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It's election day in the Persian Gulf kingdom of Bahrain. Voters will be filling seats left vacant when the leading Shi'ite opposition party walked out of parliament to protest the crushing of unrest back in March. The opposition is calling for a boycott, and street protests have continued. But the government, with Washington's encouragement, insists it will maintain order and usher in genuine reforms. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Bahrain.

When Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez fired 20,000 striking oil workers, many went to other countries. Venezuela's loss has been Colombia's gain: Production there has risen from 500,000 barrels a day in 2005 to nearly 1 million barrels today.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie isn't choosing sides in the GOP primary race just yet, but his financial backers are already lining up behind Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. But Texas Gov. Rick Perry showed he has the cash to compete too.

Aman Mojadidi, an Afghan-American performance artist, made a name for himself in Kabul by setting up fake police checkpoints and running a phony campaign for Parliament. But now he says he's leaving Afghanistan, disappointed at the slow pace of progress.

Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan calls for a nine percent tax on what businesses make plus a nine percent tax on what individuals earn and an additional nine percent tax on what individuals spend. Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank, a critic of Cain's tax proposal, talks to Renee Montagne about the plan.

Villagers near the Afghan city of Kandahar say Afghan troops, and their U.S. mentors, forced civilians to march ahead of soldiers on roads where landmines were suspected. No one was hurt, but the incident raises questions about how civilians are being caught between the warring parties.

As a young man in Virginia, Earl Reynolds once shined James Brown's shoes. And that chance meeting helped prod him into making a tough choice about his own future. For a while, Brown's advice even led to a rift between Reynolds and his father.

A suicide bomber last week killed former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who headed the country's council for peace and reconciliation. His death further damages the already limited prospects of peace negotiations.

A breakthrough in oil cleanup technology allows crews to skim spilled oil off the water's surface at a much faster rate. The new device wasn't developed by Exxon, BP or any of the major oil companies — it's the work of Elastec/American Marine, based in Illinois.

Advertisers are looking for new ways to keep viewers from working around their advertisements. One way to do it is to just make the whole show into an ad, which is happening with products as diverse as Disney theme parks and Kenmore microwaves.