Today's Links: Disabled child beggars, natural calamities and economic overheating

• China's disabled children are sold into slavery as beggars [The Guardian]
  As Beijing prepares for the Olympics, racketeers live well off their street army of exploited teenagers.


• China overtakes Germany as world's No 3 carmaker [The Guardian]
  Figures show China increased its vehicle output by 30% last year and is closing in on Japan's No 2 spot.


• Huaihe River faces severe flood-control challenge [China Daily]
  The middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe River, China's third longest, face severe flood-control challenge as the water level might remain dangerously high for at least another 10 days.


• 8,250 evacuated after quake in NW China [Xinhua]
  More than 2,100 houses have collapsed and 8,250 people have been evacuated after a 5.7-magnitude earthquake jolted a county in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.


• Fake goods seized in Beijing Silk Street market [China Daily]
  Authorities have seized fake sneakers and sportswear in the latest raid at the Silk Street market in Beijing.


• Beijing failing To downshift economy [Forbes]
  It’s common knowledge that China’s economy is red hot, but the temperature readings can still surprise.


• China closes companies linked to human and pet deaths [Associated Press]
  China moved to sharpen its product safety image yesterday, shutting down a chemical plant linked to dozens of deaths in Panama from tainted medicine and closing two companies tied to pet deaths in North America.


• 14% of truck tyre tubes fail safety tests in China [Xinhua]
  China's top quality control watchdog announced that 14.3 percent of the local-made truck tyre tubes failed safety tests in its latest quality survey of 51 truck tyres and tyre tubes produced by 30 companies in nine provincial-level regions including Liaoning, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.


• Deadly China floods show no let-up [CNN]
  More than 100 people have died in floods and landslides in China, and tens of thousands have fled their homes in the east, where dykes are in danger of being breached by a swollen river.


• China goes on offensive to defend its brand [International Herald Tribune]
  After months of worrisome product-safety recalls and reports about problem Chinese goods, Beijing has gone on the offensive, trying to show that regulators here are moving swiftly to ease global worries about the quality and safety of exports from China.


• Beijing’s ‘war on terror’ hides brutal crackdown on Muslims [The Sunday Times, UK]
  Three Chinese judges have sentenced Ismail Semed, a Muslim and a political activist, to death for “attempting to split the motherland” and possession of firearms and explosives. He said he was tortured into a confession.

Video of mudslide in Sichuan Province from Youku.