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.
