NPR 2011-02-20

Thousands of protesters are celebrating in the circle that's at the heart of the demonstrations 1 in the capital of Bahrain. It comes a day after a harsh military crackdown. Protesters today began streaming toward the circle again after the royal family ordered the military off the streets. Withdrawing the troops is a key demand by the opposition 2 for starting a dialog in the crisis there. NPR's Peter Kenyon is in Manama.

There was a good deal of concern that there was going to be clashes, that there would be shooting like there was yesterday, but the military had been redeployed elsewhere. And the riot police had also left, and these people streamed into the roundabout unaffected, and there's now a scene of joyous 3 celebration, a complete turnaround in the emotional feel here in just 24 hours, less than 24 hours since the shootings that took place right here yesterday afternoon.

NPR's Peter Kenyon in Manama.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague says it is unacceptable the way Libyan authorities are responding to protests there. Human Rights Watch says at least 84 people have been killed in four days of demonstrations. And today, the Internet was shut down. Hague says authorities must listen to the people's demands for political reform and adds the army must be reined 4 in.

"We want to make clear to the Libyan government that just because there aren't television cameras present, that does not mean that the world is not watching, and that doesn't mean that the world is going to ignore the way in which protesters and demonstrators are treated."

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker remains 5 firm on his plan to strip public employees of their bargaining rights. As protests continue to grow at the Wisconsin State Capitol, Shawn Johnson reports more protests are expected through the weekend.

Police estimated Friday's crowd at 40,000 people, the largest yet during this week of protests. Demonstrators could be heard outside as Walker spoke 6 to reporters from his State Capitol office. He said they had every right to be heard.

"But we're not gonna let for one minute these voices overshadow and overpower the voices of the taxpayers 7 across this state who elected us to the do the job, and that meant balancing this budget. That's exactly what we're doing."

Union leaders said Friday they'd be willing to pay more for their health insurance and pensions as long as their right to collectively bargain remains intact. Governor Walker says he wants the legislature to pass his plan in one piece. For NPR News, I'm Shawn Johnson in Madison.

NASA will try again to launch the space shuttle Discovery next week after a four-month delay. Discovery's liftoff is now set for Thursday. Senior managers voted unanimously yesterday on the new launch date after discussing the fixes to the leaky external fuel tanks. The launch manger says the leaks to the tanks had been repaired with six-inch patches that he describes as metal Band-Aids.

This is NPR News from Washington.

After a two-day meeting in Paris, Treasury 8 Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the world's other top economic policymakers are pledging to reduce trade imbalances, but Steve Beckner of Market News International reports there is no concrete plan on just how to do that.

Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers' task was to come up with guidelines for measuring global imbalances. The US runs a huge deficit 9 with China. The latter's built massive dollar reserves. Some fear these imbalances will lead to the next financial crisis, but the US and China remain at odds 10 over China's practice of fixing its currency exchange rate to the dollar. Geithner calls the yuan undervalued, helping 11 China build its trade surplus, but China remains unwilling 12 to fully 13 submit its policies to G20 scrutiny 14. The group agrees on the need to reduce excessive imbalances and on a set of indicators 15 to measure them. But at China's behest, there is no mention of currency reserves. For NPR News, I'm Steve Beckner in Paris.

Two German journalists [are] to free after being in Iranian custody 16 for four months. They were initially 17 sentenced to 20 months in prison for interviewing the son of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. State media is reporting in an Iranian court throughout the sentence today, commuting 18 it to a fine of $50,000 a piece.

Trinkets are decorating the foot of the statue outside Daytona International Speedway, a tribute to Dale Earnhardt who died ten years ago. He was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500. While Friday was actual anniversary of Earnhardt's death, most of the tributes are expected to come during tomorrow's Daytona 500 race.