Toronto-based Naked News (NSFW, duh), which already broadcasts both an English and Japanese version, will soon also be available in Spanish, Italian and Korean. That's right. While other newsrooms are cutting back, laying off correspondents, and eliminating foreign bureaus, Naked News is (insert your pun of choice here).

If you are not familiar with the Naked News phenomenon, the site offers subscribers 22 minutes of headlines, light news, and celebrity interviews, six days a week. The program is delivered by articulate, charismatic women who undress as they read the news. It's as simple as that. During a typical segment, a Naked News host will go from wearing a regular women's suit, to lingerie, to nothing at all, all while talking about Bush's trip to the Middle East, or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, in a completely straight-faced manner.

What's nice about Naked News is that they're up front about the fact that most news programs today are as much about sex appeal as they are about anything else. At least Naked News is being honest about it, which is a lot more than we can say about certain American news channels.

(For the record, Torontoist is written by fully clothed journalists who only on the rarest of occasions work in their pajamas or underwear.)

Photo of Christine Kerr from the Naked News website