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World food prices hit record – again
Global food prices hit a record high in February – not helped by fresh oil price spikes and stockpiling in some countries. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Food Price Index hit its second straight record and is now well past the peaks seen in 2008 when prices sparked riots in several countries. Cereals, dairy and meat are all rising – US wheat prices have surged 60 percent in the past year. FAO economist Abdolreza Abbassian said global food prices are likely to remain close to record highs until the condition of the latest harvest is known. He added that jumps in the oil price – now at a two and a half year high – could have a bigger impact on grain markets. “Until we know about new crops, that means waiting at least until April, our view is don’t expect any major corrections in these high prices, expect even more volatility now that oil has joined the crowd,” Abbassian said. He warned that stockpiling by some major grain importers “beyond country’s normal needs” seeking to head off political unrest and secure supplies on domestic markets, has been adding uncertainty and volatility to the markets. The FAO index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket composed of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 236 points in February, the record in real and nominal terms, up 2.2 percent from January’s record and rising for the eighth month in a row.

Benghazi revels in freedom but fears shortages
The eastern Libyan city of Benghazi is still caught in the grip of a kind of delirious disbelief, more than a week after anti-Gaddafi rebels took control. Read our news file Children posed for photos alongside tanks and pre-Gaddafi Libyan flags. Neither the young nor their parents have ever known anything other than the dictator’s rule. The sense of freedom is intoxicating. But new challenges are already making themselves felt. The unrest is disrupting supplies of food, medicine and other goods. There are fears that soon, eastern Libya will face serious shortages. Many shops are closed; others that are open have tinned and non-perishable items but lack fresh produce. The fear of attack from Gaddafi’s forces remains. On Monday two munitions depots were reportedly bombed, although the authorities in Tripoli denied it. Rebels are preparing anti-aircraft defences and trying to build an army from volunteers and troops who have defected. They have little ammunition, their equipment is old and outdated and the fighters poorly trained. “These people are coming here to help our country become free and they want to defend our land. They will learn how to fight and use weapons to go to liberate Tripoli,” said one anti-government fighter as he trained a group of volunteers. The men then broke out into chants of “Libya free! Down with Gaddafi!” Clearly, their ambition extends beyond the defence of Benghazi.

Turkey’s modern Islamist founder Erbakan dies
Turkey’s first Islamist Prime Minister, Necmettin Erbakan, has died from heart failure at the age of 85. The founder of Turkey’s modern Islamist movement, Erbakan became premier in a coalition government in 1996. But he served for only one year after being forced to step down by the staunchly secular military. His Islamist Welfare Party was outlawed in 1998 and Erbakan was banned from politics for five years. Welfare was a precursor of Turkey’s current ruling AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam. Erbakan was later given a prison sentence in a fraud case. This was commuted to home confinement and he was later pardoned by President Abdullah Gul. Tributes have been paid to Erbakan who, despite his age, took over the leadership of a small political party last year. “We will remember him with gratitude,” said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was, for many years, one of Erbakan’s lieutenants.

Bahrain – a country divided.
Shi’ite protestors in Bahrain are not just calling for an end to the dynasty that has ruled the country for over 200 years. They are also demanding an end to what they say is a system of apartheid, in which Shi’ites Muslims are actively discriminated against by the Sunni rulers. Shi’ites make up 70% of the population of Bahrain. In the poorer neighbourhoods of Bahrain, where most Shi’ites live, it is the perceived discrimination that causes the most anger against the regime. They claim even foreigners are favoured over Shi’ites. “They bring people in to work from abroad” say this Shi’ite resident. “They give them passports and housing and we are still in the same situation.” As unrest spreads throughout the arab world, shi’ites in Bahrain are watching developments closely, hoping any new form of government will result in a more equal society. Unemployed graduate Zina Mahmoud is a Shi’ite. “It’s been six years since I graduated from education. How do you explain that I never found a job anywhere?” It is the glitzy skyscrapers that Bahrain presents to the world, but they mask the undercurrent of a country ruled by an unelected dynasty, and built on a two-tier society.

Meet Kompai, your robot friend
Kompai?�is?�a?�robot companion to humans who need one.?�Born in?�a workshop near Biarritz, France,?�Kompai?�is?�the fruit of a European Union project to explore how machines can help the elderly and disabled.?�The result is?�a blend of watchdog, care assistant, and?�everyday computer.?�?�Vincent Dupourqu?�, the?�president of?�Robosoft, the company behind the venture, explained?�the idea:?�“A robot is certainly one of the best answers, the best technological answer to help people who are housebound.”?�?�One of Robosoft’s robotics engineer, Arnaud Lago,?�gave more details:?�“It’s a mobile robotic platform which is able to move around an apartment automatically. It is equipped with a laser and distance sensors for navigation and security. There’s a tablet PC with a tactile interface that allows it to interact with the person who’ll be using it, two directional microphones in order to speak to it, and a camera to allow the person to speak to others.”?�Kompai should be able to go where you tell him, help with the shopping list and even play games.?�He also gives?�distant relatives the chance to see and hear their loved ones. And that is a key feature for keeping an eye on?�grandma or grandad.?�?�“Rather than sending a team 50 kms in order to see if the person has really had a fall or whether there’s an error with the sensor, you can take control of the robot remotely and you can tell it to go and look for the person, and thanks to the cameras on board you can see if the person has really had a fall or not,” said Arnaud.?�This robot is a prototype, and as Arnaud explains there is room to improve its interaction with humans and their?�environment.?�?�“The first thing that we want to improve is the obstacle avoidance, so that the robot can be capable of avoiding completely unexpected objects in its path,” he said.?�Kompai’s creators argue that the growing number of elderly people in Europe means there is an emerging market for robotic home help.?�?�Not just practical help either, but as Vincent said, also companionship:?�“Most people find they’re really, really?�comfortable with the robot. We saw with the first tests with real patients that after a few minutes they forgot it was a machine and talked to him as if he was a person.”?�You can find out more about Kompai on the following links:?�www.robosoft.com?�www.mobiserv.eu?�?�

Gwyneth Paltrow in ‘Country Strong’
In “Country Strong” Gwyneth Paltrow is a country singer fresh out of rehab who is trying to pull her life, her career and her marriage back together. To play the role she had to learn guitar and immerse herself in the world of country music.

Vote counting underway in Haiti
Counting is underway in Haiti, after the delayed second round of the country’s Presidential election. UN peacekeepers monitored the polling stations in Port-au-Prince, on hand in case of fighting between rival supporters. The first round last November was marred by violence and allegations of fraud. There had also been fears that the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide after seven years in exile in South Africa would destabilise the vote. But election officials say this time it passed off peacefully and many of Haiti’s 4.7 million voters turned out. The head of the electoral council told reporters the definitive result is due on April the16th and would reflect the wishes of the Haitian people. Popular entertainer Michel Martelly is thought to be slightly ahead in the race, but polls show it is tight. Martelly’s rival is the former first lady, Mirlande Manigat. Whoever wins faces a daunting challenge. The impoverished country is still trying to recover from last year’s earthquake and cholera epidemic.

Egypt
The most populous Arab country, Egypt was the second domino to fall. After 18 days of intense and sometimes violent protests centred around Cairo’s Tahrir Square, President Hosni Mubarak ended 30 years in charge of the country when the man he had just appointed vice-president Omar Suleiman, announced all of Mubarak’s powers were being transferred to a military council. Mubarak is thought to have retreated to Sharm el-Sheikh. Some reports say he is in poor health. The unrest took a heavy toll on Egypt’s economy and protests against low wages are ongoing, with many industrial sectors on strike and the Egyptian stock market still closed. Population: 79.8 millionHuman Development Index1:101stUnemployment: 9.4% 1 HDI is calculated according to factors such as schooling, life expectancy and gross national income and is used by the UN’s Development Programme for its Human development reports. back to all countries

Strong showing for French far-right
France’s far-right National Front party (FN) is celebrating a resurgence in support in the first round of local elections on Sunday. The FN managed to garner around 15 percent of the vote in the cantonal elections, France’s smallest electoral sub-division. The centre-right UMP of President Nicolas Sarkozy only won around 17 percent. The Socialist Party came out on top with 25 percent of votes cast. However, the elections were also marked by a record low turnout, with fewer than one in two voters going to cast their ballots. The FN will go into a head-to-head second round in almost 400 cantons and in most cases it will be challenging the Socialists. Many observers point to the FN’s new leader, Marine Le Pen (pictured), as the reason for its new-found success. She took over from her father Jean-Marie Le Pen earlier this year. He caused a massive political stir in 2002 when he made the second round of the presidential election at the expense of socialist candidate Lionel Jospin. Le Pen went on to lose to Jacques Chirac in the second round. His daughter Marine has been credited with making the party more acceptable to middle-class voters and particularly women. She has shed some of her father’s more controversial rhetoric and while she shares many of his ideas about immigration – namely that it should stop – she appears much more compassionate to the plight of migrants. Some recent polls suggest that Le Pen could push Sarkozy into third place in a presidential election and even enjoy more support in the first round than any other candidate. It is highly unlikely she could win the presidency as moderate voters would probably rally to block her in a second round, as they did with her father. But she points to the FN’s popularity as evidence that it is no longer considered a party of protest, but rather one able to govern.

EU responds to Italian calls for help over migrants
Nearly 1,000 Tunisian migrants landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa overnight adding to what’s been described as a humanitarian emergency. In the last week nearly 4,000 have made the hazardous trip, fleeing the turmoil in their own country. Lampedusa is a Sicilian island closer to Africa then mainland Italy, which migrants have used in the past as a way into Europe. Alarmed, Italy’s Interior Minister, Roberto Maroni said he wanted the European Union to intervene by putting pressure on countries like Tunisia to act responsibly in preventing their own people from leaving. The migrants are currently being given temporary care until a decision is made about their future. Later today both Italy’s foreign minister and the EU’s top diplomat, Catherine Ashton, will visit Tunisia. Calls by Italy for patrol boats to be stationed near its coast to intercept the migrants have been rejected by Tunisia’s interim government.

“We don’t know what’s true and what’s not true”: Manama witness
Like in Tunisia, like in Egypt, protesters in Bahrain are using social networks to publish their personal stories of the chaotic situation on the ground. Fatima Alarab is a recruitment coordinator who has recently returned to Bahrain after 15 years out of the country. Her family only came back once a ban on political opposition had been lifted. She has been describing her experience of the unrest in Manama via her Twitter account @FatiAmeer. On Thursday evening, euronews spoke to her by telephone. She told us that nothing is clear: “The situation here is quiet. We don’t know where we are headed. There are lots of rumours but we don’t know what’s true and what’s not true. We’re in a confusing situation. I’ve been contacting people in hospitals; there was even a rumour that the army was going to the hospital but that didn’t turn out to be true.” She explained what she and other protesters want: “We want the regime down. We are not afraid because this government is not legal. This revolution has been started by the people of Bahrain. It was started by the young and then the other political societies joined in.” Bahrain’s foreign minister has said police action was necessary to pull the country back from the “brink of a sectarian abyss” but Fatima rejects the idea that the unrest is founded on differences between Bahrain’s Shi’ite majority and its Sunni ruling elite: “No Way. Yesterday we were chanting all day and all night ‘No Shia. No Sunni. We are all Bahrainis.’ We had lots of Sunni there participating in the protests. We are all one country. “We want the whole government down. We don’t want those criminals any more.”

G20 seeks indicator deal in Paris
At the G20 meeting in Paris, finance ministers and central bank governors will focus on which indicators should be used to measure global economic imbalances. As France holds the rotating presidency of the group of 20 major developed and emerging economies, President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the welcome speech. He said he had no wish to exert pressure, and then added: “I wouldn’t like your debates to get bogged down interminably over these indicators. There is a great temptation to place national interests first, but that would be the death of the G20.” The European Union’s economic affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, said the right indicators to tackle global imbalances included the current account, the real effective exchange rate and currency reserves as well as public and private debt. It is a two-day meeting.