QUESTION: Which female British newsreader was not only named as one of the world's 50 most beautiful people by the glossy US magazine, People, but also listed as one of the ''news women we love'' by Esquire? Was it (a) Kirsty Young; (b) Fiona Bruce; or (c) Katie Derham?

ANSWER: Yes, you've guessed it, it's a trick question. It's none of them. In fact, the answer is none other than our own, our very own . . . Daljit Dhaliwal. ''Daljit who?'' did I hear you ask? Well, you've obviously not been keeping an eye on Channel 4, where, with some regularity, the lovely Ms D was, until very recently, to be found reading the news of an early evening.

Then, reluctantly, she resigned from ITN, the TV news giant which provides Channel 4 with its bulletins. A row, perhaps, over the fact that, as part of ITN's latest cost-saving measures, female presenters have to apply their own make-up? No. A clash of personalities, then, with her on-screen colleague, Jon Snow. No again.

Actually, the reason Ms Dhaliwal quit after seven years has nothing whatsoever to do with Channel 4. It's because the other programme she fronts - ITN World News for Public Television, part of the organisation's world service - has been taken off the air after losing its major sponsor, Virgin Atlantic.

''It's a real shame,'' she said. ''We had a great programme with a wonderfully loyal audience, but after September 11 Virgin Atlantic couldn't give us all the funding.''

And, so, a nation mourns. But not this nation. Okay, the more discerning Channel 4 viewer may briefly shed a tear at the lady's departure. But British newsreaders are a bit like Glasgow buses. You miss one, but you don't worry because there will be another one along in a minute.

No. It's in America where Ms Dhaliwal's absence is being most keenly felt. Even as you read this, her vast and loyal US fan base is still in deep shock. And that's not a joke. Broadcast from ITN's London headquarters five nights a week, ITN World News was shown on no fewer than 75 public service stations across the United States. No mean feat in a country hardly renowned for its avid interest in foreign affairs.

So popular was the programme's 37-year-old anchor lady that her holiday stand-ins opened the show with the words ''Good evening. Daljit is on vacation.'' The truth is that the former BBC news trainee, the UK-born daughter of Punjabi parents who cut some of her working teeth with the Beeb in Scotland, is more likely to be recognised in a New York deli than in a London caff.

And the strange thing is that the programme was not what you'd call US viewer-friendly television. In fact, with it's hard-news style and global agenda, it was a decidedly un-American activity. No merry banter between the anchors, no fluffy celeb-based stories. So much of its success was down to the presenter herself. Her striking Asian looks and cut-glass delivery captured a nation.

When the ITN World News programme was first threatened with the axe (and then reprieved) a few years ago, there was an outcry among her US following. More recently, talk-show host David Letterman is reputed to have become so obsessed with Daljit that he demanded that his CBS gaffers pension off their ageing news anchor Dan Rather and install her in the hotseat instead.

The peculiar Mr Letterman then took up the habit of chanting ''Daljit Dhaliwal, Daljit Dhaliwal'' on his programme every night. Eventually, the object of his obsession was persuaded to appear on his show, an event which set her on the road to cult status in the land of the free and the home of the brave. This was finally confirmed when car stickers appeared, inviting other drivers to ''Honk if you like Daljit!'' Many did, apparently.

Funny old world, the world of worldwide news broadcasting. Those who present it end up with celebrity status abroad but remain strangers in their own land. A few are big enough to beat the system and get, er, the best of both worlds. Unconfirmed reports from usually reliable sources suggest that, thanks to BBC World, Jeremy Paxman is particularly big in Iran. ''That's news to us,'' commented a Beeb spokesman. And world affairs editor John Simpson is big in . . . well, pretty much everywhere.

But most are like Daljit, unsung heroes in their own neighbourhood. Suzy Price may not be a household name in the UK, but, as BBC World's correspondent in Pakistan, she's pretty well-known in the

Indian subcontinent. Not exactly famous, perhaps, but (and I am assured this is true) there are some TV news junkies in Pakistan who genuinely think ''Suzy'' is an English term for ''journalist''.

Another example is the Canadian-born BBC reporter Lyse Doucet; still relatively low-profile in Britain even though she has been reporting extensively from Afghanistan. Overseas, however, things are different.

No less an organ than the Wall Street Journal recently wrote in glowing terms of her: ''Lyse Doucet is the best thing to have emerged on television these last few weeks. Clear-headed, clever, and deeply unostentatious.''

Then there's Nik Gowing. You might remember Nik; he worked for ITN for many years and was a regular face on our domestic screens as Channel 4 News's diplomatic editor. Then, six years ago, he went off to join BBC World. Today he's the channel's main presenter - but he could walk into his local Sainsbury's and no-one would give him a second glance. Unless they were a foreign visitor.

An executive at BBC World, who prefers to remain nameless, recalled yesterday the occasion when he personally discovered just how famous Nik was in India. ''I was over there on holiday and a man kissed my feet when I gave him a present of a BBC World watch. And it was all on the strength of Nik Gowing,'' he said.

Nik himself doesn't regret for a moment his switch to world service broadcasting. He said yesterday: ''When I started working for BBC World the audience was about 16 million. I think it's now about 200 million. It's had an enormous impact, and it has always been my expectation that this would happen.

''It's quite remarkable, actually, just how much recognition you get. I find myself in many places and people will come up to me and say 'You're the man from BBC World'. It happens a lot in airport lounges. And it's then that you realise just how incredibly wide the viewing audience is. It doesn't surprise me, but it confirms how influential and how powerful it is.

''I remember I was out in a remote area of the Kenyan bush once and a man came up and said that he watched me every morning on his television. It sounds very arrogant, but there are many businessmen, diplomats, and even people in government, particularly in countries which don't have a decent television service, who get their news from BBC World.''

Even in London Nik gets stopped in the street. ''There are so many people, even since 9/11, who are coming here from overseas for business or pleasure. I was on screen for six hours on September 11, and again on October 7 when the war started, and people remember that.

''In fact, there are still a lot of people who come up to me because they watch BBC World and remember that I was the presenter who first informed them about the death of Diana - and that was four-and-a-half years ago,'' he added.

Meanwhile, back in America, the void left by ITN World News's demise looks like being filled by . . . the BBC's World News.

As for Daljit Dhaliwal, who is married to an American journalist, she is keeping her Stateside options open. She told the New York Post that she would like to land an on-air job in the US and she has hired a New York company to explore opportunities there.

''My audience is out here and I'm better known for doing a programme stateside,'' she said. ''And there are a lot more opportunities here. I don't have to dance around it any more. I've been in discussions with some people and it's been encouraging. I'm open to new ideas, and I know it sounds cliched, but I'm excited about the new challenges ahead.''