Al Jazeera International announces Barbara Serra

Barbara will present the news at weekends and will report from across Europe during the week.

Before joining Al Jazeera International, Barbara was one of the main presenters on the UK's Channel Five News. She was the first, and to date the only, second-language English speaker to present a flagship news programme on terrestrial British television.

Speaking on Barbara's appointment, Director of News, Steve Clark said, "I am pleased to confirm that Barbara Serra has joined the news team in London. Over the coming weeks we will be announcing more of our on-air talent around the world."

Al Jazeera International's London bureau chief, Sue Phillips said, "I am delighted that Barbara is joining the team here in London. She brings a wealth of experience and talent to our impressive line-up of Presenters."

Speaking about her appointment, Barbara Serra said "Much of today's international politics focuses on the Middle East, so it's great to be a part of the only global news channel headquartered in the region. Al Jazeera International's journalists come from all over the world and we'll be able to give a truly global perspective on the news to a potential world audience of one billion English speakers."

Barbara's career started at the BBC, where she worked as a presenter/reporter for BBC London News, produced on Radio 4's Today Programme and regularly presented EuroNews on BBC Radio Five Live. In 2003 she joined Sky News as a reporter, working on both domestic and international assignments. Barbara has covered a wide range of stories, from the death of Pope John Paul the Second in Rome, to the Michael Jackson trial in California. She trained as a journalist at London's City University.

Born in Milan, Italy, she was raised in Denmark from the age of nine and in 1993 moved to the UK to read International Relations at the London School of Economics. Barbara is bilingual English/Italian, and fluent in French.