Today's Links: Fenghuang Bridge reporters "beaten", Beijing car ban and Chinese toy workers losing their jobs

• China reporters probing bridge disaster "beaten" [Reuters]
  Chinese journalists probing a bridge collapse that killed dozens of people said they were harassed and beaten by local thugs, exposing the state-run media's see-saw struggle between control and candor.


• China blows up collapsed bridge in search for more victims [Xinhua]
  The new bridge which collapsed four days ago was blown up early Friday morning in a desperate effort to find out more victims as chances of finding survivors are slim.


• China bridge just rocks with no steel [The Times of India]
  Investigators plodding through the debris of a bridge that collapsed killing 41 people in China have come up with an unexpected piece of evidence. The bridge was built without the use of steel, which makes it a rare case of a modern bridge being built without steel support.
  


• China Mobile profit leaps as it expands among rural users [Bloomberg]
  China Mobile's profit surged 29 percent to 20.3 billion yuan, or $2.7 billion, in the second quarter as the company added a record number of users, driven by gains in rural areas where lower-income residents were attracted by reduced charges.


• Beijing yanks cars off the road to clear smog ahead of Olympic Games [AP]
  City officials yanked hundreds of thousands of cars off Beijing's streets Friday to test whether a car ban could clear health-threatening smog and ease gridlock during next year's Olympic Games.


• China toy group says many workers losing jobs [Reuters]
  Many Chinese toy workers have lost their jobs following Mattel Inc.'s global recall of toys, an industry body said on Friday, but insisted overall confidence in their products was high ahead of the key Christmas season.


• Safety concerns curtail flights in busy Beijing [Toronto Star]
  China's aviation authority, citing safety concerns, has announced plans to scale back flights at overstretched Beijing airports and ban the creation of new airlines before 2010.

Photo of the collapsed bridge in Fenghuang from Xinhuanet. The death toll has risen to 41 at last count.