Chinese UN observer killed in Israeli air strike

[tocqueville]

47 minutes ago

BEIJING (AFP) - A Chinese observer was among four UN personnel killed in an Israeli air strike on Lebanon, state media said.

Xinhua news agency named the observer as Du Zhaoyu and said his body had been recovered from the rubble of the bombed UN observer base in the hilltop town of Khiam.

China's foreign ministry had no immediate comment on Tuesday's incident.

"We have heard this news, we are trying to confirm it now, we have no comment on this yet," a ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060726/wl_asia_afp/mideastconflictunchina

[me b zola]

1. Yep. Certainly could have some implications

Here's one of those potential implications. From NNN0LHI's thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1730927

China urged to switch out of dollars

A Chinese government agency has urged the country to diversify its foreign exchange reserves, the world's biggest, away from the current heavy emphasis on the US dollar.

The National Bureau of Statistics warned against the exchange risk associated with tying too much money up in assets denominated in a single currency which threatens to steadily decrease the value of the reserves.

'We should step up the diversification of the forex reserves in order to reduce the risk of loss from dollar-denominated assets,' the bureau said.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0725/china.html