While you're up, print me a solar cell

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Graduate student Miles Barr hold a flexible and foldable array of solar cells that have been printed on a sheet of paper.Photo: Patrick Gillooly

The sheet of paper looks like any other document that might have just come spitting out of an office printer, with an array of colored rectangles printed over much of its surface. But then a researcher picks it up, clips a couple of wires to one end, and shines a light on the paper. Instantly an LCD clock display at the other end of the wires starts to display the time.

Almost as cheaply and easily as printing a photo on your inkjet, an inexpensive, simple solar cell has been created on that flimsy sheet, formed from special “inks” deposited on the paper. You can even fold it up to slip into a pocket, then unfold it and watch it generating electricity again in the sunlight.

The new technology, developed by a team of researchers at MIT, is reported in a paper in the journal Advanced Materials, published online July 8. The paper is co-authored by Karen Gleason, the Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering; Professor of Electrical Engineering Vladimir Bulović; graduate student Miles Barr; and six other students and postdocs. The work was supported by the Eni-MIT Alliance Solar Frontiers Program and the National Science Foundation.

The technique represents a major departure from the systems used until now to create most solar cells, which require exposing the substrates to potentially damaging conditions, either in the form of liquids or high temperatures. The new printing process uses vapors, not liquids, and temperatures less than 120 degrees Celsius. These “gentle” conditions make it possible to use ordinary untreated paper, cloth or plastic as the substrate on which the solar cells can be printed.

It is, to be sure, a bit more complex than just printing out a term paper. In order to create an array of photovoltaic cells on the paper, five layers of material need to be deposited onto the same sheet of paper in successive passes, using a mask (also made of paper) to form the patterns of cells on the surface. And the process has to take place in a vacuum chamber.

Barr places a sheet of paper with a mask on it into the vapor-printing chamber.Photo: Patrick Gillooly

The basic process is essentially the same as the one used to make the silvery lining in your bag of potato chips: a vapor-deposition process that can be carried out inexpensively on a vast commercial scale.

The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper airplane. In their paper, the MIT researchers also describe printing a solar cell on a sheet of PET plastic (a thinner version of the material used for soda bottles) and then folding and unfolding it 1,000 times, with no significant loss of performance. By contrast, a commercially produced solar cell on the same material failed after a single folding. 

“We have demonstrated quite thoroughly the robustness of this technology,” Bulović says. In addition, because of the low weight of the paper or plastic substrate compared to conventional glass or other materials, “we think we can fabricate scalable solar cells that can reach record-high watts-per-kilogram performance. For solar cells with such properties, a number of technological applications open up,” he says. For example, in remote developing-world locations, weight makes a big difference in how many cells could be delivered in a given load.

 

A paper solar cell circuit is dynamically folded and unfolded while the voltage is simultaneously measured on the meter. The paper photovoltaic is illuminated from below with simulated solar illumination. Video: Advanced Materials/courtesy of the Gleason Lab

Gleason adds, “Often people talk about deposition on a flexible device — but then they don’t flex it, to actually demonstrate” that it can survive the stress. In this case, in addition to the folding tests, the MIT team tried other tests of the device’s robustness. For example, she says, they took a finished paper solar cell and ran it through a laser printer — printing on top of the photovoltaic surface, subjecting it to the high temperature of the toner-fusing step — and demonstrated that it still worked. Test cells the group produced last year still work, demonstrating their long shelf life.

In today’s conventional solar cells, the costs of the inactive components — the substrate (usually glass) that supports the active photovoltaic material, the structures to support that substrate, and the installation costs — are typically greater than the cost of the active films of the cells themselves, sometimes twice as much. Being able to print solar cells directly onto inexpensive, easily available materials such as paper or cloth, and then easily fasten that paper to a wall for support, could ultimately make it possible to drastically reduce the costs of solar installations. For example, paper solar cells could be made into window shades or wallpaper — and paper costs one-thousandth as much as glass for a given area, the researchers say.

For outdoor uses, the researchers demonstrated that the paper could be coated with standard lamination materials, to protect it from the elements.

Barr holds a sheet of paper that has had one of the layers of the solar cell printed on its surface. Photo: Patrick Gillooly

Others have tried to produce solar cells and other electronic components on paper, but the big stumbling block has been paper’s rough, fibrous surface at a microscopic scale. To counter that, past attempts have relied on coating the paper first with some smooth material. But in this research, ordinary, uncoated paper was used — including printer paper, tissue, tracing paper and even newsprint with the printing still on it. All of these worked just fine.

The researchers continue to work on improving the devices. At present, the paper-printed solar cells have an efficiency of about 1 percent, but the team believes this can be increased significantly with further fine-tuning of the materials. But even at the present level, “it’s good enough to power a small electric gizmo,” Bulović says.

A paper solar cell that has been repeatedly folded is illuminated from below and connected to a voltmeter to demonstrate its output (26 V). Image courtesy of the Gleason Lab

“I am very excited by what is being done” by the MIT team, says Peter Harrop, chairman of IDTechEx, which does research on printed electronics. He says that while most researchers have been focusing on large-scale solar installations that could feed into the electric grid, the potential for other applications “is at least as large. Here the key parameters are very different, with disposable consumer goods, wall coverings and other applications with limited life required.”

He adds, “The work at MIT ... is therefore very important. To succeed it must promise low enough cost and low enough sensitivity to humidity.” Other attempts to create printable solar cells have been criticized for failing to meet these criteria, he notes.

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2. Scour the internet to find ways in which science has improved our lives.
3. Post the links and a brief description on the page.
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Using a Lab-Grown Trachea, Surgeons Conduct the World's First Synthetic Organ Transplant

 Making a Trachea Left: Two UCL researchers with the synthetic windpipe. Right: The scaffold after it has been filled in with stem cells, just prior to transplant. University College London

Surgeons working at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden have taken a huge step forward for regenerative medicine by successfully executing the world’s first synthetic organ transplant. The donor-less transplant saved the life of a 36-year-old cancer patient, who is doing well now after having received a new windpipe grown from his own stem cells.

This story is about as international as it gets: The Eritrean patient, Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene, was pursuing his doctorate in geology in Iceland when his trachea was consumed by an inoperable tumor that grew so bad that it was actually blocking his breathing. So 3-D scans of his windpipe were sent to scientists at University College London, which crafted a glass scaffold that was a perfect match for Beyene’s trachea and two main bronchi.

The scaffold was in turn was sent to Sweden, where it was soaked in stem cells from Beyene’s own bone marrow. The stem cells took hold and within just two days had filled the scaffold, creating a new trachea that is, biologically speaking, Beyene’s own tissue. A 12-hour operation by an Italian surgeon specializing in trachea operations removed Beyene’s windpipe and all signs of the cancer and then replaced it with the new, lab-grown organ.

That was a month ago. Today, Beyene is recovering well. Because the organ was grown from his own cells, there is no risk of his body rejecting it and no need for the harsh regimen of anti-rejection drugs that usually go hand in hand with an organ transplant. Moreover, there was no need to seek out a donor. In Beyene’s case, that was key. The tumor was increasingly blocking his breathing, and without the transplant he would have died. The clock was ticking, as it so often is in transplant situations.

From stem cell solution to transplantable organ in two days? That’s nothing short of amazing. Moreover, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Theoretically, this kind of procedure could be used to regenerate all kinds of different organs for transplant, eliminating the need (and wait) for donor organs and reducing the complications inherent in them.

Questions

1. Were you aware that science has progressed this far?
2. What are your thoughts on this development?
3. What benefits could this procedure have for other patients?
4. Where will it end? Envision the world in the future; how will science change our lives?

Feel free to share other thoughts and opinions

Police Lesson: Social Network Tools Have Two Edges

By ERICA GOODE

Published: April 6, 2011

Officer Trey Economidy of the Albuquerque police now realizes that he should have thought harder before listing his occupation on his Facebook profile as “human waste disposal.”

KOB.com

Officer Trey Economidy says a Facebook posting of his was “extremely inappropriate.”

After he was involved in a fatal on-duty shooting in February, a local television station dug up the Facebook page. Officer Economidy was placed on desk duty, and last month the Albuquerque Police Department announced a new policy to govern officers’ use of social networking sites.

Social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter can be valuable assets for law enforcement agencies, helping them alert the public, seek information about crimes and gather evidence about the backgrounds of criminal suspects. But the Internet can also get police departments into trouble.

Public gaffes like Officer Economidy’s — his cynical job description on Facebook was “extremely inappropriate and a lapse in judgment on my part,” he said last week in an e-mail — are only one of the risks. A careless posting on a networking site, law enforcement experts say, can endanger an officer’s safety, as it did in Santa Monica, Calif., last year when the Police Department went to great lengths to conceal a wounded officer’s identity and location, only to have a retired officer inadvertently reveal them on Facebook.

And defense lawyers increasingly scour social networking sites for evidence that could impeach a police officer’s testimony. In one case in New York, a jury dismissed a weapons charge against a defendant after learning that the arresting officer had listed his mood on MySpace as “devious” and wrote on Facebook that he was watching the film “Training Day” to “brush up on proper police procedure.”

In an Arkansas case, a federal appeals court cited as evidence of a police officer’s character photos he posted on MySpace showing him pointing a gun at the camera, flanked by a skull and the legend “the PUNISHER.”

The problem is serious enough that departments across the country are scrambling to develop rules to govern what officers can and cannot do online.

“This is something that all the police chiefs around the country, if you’re not dealing with it, you better deal with it,” said Mark A. Marshall, chief of police in Smithfield, Va., and the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which has developed its own model policy.

His department, Chief Marshall said, has had a few embarrassing episodes. In one, an officer who had been involved in a high-speed chase and ended up in “a little bit of a tussle” with a suspect posted a comment about what a good time he had during the dust-up. In another, an officer posted a photo of a tattoo of St. Michael on her hip. Both were disciplined, Chief Marshall said.

“Unfortunately, you have these extreme incidents that are out there,” he said, “and, candidly, you ask yourself, What on earth were they thinking when they posted that?”

Most social media policies try to balance a police department’s interests against First Amendment protections for the officers. Many include prohibitions against posting any statements that could discredit or reflect badly on a department, that illustrate reckless behavior or that disparage people based on race, religion or sexual orientation. Posting crime scene photos or other evidence from criminal cases online is also prohibited by most policies.

Others go further. Albuquerque’s policy, for example, prohibits officers from identifying themselves as employees of the Police Department or posting photos of departmental insignia — badges, uniforms, cruisers — without permission. And a recent policy by the Police Department in Pueblo, Colo., bans gossiping online with outsiders about department affairs.

“The question of when employees can be disciplined for off-duty speech is hazy,” he said. “Part of our core nature is what we do for a living, and to prohibit somebody from engaging in any kind of expression related to their job is arguably too broad.”

In fact, the Albuquerque policy has met some resistance from the rank and file. Joey Sigala, president of the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, said that while the department was entitled to dictate what officers wear and say on the clock, “I don’t believe they have the right to tell us what to do outside of that.”

He said that requiring officers to get permission before posting pictures involving department insignia made it difficult to share news about awards or honors spontaneously with family and friends. “They’re taking away the ability to demonstrate the good, as well as the bad,” he said.

Chief Ray Schultz of the Albuquerque police said that department officials researched policies from around the nation before developing their own.

“You need to get a handle on this very quickly, because this has the potential to damage the reputation of the organization and also adversely affect you in the courtroom,” Chief Schultz said, adding that some social media sites appeared to be “like the bathroom wall of 20 years ago, except now the entire world can see it.”

His department, he said, has hired a compliance officer to investigate the online presence of any police officer “who comes to the attention of the department,” by examining social network pages and running the officer’s name through Google.

Media coverage is often what prompts a department into action. The Indiana State Police initiated its policy after WTHR in Indianapolis discovered photos of drunken revels on a trooper’s Facebook page. One showed the trooper, Chris Pestow, with a .357 Magnum pointed at his head. He also posted a comment about a homeless man beaten by police officers in California, saying, “These people should have died when they were young, anyway, i’m just doing them a favor,” according to the report by WTHR.

After the controversy, Trooper Pestow resigned, said First Sgt. David Bursten, a spokesman for the State Police. He said he instructs new police officers, “Don’t do or say anything that you wouldn’t be proud to have your mother see or hear.”

“That really sums it up,” he said.

Asked about his experience, Mr. Pestow said in an e-mail, “A written policy concerning social media from the Indiana State Police prior to my unfortunate misstep would have benefited me considerably.”

Chief Joseph E. Thomas Jr. of the Southfield, Mich., police said that when it comes to social media, it is important for departments to enforce discipline even for small infractions. He cited one instance when an officer photographed goats on a resident’s rooftop before confiscating the animals, then posted the photos. The officer was told to remove the photos from the site and given a verbal reprimand.

“That was cute and it was something that did not harm anybody, but it’s inappropriate,” Chief Thomas said.

He said department officials routinely checked police recruits’ social networking pages when they apply for a job. In one case, he said, a candidate posted this update on Facebook:

“Just returned from the interview with the Southfield Police Department and I can’t wait to get a gun and kick some ass.”

He was rejected.

Questions

1. Social networking sites such as Facebook have infiltrated our lives. Identify an example in which Facebook was used incorrectly by the police officers? What would you have done?
2. “Don’t do or say anything that you wouldn’t be proud to have your mother see or hear.” As students, give examples of things you should not say or put on Facebook?
3. How can Facebook be used to the benefit of yourself as well as your fellow Singaporeans?
4. If you encounter inappropriate information on Facebook, what steps should one take rectify the situation?

Please feel free to share other ideas you make possess

Remember to write your name, class and index number in your posts

China Issues Nationwide Restrictions on Smoking

 

 

 China is home to a third of the world's smokers as well as being the largest global producer of tobacco.

By ANDREW JACOBS

Published: March 24, 2011

BEIJING — China, the world’s largest tobacco producer and home to a third of all smokers, has issued a national ban on lighting up in hotels, restaurants and other indoor public spaces, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A man smoked a cigarette in Beijing on Thursday.

The rules, which take effect on May 1 and spell out education provisions about the dangers of tobacco, include restrictions on cigarette vending machines and on outdoor smoking that affects pedestrians.

But there are considerable loopholes. The rules do not cover factories, offices or government workplaces, and, more important, they lack specific penalty guidelines. That detail has prompted shrugs among devoted smokers, many of whom have long since learned to ignore the no-smoking signs in hospital waiting areas, gymnasium locker rooms and elevators.

“Chinese people, including most government officials, are just too in love with their cigarettes to pay attention to such a law,” said Liu Bailing, 28, a bank employee dining beneath a cumulus cloud of smoke at a restaurant here on Thursday evening.

Ms. Liu’s complaint was not without reason. In the nearly three years since Beijing required restaurants and bars to provide nonsmoking sections, most smokers have continued to puff away with abandon.

While acknowledging the challenges of enforcing the new ban, antismoking advocates hailed the measure as a first step to weaning the nation off tobacco, which health officials say kills more than 1.2 million Chinese a year. China has among the world’s highest smoking rates, with nearly one-third of all adults lighting up. (In the United States, about 21 percent of adults were smokers as of 2008.)

“Even if it’s not stringently enforced in the beginning, having a law is an important place to start,” said Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Think Tank Research Center for Health Development, a nongovernmental group in Beijing.

Two years ago, the authorities raised taxes on cigarettes, and last month the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued guidelines that seek to reduce the number of scenes that feature smoking in movies and television shows.

Still, it remains to be seen how effective the newest ban will be, and skeptics might be forgiven their doubts. The Communist Party, after all, has a monopoly on tobacco production, which provides roughly 7 percent of the government’s tax revenue.

Xiyun Yang contributed research.

A version of this article appeared in print on March 25, 2011, on page A8 of the New York edition.

Questions

1. How will the new ban on cigarettes affect smokers in China?
2. Do you think the ban will be effective?
3. What has Singapore done to prevent individuals from smoking?
4. Do you think China could adopt some of the methods used in Singapore?
5. Why would the government be unwilling to enforce the new ban? (Clue- the Communist party produces all cigarettes)
6. If you were inside a restaurant and the person next to you was smoking, what would you tell them to convince him/ her to stop smoking?

If you have other opinions about smoking, feel free to voice them.

Military Offers Assurances to Egypt and Neighbors

An Egyptian man embraced an army commander in Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday morning.

By KAREEM FAHIM

Published: February 12, 2011

CAIRO — As a new era dawned in Egypt on Saturday, the army leadership sought to reassure Egyptians and the world that it would shepherd a transition to civilian rule and honor international commitments like the peace treaty with Israel.

Exultant and exhausted opposition leaders claimed their role in the country’s future, pressing the army to lift the country’s emergency law and release political prisoners and saying they would present their vision for the government. And they vowed to return to Tahrir Square next week to celebrate a victory and honor those who had died in the 18-day uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule.

In an announcement broadcast on state television, an army spokesman said Egypt would continue to abide by all its international and regional treaties and the current civilian leadership would manage the country’s affairs until the formation of a new government. But he did not discuss a timetable for any transfer of power, and it was unclear how and when talks with opposition figures would take place.

The army spokesman said the military was “aspiring to guarantee the peaceful transition of power within the framework of a free democratic system that allows an elected civilian power to rule the country, in order to build a free democratic state.”

The impact of Egypt’s uprising rippled across the Arab world as protesters turned out in Algeria, where the police arrested leading organizers, and in Yemen, where pro-government forces beat demonstrators with clubs.

The Palestinian leadership responded by announcing that it planned to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by September. And in Tunisia, which inspired Egypt’s uprising, hundreds demonstrated to cheer Mr. Mubarak’s ouster.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will travel to Jordan and Israel for talks as both countries deal with the reverberations from Egypt’s revolution.

In Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, some members of the broad movement that toppled Mr. Mubarak vowed to continue their protests, saying that all their demands had not yet been met.

A long list included an end to the emergency law that allows detention without charges, the dissolution of the Parliament, seen as illegitimate, and for some of the protesters, the prosecution of Mr. Mubarak. About 50 stood in the square on Saturday morning, as the military removed barricades and concertina wire on the periphery.

But the uprising’s leading organizers, speaking at a news conference in central Cairo, asked protesters to leave the square.

The group, the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, which includes members of the April 6 Youth Movement, the Muslim Brotherhood Youth and young supporters ofMohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition figure, said that it had not yet talked with the military and that on Sunday it would lay out its road map for a transitional government.

The coalition said that Ahmed Zewail, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, and other respected figures would work as intermediaries between the youth group and the country’s new military chiefs.

“The power of the people changed the regime,” said Gehan Shaaban, a group spokeswoman. “But we shouldn’t trust the army. We should trust ourselves, the people of Egypt.”

Again, there were signs that not all the protesters were willing to give up. During the news conference, a woman yelled: “We should all head to Tahrir and stay there, until we ourselves are sure that everything is going as planned! The government of Ahmed Shafiq has to go!” Mr. Shafiq is the prime minister. The woman’s shouts brought the news conference to a close.

As the protesters and opposition groups prepared an agenda, they sought clues about exactly whom they were negotiating with. On Friday, Vice President Omar Suleiman said that Mr. Mubarak had authorized the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs, marking the transition from civilian to military rule.

Mr. Suleiman, a former general who became Egypt’s foreign intelligence chief, straddled the two worlds. But Hosam Sowilam, a retired general, said Mr. Suleiman no longer played a leadership role. “Omar Suleiman finished his time,” he said. “He’s 74 years old.” Others were not so quick to dismiss Mr. Suleiman, a close ally of Mr. Mubarak who was mentioned as his successor.

In interviews, protest leaders said they assumed that the defense minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, 75, who was considered a loyalist of Mr. Mubarak, was now the country’s de facto leader. On Saturday morning, his convoy tried to drive to Tahrir Square, according to a paratrooper stationed there. But he did not leave his car.

The military chiefs worked quickly to exert their influence, calling on citizens to cooperate with the police, after weeks of civil strife, and urging a force stained by accusations of abuse and torture to be mindful of the department’s slogan: “The police in the service of the people.”

Security officials said that the recently appointed interior minister, Mahmoud Wagdy, visited units of the department’s feared security services on Saturday, in the hope of returning police officers to work. The officers vanished from Egypt’s streets on Jan. 29 after violent clashes with protesters, and only small numbers have returned.

Reuters reported that Field Marshal Tantawi met with Mr. Wagdy to discuss the officers’ return.

That security force, including plainclothes officers widely accused of abuse, are loathed by the protesters, who have demanded police reform to end brutality and, in particular, torture in police stations. Prosecutors are weighing charges against the previous interior minister, Habib al-Adly, who seemed to ignore or encourage police abuses. But some analysts have suggested that he is a scapegoat, and that the real problem was a government that relied on harsh tactics.

At the same time, neighborhoods in Cairo and other cities have for weeks been forced to function without the police. The lack of public safety was underscored on Friday, when security officials said hundreds of inmates, freed by armed gangs, escaped from a prison in Cairo.

While the Egyptian military’s commitment to international treaties reassured the United States and Israel, there was no indication whether such a pledge would survive a new government. The protesters in the square made it clear that they would reconsider all of Mr. Mubarak’s foreign alliances, and many frequently referred to the deposed president as an Israeli or American agent.

Hamdy Hassan, a former member of Parliament from the Muslim Brotherhood, said the military had “acknowledged the revolution’s legitimacy,” but added that there were still doubts about its intentions. “We want a guarantee that we do not have another tyrant.”

In Cairo, citizens embraced their new reality with humor, mild arguments and celebrations. The official state press gave a measure of the changes.

“The People Toppled the Government” said the headline in Al Ahram, the flagship state-owned national newspaper and government mouthpiece, borrowing a line from the protest movement. Another article noted that Switzerland had frozen the assets of Mr. Mubarak and his aides.

On state television, which for weeks depicted the protesters as a violent mob of foreigners, an anchor spoke of the “youth revolution.”

Security officials said Saturday that the information minister, Anas el-Fekky, who many of the protesters say should be fired, was placed under house arrest.

In Tahrir Square on Saturday, thousands of volunteers who brought their own brooms or cleaning supplies swept streets and scrubbed graffiti from buildings. On the streets around the square, the celebrations from the night before continued, spurred on by honking drivers.

At night, the party started early, as tens of thousands of Cairo residents and visitors from all over Egypt filled the square, dancing and snapping pictures of their children standing on vigilant tanks.

The president’s departure to his home by the Red Sea in Sharm el Sheik seemed for some to have stripped the country’s political woes of some urgency.

Mr. ElBaradei’s brother, Ali ElBaradei, said Mr. ElBaradei was taking the day off and had not been contacted by the military. “They will call when they call,” he said.

Amr Hamzawy, who has acted as a mediator between the protesters and the government, said that “everyone is taking a break,” though he expressed concern with the vague nature of the army’s most recent statements.

“What is the timeline we are looking at?” he said. “Is it September?” He also said it was unclear whether the army council ruling the country favored amending the Constitution or starting from scratch, which is the preferred solution for many of the protesters.

There was also no clear sign from the military about whether it intended to dissolve Parliament, Mr. Hamzawy said, adding that so far the military’s tone had been “very, very positive.”

Reporting was contributed by David D. Kirkpatrick, Anthony Shadid, Mona El-Naggar, Dawlat Magdy and Scott Nelson from Cairo, and Thomas Fuller from Tunis.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 13, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition.

Questions

1. What are your views on the protests in Egypt?
2. Imagine that you are Egyptian, what would you want in a government?
3. What are some of the benefits of the Singaporean political system?
4. Do you think Egypt will become a democratic state or the will the military consolidate power?

If you have any other thoughts or ideas please feel free to share them

Original article from New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/world/middleeast/13egypt.html?sq=egypt&st=cse&scp=8&pagewanted=all

Ivory Coast: UN plans more peacekeepers

Alain Le Roy said the UN was facing more hostility in Ivory Coast

Continue reading the main story

UN peacekeepers in Ivory Coast are sending a request to the Security Council for 1,000 to 2,000 more troops amid the continuing political crisis.

UN peacekeeping chief in Ivory Coast Alain Le Roy said he hoped the troops would be available in a few weeks.

UN peacekeepers have been protecting a hotel in Abidjan that is sheltering Alassane Ouattara, the man recognised internationally as the new president.

Incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo has refused to cede power.

Mr Le Roy said the request for more troops would be made in the next few days.

He said they were needed because of the current force's additional duty of protecting the hotel.

Mr Le Roy also said the UN was facing more hostility because of what he called false reports on the Gbagbo-controlled media.

An estimated 10,000 UN troops are already in the country.

'No civil war'

A blockade remains around the hotel despite African mediators reporting on Tuesday that Mr Gbagbo had agreed to lift it.

On Wednesday his spokesman, Foreign Minister Alcide Djedje, said the blockade could only end if former rebels protecting Mr Ouattara left the building.

He said Mr Gbagbo had only agreed to study the conditions for lifting the blockade.

Mr Djedje said: "The Ivorian army feels it cannot tolerate that 300 heavily armed soldiers from the former rebellion should be in the hotel. That is a threat including for President Gbagbo whose residence is five minutes away by boat.

"If the [New Forces] soldiers go, the blockade will be lifted."

The north of the country is controlled by the New Forces, the former rebel movement that supports Mr Ouattara.

The 28 November election was intended to reunify the country - the world's leading cocoa producer - which has been divided since the 2002 conflict.

Alcide Djedje said rebel soldiers must leave the hotel in Abidjan for the blockade to end

Reporters reached Mr Ouattara's hotel on Wednesday and he told them Mr Gbagbo had never been sincere in his offers.

"He has never been up to his commitments, he wants to gain time in order to bring in arms, ammunitions and mercenaries, because he wants to continue to stay in office but this will not work."

But Mr Ouattara insisted this did not mean there would be a civil war.

"No, it will not end in a war because clearly Ecowas will make the decisions quickly to remove him."

The West African regional body Ecowas has threatened to force Mr Gbagbo out, but is trying mediation efforts first.

Mr Ouattara said: "I want this to be clear: removing one person does not mean civil war."

He added: "My government and myself will stay here until he leaves the presidential offices, so we can go and work fully - as the Ivorian people have decided to put us in office."

Both men have been sworn in as president.

On Monday, Ecowas sent the presidents of Benin, Cape Verde and Sierra Leone to negotiate Mr Gbagbo's departure - their second attempt to do so in a week.

Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, representing the African Union (AU), also attended.

The leaders told Mr Gbagbo to recognise Mr Ouattara as the elected leader of the country.

Mr Ouattara was initially proclaimed the winner by the country's election commission - a verdict backed by the UN, which helped organise the poll.

But the country's Constitutional Council, headed by an ally of Mr Gbagbo, later ruled that he had won, citing voting irregularities in the north.

Questions

1. Why do you think corruption is rife in the Ivory Coast?
2. How has Singapore prevented political problems such as these?
3. If a new prime minister is elected in Singapore, would the incumbent refuse to cede power or would he cooperate? Why?
4. What is the role of the UN in the crisis?
5. How will the UN assist to end the crisis?
6. Using relevant information and knowledge, how much longer do you think the blockade will last? Why?
7. Do you think the internationally recognised President Alassane Ouattara will ever gain control of the country? Why? 

North Korean attack on South Korea pushes China's patience

Houses destroyed in the North Korean attack on Yeonpyeong island: China has shied away from condemning the attack. Photograph: Dong-A Ilbo/AFP/Getty Images

It is only weeks since China's leaders commemorated the 60th anniversary of its entry into the Korean War and the "friendship established in battle" with the North.

But the last week's events demonstrate that its neighbour and ally is more often a source of frustration than sympathy these days. Indeed, Beijing's cautious response to the artillery attack – refusing to ascribe blame and calling on all sides to show restraint – should not be mistaken for approval.

"Of course they [Chinese leaders] will be angry. But they are angry in their hearts – not publicly," said Shi Yinhong, professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing. "It is hard to find the delicate balance between relations with the North and the South. It is also hard to balance international expectations and China's trait of not openly condemning or pressing North Korea hard," added Zhu Feng, professor of international relations at Peking University, though he warned that Beijing's patience would run out if the North continued to act provocatively.

China is the North's major ally, providing as much as 90% of its energy and up to 45% of its food on some estimates. It is also a permanent member of the security council, allowing it to veto resolutions. It has more influence over the North than any other state: a useful card in its hand as a regional and global player. But there are limits to how it can use it unless it is willing to risk regional instability, the North's collapse, a flood of refugees along the lengthy border between the countries and potentially a unified peninsula.

"The Chinese reaction is unhappy, unhappy, unhappy. It damages the economy of the region and this is what matters for China. But they don't have much leverage," said Dr Andrei Lankov, an expert on the North at Kookmin University in Seoul. "has a choice between an unruly North which makes provocations and an unstable North which will collapse. [The former] is clearly the lesser evil."

China has, in the past, slapped down the North in public. But analysts suggest Beijing does not believe such measures are effective and does not want to damage relations with the North, already resentful of Beijing's increasing ties with Seoul – trade between China and the South reached $140bn last year; in comparison, that with the North was worth less than $3bn in 2008. Shi argued that Beijing's stance towards the North in the last year – increasing investment and showing support for the succession process – made it less likely than ever that it would criticise the North.

"They don't want to give the US any excuse to be militarily involved in the area and that is one of the reasons they are not engaged more fully through the UN in a sanctions regime," added Smith.

Besides, the Chinese might point out, switching carrots for sticks has not proved an effective strategy for the United States and South Korea. Smith argued that the North felt pushed into a corner because Seoul and Washington were not negotiating with it.

"They don't see that their interests can be pursued in almost any forum except discussions with China," she said.

Questions

1. Should North Korea have attacked South Korea?
2. What is the impact of the North and South Korean conflict on the world?
3. How does the altercation impact Singapore and you?
4. How can Singapore assist in the resolution of the conflict?