reading should dispel 14 any fears of that happening.

"It's a significant degree. This provides additional confidence to us that the economy suffered a temporary soft patch over the summer, and that we're no longer at risk of falling over into a more extreme double-dip recession."

Consumer spending accounted for much of the gain in fourth-quarter GDP. It was up more than 4%. Exports also came on strong. And even the troubled housing sector 15 saw an improvement. Giles Snyder, NPR News, Washington.

Treasury 16 Secretary Timothy Geithner is striking a positive tone at the World Economic Forum 17 in Davos, Switzerland. A day after Moody's Investors Service said the US rating outlook is precarious 18, Geithner's telling counterparts he's confident the most acute part of the economic crisis is over in the US. But British Prime Minister David Cameron is there. He's telling governments the top priority now is to reduce debt. Geithner said the US recognizes the debt needs to be cut.

The New START Treaty between the US and Russia is poised 19 to take effect. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today signed the ratification 20 of the nuclear arms reduction pact 21. The treaty limits both countries to 1,550 strategic warheads, a lower limit than the previous arms deal.