Beijing Olympics security in photos

AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
Frogmen wade out of the body of water after a security check near National Stadium, also known as Bird's Nest, background, in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008, a day before the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye
Members of the Chinese military hold security scanners outside the National Stadium in Beijing, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008.

AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
Zhang Wei, left, talks to her neighbor near a security camera installed across from her former home which has been boarded up in Beijing, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008.

AP Photo/Andy Wong
A security officer, right, uses a device to check passengers' bags entering the airport in Dalian, Liaoning province, China Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008, three days before the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympic games.

AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Security guards and their dogs walk near the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008.

AP Photo/Greg Baker
Plain clothed security men try to stop a cameraman from filming a protest by people who were evicted from their homes, at the Qianmen area in Beijing Thursday Aug. 7, 2008.

AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty
A security dog stands by under a banner of the Beijing 2008 Olympics slogan "One World One Dream" in Beijing.

AP Photo/Petr David Josek
Security guards and their dogs patrol outside the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest.

AP Photo/Kyodo News
One of three activists, right, of an U.S. religious group is detained by a plainclothes security authority in Tiananmen Square in Beijing Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008. The group planned to hold a news conference to call for Chinese government to stop religious oppression and human-rights suppression, but the conference was stopped by security agents, according to Kyodo News.

AP Photo/Greg Baker
An old man wears a red "security volunteer" armband on his shirt as other plain clothed security officials lead away a man, at center in T-shirt, who was protesting being evicted from his house in Beijing Thursday Aug. 7, 2008. Thousands of local residents in Beijing have been recruited as security volunteers as the city casts a wide security net in preparation for the Olympic Games, which open Friday. The volunteers are not tasked with fighting crime, but are expected to keep watch and report suspicious activities in their neighborhood.

Police and security forces in China have been busy according to media reports coming out of the country. Besides the sweeps and checks being required at and around Beijing's Olympics sports venues, the country faced a terrorist attack on Monday that killed 16 people. In the attack, two terrorists from a Chinese ethnic group comprised mostly of Muslims threw bombs at jogging policemen and rammed a truck into the police personnel.

In the town of Yichang, in the Hubei province, a man was detained after stating a planted bomb hoax at a shopping mall and supermarket in the town. Both locations, the mall and the market, were evacuated after the phoned-in bomb threat. According to Chinese authorities a number of similar bomb threats have occurred, and most were designed to be money extortion schemes.

In Beijing, protests have been a top concern, with police having to deal with protests from person evicted from their homes in the areas surrounding the Olympic venues.

Half a world away, we hope the accompanying photos illustrate the Beijing security situation just one day before the 2008 Olympics are scheduled to begin.