China overnight slammed the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo as a violation of the award's ideals, while the laureate's joyful wife led calls for his immediate release.

Beijing - which has repeatedly branded the 54-year-old writer a criminal following his December 2009 jailing for 11 years on subversion charges - also warned Norway that ties would suffer over the Nobel committee's decision.

"The Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to those who work to promote ethnic harmony, international friendship, disarmament and who hold peace meetings. These were [Alfred] Nobel's wishes," foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

While Ms Gillard said yesterday she no longer intended to comment on the saga and thus fuel it, Mr Abbott said he needed to keep defending himself because he was the gatekeeper of the nation's values.

''One of the things that so disappoints me about the election result is that I am the standard bearer for values and ideals which matter and which are important and … as the leader of the Coalition, millions and millions of people invest their hopes in me and it's very important that I don't let them down.

''When I am unfairly attacked, I've got to respond and I've got to respond in a tough way.''

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has responded with a firm "no" to claims she has been involved in "back alley bitchiness" over her spat with Tony Abbott about visiting Afghanistan.

Coalition frontbencher Christopher Pyne yesterday suggested Ms Gillard was using "back alley bitchiness" to hurt the Opposition Leader.

"It's not my intention to add to this matter in any way, shape or form," Ms Gillard told the Queensland Press Club today.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/i-am-not-being-bitchy-gillard-20101012-16hc5.html

The Israeli cabinet has approved a controversial bill that would require all non-Jews taking Israeli citizenship to swear loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state".

The law, which has angered Israel's Arab minority, still has to be passed by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

A similar measure was rejected by the cabinet in May 2009.

If approved, the new law will affect a small number of non-Jews who seek Israeli citizenship.

Correspondents say it will mainly apply to Palestinians married to Israelis who seek citizenship on the basis of family re-unification, foreign workers, and a few other special cases.

Abbott accuses Gillard of leaking the fact that she had invited him to join her to visit Afghanistan a week earlier, but that he had declined.

"I regard it as an act of low bastardry given what Gillard knew based on the conversation I'd had with her personally," Abbott charged.

Even by the robust standards of Australian political biffo, this is a startling insult.

The worst part for Abbott was that he couldn't defend himself. Politicians' visits to Afghanistan are secret till they're over. That's why he was left blathering about jet lag.

Picture by Gus

The Sun's influence on modern-day global warming may have been overestimated, a study suggests.

Scientists found unexpected patterns in solar output in the years 2004-2007, which challenge existing models.

However, they caution that three years of data are not enough to draw firm conclusions about long-term trends.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say it may become necessary to revise the way that solar influences are dealt with in computer models of the climate.

"Technology has made virtually anything possible," says Neill Denny, editor-in-chief of the publishing industry magazine The Bookseller. "If you look at it conceptually – there's a five-link chain between the person who writes and the person who reads. You've got Author-Agent- Publisher-Retailer-Reader. Theoretically, the three middle bits could all now vanish and the author could write online directly to the reader."

picture by Gus

The Federal Opposition has accused Prime Minister Julia Gillard of playing dangerous political games over the war in Afghanistan.

Ms Gillard's office invited Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to accompany her on her weekend trip to visit Australian troops in Afghanistan as a show of bipartisan support for the war effort.

The invitation came after a week in which the Opposition called for more men and materiel, including tanks, to be sent to bolster Australia's troops in the strife-torn country.

NASHVILLE — Happy-hour beers were going for $5 at Past Perfect, a cavernous bar just off this city’s strip of honky-tonks and tourist shops when Adam Ringenberg walked in with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol in the front pocket of his gray slacks.

From Chris Floyd

President Barack Obama is losing his strong right arm. Dark days lie ahead, in which the president will lose traction with Congress, needlessly offend key constituencies, lose control of his legislative agenda. Why? His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is quitting the White House, maybe to try and become mayor of Chicago, certainly to cash in and make a bundle on Wall Street.

The NSW Nationals have accepted $16,500 from tobacco companies this year, exposing the Coalition to more criticism from the Labor Party, which refuses to take tobacco company donations.

According to the Nationals' latest donations and expenditure disclosure lodged with the Election Funding Authority, British American Tobacco donated $13,200 to the party in April, while Philip Morris donated $3300 in March.

The manager of Opposition business Christopher Pyne has become the first MP of the new Parliament to be booted from the chamber during Question Time.

Question Time is operating under new time limits and other rules aimed to ensure proper debate and less abuse of the process.

During an answer from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Mr Pyne wanted to make a point of order but was denied by Speaker Harry Jenkins who had already sat Ms Gillard down.

Mr Pyne then said Ms Gillard had sat down because she was "hopeless".

He was promptly expelled from the chamber for one hour.