Beijing's notoriously foul-smelling and poorly tended public toilets will feature some rarely seen luxuries during the Olympics.

A senior Chinese security official said the Beijing Olympics are threatened by sabotage and unrest, state media said on Friday.

Double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius came fourth in an able-bodied race on Wednesday, finishing outside the Olympic qualifying time.

The people of Hou Wang Ge Zhung believe that their small community, an hour's drive from Beijing, has joined the ranks of China's "cancer villages".

The Olympic torch was paraded on Saturday through the streets of Tibet's capital, Lhasa -- the scene of bloody riots in March.

It has been a long ride from the streets of Brackendowns, in the south-east of Johannesburg, to Beijing.

Swimmer Natalie du Toit will compete in the Olympics and the Paralympics at the Beijing Games after she was named in South Africa's team on Thursday.

Oscar Pistorius said on Wednesday that he does not believe he has a chance of qualifying to run with able-bodied athletes in the 400m at the Beijing Olympics.

Optimism is flooding back to Beijing two months before the Olympics, with organisers eyeing success despite fears over pollution, security and the potential for more PR blunders.

Multinationals have paid a king's ransom for their right to sponsor the Olympics and they are scanning the horizon for ambushes as they drive the marketing bandwagon towards Beijing.