From Reuters via the Washington Post:

At the bottom of a deep pit gouged by a bulldozer, a Chinese soldier in a protective visor shovels aside earth to reveal an unexploded bomb left over from Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas in south Lebanon.

Sweating at his perilous task in Zebqin village, 2nd Sergeant Liu Sinpshi is part of a 190-strong Chinese contingent in a U.N. peacekeeping force trying to stabilize the south.

The Chinese demining mission in Lebanon is a small sign of Beijing’s rapidly expanding engagement in the Middle East, where its voracious quest for secure energy supplies in the 21st century has sharpened its interest in regional stability.[Full Text]