MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Al-Jazeera launches service in English

Ten years after starting Arabic-language broadcasts that angered leaders in the region and United States, Al-Jazeera lunched on Wednesday an English-language news channel available in more than 80 million homes but lacking major U.S. distribution.

Al-Jazeera English went on the air at 3 p.m. broadcasting from the station's headquarters in Doha, capital of the tiny Persian Gulf state of Qatar. A screen graphic with a clock ticking down the minutes gave way to a photo montage of the biggest news stories of the past decade and an announcer saying the new channel would be "setting the news agenda."

"It's Nov. 15th, a new era in television news," its anchor said.

The channel quickly jumped to live feeds from correspondents in various regions ? starting with the Gaza Strip in a spot that reflected the channel's promise to focus on Arab concerns in the Middle East.

The station reported on a rocket attack by Palestinian militants that killed an Israeli woman ? then cut to its Gaza correspondent reporting on the aftermath of Israel's 's shelling of the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun that killed 18 Palestinians earlier this week.

The video showed bombed apartment blocks and a scarred baby laying in a hospital bed after being wounded in the Israeli attack. The correspondent did her standup in front of a destroyed home.

It was followed by a clip from an interview with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. Later, the Jerusalem correspondent reported on Israel's growing anger over rocket attacks and fear among residents of towns near Gaza.

The station appeared eager to show its global reach, moving to live reports from correspondents in Sudan's Darfur region, Iran, Zimbabwe and Brazil and breaking in with a report on a tsunami warning in Japan.

Al-Jazeera, which is bankrolled by Qatar's royal family, said its signal would reach 80 million households with cable and satellite TV, mainly in the Middle East and Europe. It hopes to steal viewers from CNN and the British Broadcasting Corp. by giving the world's 1 billion English speakers news from a non-Western perspective.

Al-Jazeera's feisty Arabic news channel is well known for angering leaders in the West and the Arab world, where it has been banned from operating in 18 countries at various times. Four Arab nations still bar its reporters.

The station has broken new ground covering once-taboo political, religious and social subjects, while airing interviews with opposition figures and Israeli officials who previously were absent from other Arab networks.

Bush administration officials have branded the network's airing of messages from Osama bin Laden as an incitement to terrorism and criticized its often graphic coverage of bloodshed in Iraq.

Al-Jazeera English will be available to US customers of GlobeCast, the subsidiary of a French company that offers satellite TV service. Across Europe and the Middle East, Al-Jazeera English will be widely available on major cable providers in Britain, Germany, Italy and even Israel. The broadcast will also be streamed live on Al-Jazeera English's Internet site.

Al-Jazeera English hired more than 500 staffers, poaching journalists from American and British networks, including former CNN anchor Riz Khan, the BBC's David Frost and former ABC correspondent Dave Marash.

It will broadcast in high-definition TV, with its chief broadcast centers in Doha, London, Washington and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.