Frontline reporters using the latest technology are bringing the Iraq war instantly to millions of people across Asia, but the images highlighted vary widely from country to country.

In Muslim-majority Malaysia, most newspapers carried huge front page pictures of Iraqi children killed and wounded in an air strike o­n the town of Basra, with captions reading "Sickening" and "Victims of barbarism".

The Malay Mail front page ran the banner headline; "Bloody Bush war. It's a o­ne-sided massacre of the innocent", while the New Straits Times said: "Invaders pinned down, defiant Iraq says Saddam still firmly in control."

The pictures and the reports are from international news agencies such as AFP , Reuters and AP , which are providing coverage of every angle of the war from their correspondents in the battle zone and around the world.

Wide choice

The same agencies are used widely throughout Asia, where few newspapers have their own correspondents o­n the scene, but the angles emphasised by editors can be very different.

In the Philippines and South Korea, where the governments support the war, newspapers have focused o­n US troop movements, such as allied tanks racing across the desert.

In New Zealand, which opposes the war, the New Zealand Herald led strongly with images of wounded children.

In the Muslim states of Pakistan and Bangladesh, newspapers headlined stiff resistance being faced by allied forces from the Iraqi military, with Pakistan's Urdu language press highlighting US casualties and prisoners of war.

Television editors also have a wide choice of material showing contrasting images of the war, with the Arabic channel al-Jazeera providing coverage alongside Britain's BBC and the US-based CNN .

Qatar's al-Jazeera , which found fame with its coverage of US operations in Afghanistan in late 2001 and is available directly to satellite subscribers in countries such as Malaysia, has broadcast footage showing dead and captured US troops in Iraq.

Despite objections from Washingon and warnings that the humilitation of prisoners of war contravenes the Geneva Convention, Australian media editors decided at hastily called meetings Monday to keep broadcasting the images.

More facts than opinions

Managers at several media organisations said they could not justify censoring the pictures after having used footage of Iraqi soldiers held by US-led forces.

The images of the POWs were also carried by several Japanese networks and by broadcasters in countries including New Zealand and the Philippines.

Indian newspapers have given saturation coverage to the war, but, aside from in editorials in which the US invasion has been condemned, the tone has tended to be more factual than opinionated.

Indian TV channels are banking o­n footage from news agencies, though some sent correspondents to Kuwait. Star News has showed al-Jazeera footage.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, the 11 television channels mainly use pictures from CNN with a notable exception being TV7 , which makes wide use of al-Jazeera footage.

In Taiwan, local cable television company CTiTV Inc. has for the first time signed a contract with al-Jazeera.

Baseball coverage

Television viewers in Singapore, a largely ethnic Chinese US ally surrounded by predominantly Muslim Indonesia and Malaysia, have no access to al-Jazeera and other broadcasters from the Gulf region.

Cable news access is limited to western international channels and a local broadcaster, ChannelNewsAsia . Private homes are banned from installing their own satellite dishes as part of media controls.

And while the airwaves around Asia have generally been swamped by war coverage, the conflict did not divert public broadcaster Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) from running live coverage all Monday afternoon of an annual high school baseball tournament. -- AFP