A former Miss Italy beauty pageant contestant is set to grace Arab network al-Jazeera's upcoming 24-hour English-language news channel. Milan-born Barbara Serra, chosen by the Doha, Qatar-based network as a news anchor earlier this month, says she has no qualms with the network's reputation as al-Qaeda's preferred channel for propaganda messages. "It's true they have aired the material [first], but it makes news. That's why the BBC and Sky would pick up the items (video and audio messages from Osama-bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) immediately afterwards," she said in an interview with Milan-daily Corriere della Sera published on Thursday.Serra who has broadcasting experience with the BBC and Sky, became the first, and to date the only, second-language English speaker to present a flagship news programme on British television as an anchor for private station, Channel Five.