Gaddafi's sons tried to get Saudi cleric help - TV, Posted by Meosha Eaton

* Gaddafi sons fail to get support of Saudi cleris - TV
* Cleric urges Libyan government to "Fear God"


DUBAI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Sons of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have failed to persuade prominent Saudi clerics to issue religious rulings against a revolt that is threatening to bring down the veteran leader, Al Arabiya television said on Monday.
The Saudi-owned channel said on its website that Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam had contacted one cleric, Salman al-Awda, and Saadi Gaddafi had reached out to a second, Ayedh al-Garni, but both rejected their calls.

"You are killing the Libyan people. Turn to God because you are wronging them. Protect Libyan blood, you are killing old people and children. Fear God," Garni said he told Saadi. Garni made the remarks on air on Sunday, the website said, adding Awda gave the same message to Saif al-Islam. Awda has a weekly television show on Saudi-owned pan-Arab channel MBC1 and has been praised by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before as a religious scholar he felt did not toe the government line. Garni gave lectures in Libya last year.

Gaddafi's forces have been trying for days to push back a revolt that has won over large parts of the military and ended his control over eastern Libya. Gaddafi has accused followers of al Qaeda of staging the protests in the east, where Islamists have clashed with government forces in the past. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and the ruling al-Saud family see the clerical establishment, who have wide powers in society, as the leading authority in mainstream Sunni Islam. The world's top oil exporter is nervous that protests sweeping the region, which have included its neighbours Bahrain, Oman and Yemen, could ignite dissent on its own territory.

Activists have set up Facebook pages calling for protests on March 11 and 20 in Saudi Arabia. These have attracted over 17,000 supporters combined. Last week King Abdullah, a close U.S. ally, ordered wage rises for Saudi citizens along with other benefits in an apparent bid to insulate the kingdom from the wave of protests. Gaddafi has long been an unpopular figure in Saudi Arabia, which once accused him of plotting to assassinate the king. Clerics close to the government have said it is not the place of religious scholars to back protests or otherwise. But others have said Gaddafi is an illegitimate ruler and denounced him as an apostate.

(Reporting by Andrew Hammond, editing by Mark Trevelyan)

World Bank chief urges action on rising food prices, Posted by Meosha Eaton

As reported by Reuters:

* Global solution needed to tackle food price volatility
* Chance for Africa to increase food productivity

By Lesley Wroughton
WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The world faces a broader trend of increasing food and commodity prices and more countries should wake up to the need to curb price volatility, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Wednesday.

In a phone interview from Berlin, Zoellick called on G20 global leaders to "put food first" to tackle the surge in prices and increased volatility threatening the poor and driving up inflation in developing countries, mainly in Asia.

"We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices," Zoellick told Reuters.

"This can put pressure but also create opportunities," he added, noting that developing nations could boost revenues by increasing food production to meet rising global demand.

He said increased consumer demand, especially for sugar and meat, in fast-growing emerging economies was a major factor pushing prices higher compared with the 2007/2008 crisis.

A mix of high oil and fuel prices, growing use of biofuels, bad weather and soaring futures markets pushed prices to record levels in 2007 and 2008, sparking violent protests in Africa.

Zoellick said the Food Price Index of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, which measures monthly prices changes for a food basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, showed food prices surging to above 2007/08 levels.
Higher food prices are set to push the index on Thursday to a record high in January for a second straight month.

The higher prices, together with political repression and growing inequality between the rich and poor, have fanned protests across the Middle East, including Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria and Jordan.

In the run-up to the 2007/2008 food price crisis, the World Bank estimated that some 870 million people in developing countries were hungry or malnourished. The FAO estimates that number has increased to 900 million.

"We believe that while there are differences from the 2008 period, one core policy issue that is the same is that it looks like it will be a very tough year for the chronically malnourished," Zoellick added.

GLOBAL SOLUTIONS NEEDED
The higher food and energy prices have stoked inflation in Asia, including Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand.

With French President Nicolas Sarkozy making commodity price volatility and reforms of the international monetary system his priorities for France's presidency of the G20 group of leading economies this year, Zoellick said it was important to come up with practical solutions to ensure people have access to nutritious food.
"2008 should have been a wake-up call, but I'm not yet sure all the countries in the world that we need to support this have woken up to it," Zoellick said.

While calling for tougher regulation to head off the risk of food riots or slower economic growth, Sarkozy has also focused on improving physical market data.
Zoellick wants the G20 to recognize a larger role for development banks, such as the World Bank, in changes dealing not only with the immediate needs of poor countries faced with higher food prices, but in improving agricultural productivity.

He said politicians in rich countries did not always recognize the political and economic challenges higher food prices posed to developing countries.

More expensive food can be disastrous to the poor because three-quarters of their income is spent on basic foodstuffs.

Food prices also typically account for about one-third to one-half of a consumer price index in developing countries. In developed countries, food makes up a small portion of the CPI.

Zoellick said the World Bank had reactivated its emergency financing facility for poorer countries dealing with the effects of higher food prices, although the impact on African countries of the latest increase has not been as severe.

He said concerns among African governments would grow if oil prices rose enough above their current levels to affect the cost of food transportation and fertilizers.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)