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Scientists Develop Battery that Charges in Seconds

s battery. It can take anywhere from a few hours to overnight in order to be able to drive on a full charge, making it less than ideal for those who are looking to go on road trips or making exceptionally long commutes or trips often. But this new battery means that cars could charge their batteries quicker than it would take to fill up a tank with gas.

Even with the restrictions that electric cars bring, many cities and states are hoping to bring electric car opportunities to residents that have been limited in the past due to the lack of electric charging stations. For example, it was recently announced thatthat would be compatible with popular car models like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf.

Similarly, Chicago is taking steps to bring in electric carmakers to the area by making it a more feasible option for residents. In recent news, it was announced thatscattered throughout the city. Now that more places are working to bring in more electric cars, quicker charging batteries could easily seal the deal and make people more likely to purchase an electric car.

Rachel Krech provides an in-depth look at current environmental issues and local Chicago news stories. As a college student from the Chicago suburbs pursuing two science degrees, she applies her knowledge and passion to both topics to garner further public awareness.

O'Donnell to move into Winfrey's Chicago studio

The Chicago studio where Oprah Winfrey tapes her soon-to-end talk show soon will be home to Rosie O'Donnell's latest daytime television effort, which is set to debut on the Oprah Winfrey Network this fall, Harpo Studios announced Tuesday.

The announcement ends speculation about what will become of Winfrey's Harpo Studios on Chicago's West Side when "The Oprah Winfrey Show" ends taping this spring. Winfrey opened the studios in 1990.

"I'm delighted to welcome Rosie to the studio I've called home for so many years," Winfrey said in a statement.

The network announced last summer that O'Donnell would return to television with a one-hour talk show to air on OWN. The network said at the time that the show would be based in New York.

"I can't wait to do my show from Chicago," O'Donnell said in a statement. "It's a dream come true ... beyond the beyond."

O'Donnell previously hosted "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" from 1996 to 2002, earning six daytime Emmy awards. O'Donnell also spent time on "The View."

Harpo Studios presidents Erik Logan and Sheri Salata called the announcement "an exciting new chapter" for the company.

The final original episode of Winfrey's show, which has been on the air for 25 years, is scheduled to air May 25.

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Budget Paralysis and the New Middle East

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The Middle East sits at a precarious pivot point, a transformational moment that rivals the fall of the Berlin Wall. Country by country, whether they remain autocratic, become democratic or fall somewhere in between, the Middle East will not be the same.

From the individual street vendor who lit the spark in Tunisia to the massive protests in Tahrir Square to the current standoff with Muammar Gaddafi, none of this has been scripted and ultimate outcomes are far from certain. Eastern Europe benefited from the centripetal pull of NATO and the EU, and received immediate and sustained assistance from the United States and the West to order to achieve today's remarkable regional stability and integration.

The United States has less leverage to shape development in the Middle East going forward than we did in Eastern Europe. But we can certainly influence if not dictate favorable outcomes -- provided we are as fully engaged as we were during the 1990s and have adequate and timely resources available to help the region advance.

Countries in the Middle East will certainly need a lot of help to achieve the genuine political, economic and social reform that the region desperately needs, change that certainly benefits the United States.

Some support will continue to be needed right now -- humanitarian assistance to help refugees displaced by violence or religious or ethnic minorities who are victimized by unrest; technical assistance to help countries build political parties, rewrite constitutions or organize internationally monitored free and fair elections; security assistance to professionalize military and police forces to protect rather than suppress civilians; and economic assistance to create genuine free markets and create jobs, one of the primary frustration that fueled the youth-led unrest in the first place.

While military support may be selectively employed, as with Libya, the primary focus of our efforts will be civilian, making strategic investments to encourage change from Algeria to Yemen.

But where decisive and timely action can be critical in such a fluid and unpredictable period, the federal government, solely responsible for execution of the foreign policy of the United States,because of the FY2011 budget impasse. Even if paralysis is somehow averted, the needed resources may not be available if the final budget resolution resembles the framework advanced by the House of Representatives under HR-1.

A government shutdown would essentially halt our ability to direct resources to meet compelling needs as we have done multiple times over the past four months -- none of it planned -- all of it important. For days or weeks, programs considered mission essential will continue to operate, but at reduced levels; a fraction of the workforce will be on the job, and not paid; money already out the door can be spent; but no new commitments can be made until there is a budget.

A budget deal that includes steep reductions in operating funds or assistance that support our global diplomacy and development efforts risks gutting several programs that are relevant to the on-going crisis in the Middle East -- right now. HR-1 calls for , for example, the very programs that have already proven their importance in Egypt and Libya.

Budget hawks and Tea Partiers want to push to budget levels back to 2008. But the problem is, we live in 2011. The world has changed.

In North Africa, beyond Libya, Southern Sudan will emerge as a new country in less than four months. It will need a lot of help for a long time. Even though the Middle East peace process is barely alive, institution building in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon remain vital to achieving comprehensive Middle East peace. There are expanding civilian requirements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan that are fundamentally different than 2008. The same kind of sustained focus we required to remove Gaddafi from power is needed in the Ivory Coast, where another stubborn dictator refuses to step aside even as the humanitarian situation in and around the country worsens.

The bottom line: at a crucial moment in history, the world's only superpower, the most influential country in this region vital to our national security will play with one if not both hands tied behinds its back. Until there is a budget agreement, there is no new money to commit. Depending on the level of cuts in the eventual budget agreement, when decisive action may be needed the most, there may not be enough funding in critical accounts to make a meaningful difference, and little flexibility to reprogram money from other sources.

The this week for the no-fly and no-drive zones that have leveled the playing field in Libya is serendipitous. At least NATO will continue to operate even as its most important member threatens to drive off a political cliff.

Can you be a superpower without a functioning government? Unfortunately, we may be about to find out.

P.J. Crowley is a former Assistant Secretary and Spokesman for the Department of State.

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Official: Ivory Coast rebels take 2 more towns

Rebels backing Ivory Coast's internationally recognized leader Alassane Ouattara extended their gains by capturing a strategic crossroads and advanced toward the capital Tuesday after four months of political chaos following the disputed election.

Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to leave office is quickly degenerating into a full-scale war in the world's main cocoa-producing country, but accepting the rebels' support could prove risky for Ouattara if the fighters commit abuses in his name.

The United Nations said Tuesday that rebels had fired on a U.N. reconnaissance helicopter Monday afternoon. The shots failed to hit the helicopter, though the U.N. denounced the attack and said it constituted a war crime.

The U.N. also expressed alarm about an attack blamed on Gbagbo security forces that left at least 10 civilians dead in Abidjan, the country's largest city. Pro-Gbagbo youth also were accused of killing one man by putting a tire around his neck and setting him ablaze.

"Noting the increasing incidents of human rights violations and barbarous practices, we feel justified in questioning the control President Laurent Gbagbo has over his security forces and partisans," the local U.N. peacekeeping mission said in a statement Tuesday.

Up to 1 million people have fled the fighting and at least 462 people have been killed since the Nov. 28 presidential election. U.N.-certified results showed Ouattara won the election but he has been unable to assume office because Gbagbo is refusing to leave after a decade in power.

The political standoff has led to daily fighting in which Gbagbo's security forces have used heavy weapons against the population, acts the U.N. said could be crimes against humanity. Abidjan was once known as the Paris of Africa, but its chic downtown neighborhoods are now a puzzle of roadblocks manned by hooded youths allied with Gbagbo.

Ouattara, who is from the country's north, had long tried to distance himself from the rebels based there who fought in a brief civil war almost a decade ago that left the country split in two. However, rebels have been stepping up their offensive to install him in office in recent weeks.

Those efforts had been largely contained to the country's west and the northern section of Abidjan, though the latest advance indicates their presence is now widespread.

Capt. Leon Alla, Ouattara's defense spokesman, said the central city of Daloa fell at 1 a.m. Tuesday. Several hours earlier the town of Bondoukou in the country's east had fallen, he said.

The United Nations said that fighting was still raging Tuesday morning in the two towns — Daloa in the central region and Bondoukou in the east — and that some 20,000 people had sought refuge at a Catholic mission in a third city, Duekoue, that rebels seized Monday morning.

"Terrified displaced persons have been streaming in, some with gunshot wounds as they cannot receive emergency treatment from the local hospital," said Jacques Seurt, the U.N. refugee agency's emergency coordinator in Ivory Coast, describing conditions in Duekoue.

Highways from Daloa lead south to the port of San Pedro and east to the administrative capital of Yamassoukro. Advisers to Ouattara say that if the fighters take either San Pedro or Yamassoukro, Gbagbo will likely buckle and accept an offer of exile.

Access to the San Pedro port is considered to be especially important since it can be used to resupply the rebels who do not currently have access to the sea. The Abidjan port is still controlled by Gbagbo.

A military commander with the local U.N. mission said that pro-Ouattara forces are continuing to advance east out of Daloa toward Bouafle, only 35 miles (50 kilometers) from Yamoussoukro. Rebels left behind in Daloa have been looting businesses, he said, targeting Lebanese and Moroccan shopowners.

In the country's largest city of Abidjan, suspected supporters of Ouattara are being pulled out of their cars and burned alive or beaten to death with bricks and iron bars.

The majority of the U.N. count of 462 confirmed killings were carried out by Gbagbo's security forces against Muslims and northerners perceived as being supporters of Ouattara, Human Rights Watch said in a report released earlier this month.

But rebels allied with Ouattara are accused of carrying out revenge killings in a predominantly Ebrie village, an ethnic group that voted in large numbers for Gbagbo.

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Callimachi reported from Dakar, Senegal.

Jack Black takes Po the kung fu panda to 3-D realm

Jack Black figures if any action hero deserves the 3-D treatment, it's his pudgy panda with the martial-arts moves.

Black joined DreamWorks Animation colleagues Monday night to show off extended action scenes from "Kung Fu Panda 2" at CinemaCon, a Las Vegas convention for theater owners.

The 2008 original took in $630 million worldwide in just two dimensions. But the sequel due out May 26 will be in 3-D, with the extra box-office revenue that generally follows as fans shell out a few dollars more to gain the illusion of depth.

Black said the 3-D action will make "King Fu Panda 2" more of a thrill ride, dropping viewers right into the heart of the battles.

"My feeling is that 3-D with the right people, the right artists and technicians flying it, is amazing and definitely enhances the experience for the right movie," Black said. "'Kung Fu Panda 2'? Yes, it will make it more exciting and dynamic and amazing to watch. Whereas, let's say, there was going to be `My Dinner with Andre 2.' I would say not necessary to do 3-D."

The sequel reunites Black with a voice cast that includes Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu. Gary Oldman joins the lineup to provide the voice of a new villain, a peacock who unleashes a deadly new weapon in the ancient Chinese realm that Black's Po and his comrades are sworn to defend.

Black said he's game to do a third "Kung Fu Panda" movie. He has a busy live-action slate ahead, too, reuniting with his "School of Rock" director Richard Linklater for the black comedy "Bernie," about a man whose friendship with an elderly woman (Shirley MacLaine) goes terribly wrong, and co-starring with Steve Martin and Owen Wilson in "The Big Year," about rivals in an annual bird-watching competition.

"Whenever there are grown men competing tooth-and-nail over something that seems sort of ridiculous, there's a lot of comedy there," Black said.

Black also has a cameo in this holiday season's new big-screen take on "The Muppets," playing a "darker, angrier version of myself."

"I'm kidnapped," Black said. "Basically, I get kidnapped by the Muppets."