Huge cash for tip-off

China is offering rewards up to 500,000 yuan (73,000 dollars) to anyone who provides information on major security threats during the Olympic Games, state media reported Friday.
The rewards aim to "mobilise the enthusiasm of the masses in maintaining public security, as well as to control and eliminate hidden dangers to the Olympic Games," Xinhua news agency said, citing Beijing authorities.
The move, part of an increasingly strict security drive in China's capital ahead of the Games next month, urged residents in the city to report information on major threats until October 31, Xinhua said.
They would be given between 10,000 and 500,000 yuan for credible tips, the notice said.
Examples of what police are looking for included information on terrorist attacks, sabotage by illegal organisations such as Falungong, and deaths of Olympic-related people and foreigners, Xinhua reported.
The announcement comes a day after China warned it faced a serious terror threat in its Muslim-majority northwest Xinjiang province ahead of the Olympics.
Authorities said 82 suspected terrorists had been detained and five organisations that had been planning to attack the Games had been cracked there this year.
Yang Huanning, vice minister of public security, also said last week that the Games would be a target for anti-China and "hostile forces" that were trying to sabotage the event.
However human rights groups and other critics allege the government has fabricated or exaggerated the terrorist threat as an excuse to crush all forms of dissent before the showpiece event.
The Beijing Bureau for Social Order, which issued the notice, refused to comment on the rewards when contacted by AFP.