NPR News

Intrepid and numb to fatigue, robots have come for human jobs before. Just ask fighter pilots, autoworkers and Wal-Mart checkout clerks.

Now, in Asia at least, robots are encroaching on yet another occupation: waiting tables.

The trend is official. In the past three years alone, robot food servers have appeared in Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and mainland China. The latest restaurant to employ robo-waiters, a Japanese-themed sushi-and-barbecue eatery in Bangkok, has even fitted its bots with samurai plating and prop swords.

Mahmoud Gebril ElWarfally is in Washington this week with a delegation of Libyan opposition leaders. Gebril has been named prime minister of Libya's interim government, the Transitional National Council, and he's meeting with Obama administration officials including the Treasury to make the opposition's case.

In a wide-ranging conversation with NPR's Robert Siegel, Gebril said a part of his mission is to clarify some misconceptions, especially about the nature of the uprising in Libya.

What's the Internet for? Finding information about health.

Clearly, I bought into the idea a while ago. But everybody's doing it. Really.

Eighty percent of adults who use the Internet have looked online for health info, according to national survey data just out from the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the California HealthCare Foundation.

And there are some details on exactly what people are looking for and how they're doing it.

Mahmoud Jibril, interim prime minister of the Transitional National Council of the Libyan Republic, is making the rounds in Washington this week. He's asking the U.S. to officially recognize the council as the sole legitimate representative of the Libyan people. He also wants the U.S. to give the rebels assets it's frozen from the Gadhafi regime. Robert Siegel talks with Jibril about his visit.

Vicksburg, Miss., is the next big city that's expecting floodwaters soon from the Mississippi River. Friday, Gov. Haley Barbour took a helicopter view of the situation.