Today's Links: The dog days of summer, China rejects emissions report, and pigeons plague Peking

• China's west swelters under record high temperatures. Westernmost China's Xinjiang region was under a blistering heatwave Sunday, with the mercury hitting as high as 44.8 degrees Celsius (112.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Turpan city, a local official said.
• Analysts warn China vulnerable to a Japan-style debt meltdown. Today, China could be ripe for a crisis of its own that might resemble the collapse of Japan's "Bubble Economy" in the early 1990's and have enormous global impact, analysts warn.
• Germans win honors at Shanghai Film Festival. The German film "According to Plan" won the top Golden Goblet award as the curtain fell Sunday night on the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival.
• Chinese Mobile Business Model Is Suicide. Do you use mobile services? Then the only party that benefits is China Mobile or China Unicom.
• Deng Xiaoping's daughter defends Tiananman Square student massacre. Speaking on a Hong Kong radio programme, Deng Lin argued that China would have 'descended into chaos.'
• A mystery in Beijing: Who runs the military? Nominally, President Hu Jintao, who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission, the top military command body, is head of the armed forces, but there is doubt among experts about how much control civilian leaders really exert over the PLA.
• Radical students in Pak kidnap Chinese for "unislamic" acts. Militant madrassa students kidnapped 12 persons, including nine Chinese, from a massage parlour in the Pakistani capital for "un-Islamic acts" resulting in a fresh stand-off with the government.
• Beijing tries soft-sell tactics with young Taiwanese. All-expense-paid trips aimed at promoting unification and stipends for its universities show how China is trying to appeal to the next generation of leaders.
• China slams Dutch report on carbon dioxide emissions "groundless". As a developing country with a sense of responsibility, China will work side by side with other nations to fight against climate change. China also dismissed as groundless a report from a Dutch agency that calls China the worlds top carbon dioxide emitter
• Beijing organizers firm on Taiwan route. If Taiwan is to participate in the 2008 Olympic torch relay, it will be on Beijing’s terms. Beijing Olympic organizers gave no hint Saturday they would negotiate with Taiwan over the politically sensitive issue.
• Chinese police arrest 37 for illegal guns in gang crackdown. Police in Tangshan city seized 330 rounds of ammunition and 35 firearms, including 19 sporting guns and four small-bore rifles, a spokesman with the Hebei Provincial Department of Public Security told Xinhua on Friday. 
• Thousands protest forced eviction in China. Protesters clashed with police who were trying to evict a 90-year-old woman to make way for a real estate project, leaving 20 people injured in a southern China town, a human rights monitor and a newspaper reported Saturday.
• Warning on illegal Shanghai share deals. State-owned companies and government agencies in Shanghai, including those responsible for education and pensions, misappropriated Rmb6.3bn for illegal investment in the stock market over the past three years, says senior judge at the city’s highest court.
• Beijing warns of pigeon threat to flights. Beijing’s airport is declaring war on pigeons. Flocks of pigeons are thronging the airport, crashing into planes and threatening public safety, the China Daily said Saturday. Some are carrier pigeons raised as pets, a centuries-old Beijing tradition.

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