Future historians may well agree that the twenty-first century Silk Road first opened for business on December 14, 2009. That was the day a crucial stretch of pipeline officially went into operation linking the fabulously energy-rich state of Turkmenistan (via Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) to Xinjiang Province in China's far west.

Hyperbole did not deter the spectacularly named Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Turkmenistan's president, from bragging, "This project has not only commercial or economic value. It is also political. China, through its wise and farsighted policy, has become one of the key guarantors of global security."

from Crikey .....

Some things to bear in mind on the Murray-Darling Basin...

Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:

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.''

''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.''

Tony Abbott - Australian soldiers in Afghanistan thrown to wolves

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

from Crikey .....

Meet Bob Katter, aka B Joyce ... and Andrew Robb, aka J Hockey

Glenn Dyer writes:

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.

from getup .....

It's hard to believe this is happening in Australia. On Tuesday a young couple from Cairns will go on criminal trial for attempting to have an abortion.

Teagan was just 19 years old when she was charged under archaic 111 year old laws that classify abortion as a criminal 'offence against morality'. If found guilty, she faces up to 7 years imprisonment.

How can this happen in Australia? Because in Queensland, and in other states, abortion is still illegal in the criminal code. And despite the fact that 90% of Australians believe early-term abortions should be legal, an extreme minority has our politicians scared into inaction.

In a recent Rolling Stone magazine interview, you spoke of this administrations commitment to civil rights while simultaneously insulting the intelligence of those who are concerned with civil liberties. It is this administrations actual record on civil liberties, a record that is in fact worse than the preceding one, that is both clearly inexcusable and dangerously irresponsible.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday summoned the Australian High Commissioner over the racist email scandal involving top Victorian police officers joking about an Indian train passenger's electrocution.

In a shocking incident, top Australian police officers were caught in a racist e-mail scandal joking about the electrocution of an Indian train passenger and suggesting that it could be "a way to fix the Indian student problem" in Melbourne.

China is now the largest importer of Middle Eastern oil and the largest exporter to the region, replacing the United States. Trade relations are growing fast, doubling in the past five years.

The implications for world order are significant, as is the quiet rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which includes much of Asia but has banned the U.S.-potentially "a new energy cartel involving both producers and consumers," observes economist Stephen King, author of Losing Control: The Emerging Threats to Western Prosperity.

Westpac has ruled out raising interest rates before the Reserve Bank meeting next month, putting pressure on rivals to also commit to a freeze on mortgage pricing.

A surprise decision by the central bank to keep cash rates on hold has proved a setback for the big four, which had been looking to push through additional rate rises on mortgages to recoup higher funding costs.

The Australian dollar plunged nearly 1¢ to US95.74¢ after the Reserve opted to keep rates unchanged, the biggest fall in six weeks as investors lowered their expectations of future interest rate rises.