BEIJING -- More than a thousand steel workers in China's northeast staged an at-times violent protest against the planned takeover of their state-run employer and a group of them killed a top executive at the private company that was to acquire it, Chinese state-run media reported. Workers from Tonghua Iron & Steel Group in Jilin province, upset over job losses expected from the takeover, beat to death Chen Guojun, a manager from Beijing-based Jianlong Group who had been sent to Tonghua to oversee the merger, the Xinhua news agency reported early Monday. Some of the protesters blocked roads and threw bricks at police who tried to intervene to save Mr. Chen, Xinhua said, citing the provincial government. The protesters numbered "more than 1,000," Xinhua said. A separate report Monday in China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, said there were some 3,000 protesters in all. Some of them attacked Mr. Chen after he informed workers that Tonghua Iron & Steel's work force would be cut to 5,000 from about 30,000, the report said, citing a local police officer. Workers were particularly distraught because they had expected to benefit from rising steel prices, it said. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124863589915981859.html