Today's Links: Housing market bubbles, sinking water tables and yet more toy recalls

• Beijing's housing market bubbles [IHT]
  Prices for high-end homes in China's capital have been bouncing to record new levels all year, even with dramatically fewer transactions, rental prices flat and many new units empty.


• Beijing Knocks Down Petitioners' Houses [Guardian Unlimited]
  Chinese authorities knocked down part of a rundown neighborhood in Beijing on Wednesday where people live, sometimes for months, while petitioning the central government for help fighting grievances in their hometowns.


• Though water is drying up, a Chinese metropolis booms [IHT]
  Hundreds of feet below ground, this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running out of water. The water table is sinking fast. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater. Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year.


• Gardening sets, toy trains made in China recalled [The Boston Globe]
  RC2 Corp., a maker of Thomas & Friends toy trains, and five other companies recalled about 670,000 Chinese-made products, almost all because of paint containing lead levels that may exceed US government standards.


• China, refusing to condemn Myanmar, pleads for calm [AP]
  China issued an evenhanded plea for calm in Myanmar today after refusing to condemn the military-run government at the United Nations, while European countries urged Beijing to put pressure on its diplomatic and economic ally to stop the violence.


• Cathay, Air China scrap China Eastern bid [AFP]
  Cathay Pacific and Air China's parent company abandoned an attempt to block Singapore Airlines from buying a stake in China Eastern, as the battle for the lucrative Chinese market heats up.

Photo from Tim Beckenham.