CHINA: NEW DEATH TOLL AT 40,000 DEAD, 5 MILLION HOMELESS

Impact in China The Age of Australia reports:

THE Sichuan earthquake that has all but wiped the Tibetan protests from the headlines has also brought out a gentler yet much stronger nationalism — a modern version of the Communist “serve the people” slogan.

The quiet heroism of thousands of rescue workers, police and soldiers has brought together a generation that did not experience the deprivations of the great famines of the 1960s or the depravities of the Cultural Revolution.

On Monday night in Chengdu, beneath one of the largest of the few remaining public statues of Mao Zedong, the atmosphere was low key and good humored, despite the devastating losses and fears of more aftershocks. It showed the best of China. Circles of chanters formed spontaneously as individuals led the patriotic cheers and songs.

AFP: BEIJING (AFP) — The Internet in China is providing a platform for people to express criticism of authorities over the deadly earthquake, amid a barrage of positive news in the tightly controlled traditional press.

Dodging the government’s censors and a potential backlash with nationalist sentiment at a high, some Chinese netizens, including journalists blogging under pseudonyms, are managing to express voices of dissent and anger.

ALSO: FROM THE LONG MARCH TO THE GREAT FROG MARCH FREAKED CHINA OUT

Thousands of Chinese fled for cover in fear of an earthquake Tuesday, alarmed not only by warnings from seismologists but also by an unusual mass movement of frogs, state media said.

For the second time this month, residents observed a huge migration of frogs and toads, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Residents of Zunyi, a southern city that saw little damage in China’s massive earthquake last week, noticed the amphibians’ march on Monday, Xinhua said, quoting Vice Mayor Zeng Yongtao.

NAOMI KLEIN ON REGIME QUAKES IN CHINA/BURMA

SOUTH AFRICA (MAIL & GUARDIAN)

Mbeki: Cops will root out Jo’burg ‘anarchy’

President Thabo Mbeki on Monday reiterated his call for an immediate end to attacks on foreign nationals in Gauteng, which have left 22 people dead and up to 10 000 seeking refuge in shelters. “Citizens from other countries on the African continent and beyond are as human as we are and deserve to be treated with respect,” the president.

THE MEDIA LINE: Talks Stall on Lebanon

Talks underway in the Qatari capital Doha on the future of Lebanon have come to a halt as the rival parties fail to agree on how to proceed and neither side is willing to make concessions.

Qatar decided to act as a mediator between the pro-Western March 14 movement headed by Sa’ad Al-Hariri and the pro-Syrian opposition bloc led by Hizbullah after Lebanon last week experienced some of the worst violence since the civil war that raged in the country from 1975 to 1990.

The clashes, which left 60 people dead, came after the government headed by Fuad Siniora fired the head of security at Beirut airport on the grounds that he was spying for Hizbullah and called for the dismantling of Hizbullah’s private phone network which he claims can be used for spying on the Western-backed government.

Lebanon has been without a president for the last 18 months as the two blocs have been unable to agree on a successor to Syrian-backed Emile Lahoud, whose term ended in November 2007.

THE ISRAEL ISSUE IN US POLITICS: CALEV—BEN DAVID (JERUSALEM POST)

Well, it’s not - nor is any other aspect related directly to US-Israeli relations. According to a nationwide poll of likely US voters released last week by The Israel Poll (TIP), a Washington-based lobby group that works to improve Israel’s image (and for whom I used to work), only 7 percent listed “The Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians/The threat of Iran” as one of the two top issues that concerned them the most - way behind such top-tier subjects as “The economy and jobs” (51%), “The situation in Iraq” (33%) and “Affordable health care” (23%).

Presumably, that small percentage so passionately concerned about Israel includes more than its fair share of Jews, and McCain is indeed expected to have a good shot at drawing more of these voters away from Obama than previous Republican presidential candidates have done against Democratic candidates. But even here, we’re talking about something in the area of 5-10% of the Jewish vote, a relatively minuscule percentage of the general electorate, and most of it anyway concentrated in “Blue states” (New York, California, Illinois) expected to go Democratic in any case.%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

White House Says NBC Distorted Bush Response

The White House launched an unusual attack on a national news network yesterday for its editing of an interview with President Bush, whose controversial speech comparing negotiations with Iran to the appeasement of Nazis has prompted debate in Washington and on the presidential campaign trail.