NPR News

Space shuttle Discovery, NASA's oldest surviving space shuttle and the beloved workhorse of the fleet, rocketed up into the sky on Thursday afternoon for a bittersweet final voyage.

Discovery's final countdown was a nail-biter. Although the weather had looked beautiful all day, and the shuttle was ready to go, small problems did crop up.

The release of political prisoners by the government of Bahrain has given new life to the mostly Shiite demonstrators camped out in the capital, Manama.

Among those released are veteran activists from past protests. They don't claim to be leading the opposition now. But many see them as living reminders that negotiating with the Sunni-led government is a path filled with pitfalls.

Even though gasoline prices are rising and jobs remain scarce, new surveys are finding that Americans are growing more optimistic about the economy. Confidence is now at the highest level in three years.

On Friday, the closely watched Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey showed that in February, the consumer sentiment index rose to 77.5, up from 74.2 in January. That marked the highest level since January 2008.

Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin have turned down billions of federal dollars for high-speed rail. But California is moving forward with its high-speed rail project and welcomes the federal money the other states left behind.

The first leg of California's train is set to run between Fresno and Bakersfield — two cities in the state's breadbasket region.

A video for Kanye West's song "All of the Lights" has been pulled from YouTube after a British group said that the video's strobing light effects had caused seizures.

Epilepsy Action complained about the video soon after its debut this past weekend.

But as NPR's Zoe Chace reports, there may be other reasons behind the video's removal. A news spot filed by Chace mentions "featured artist Rihanna's near-nudity — or that the video might plagiarize a recent French film."