[emacs24] No caret char (^) in emacs ??

[Olve]

Hello,

  Just switched to Ubuntu 14.04
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kernel 3.13.0-24-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 10 19:11:08 UTC 2014 
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
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Everything works fine ("but" coming), no problem with the X server.

Sole problem detected : the caret (^) in emacs does not seem to work.

With emacs -q BTRY.tex

"^2" gives "2"
"^ " gives " "

The same in bash:
"^2" gives "^2"
"^ " gives "^"

My file has "^" characters, I can copy-paste this character (this is my 
way of typing just now!). I couldn't locate info on internet, maybe I'm 
not using the proper keywords.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Olivier