China says no link between bus blasts, Olympics
Updated
China says it appears there is no direct link between two bus blasts on Monday and the Olympic games to be held in Beijing next month.
The blasts in Kunming have added to security tensions ahead of next month's Olympics because they followed repeated government warnings of terror threats to the games.
Authorities have provided few details about the explosions, other than a police statement saying they were set off deliberately and were an act of "sabotage".
While giving no more information about the explosions, the foreign ministry says it appears there is no direct link between the blasts and the games.
China has previously said that Muslims in the nation's far northwest Xinjiang region are planning attacks on the Olympics, while also warning of a security threat from Buddhists in Tibet.
"The Beijing Olympics is facing a terrorist threat unsurpassed in Olympic history," the People's Daily said in a recent editorial.
However rights groups have accused the government of exaggerating or fabricating the threat as an excuse to silence dissent in the two regions, where many complain about repressive Chinese rule.
Meanwhile, according to state media, Kunming, the capital of mountainous Yunnan province, located 2,100 kilometres southwest of Beijing, remains tense.
The China Daily newspaper says police have beefed up security at airports and highways in the city after the blasts, which also left 14 people injured.
