The Guardian website's most viewed stories

The Guardian is of course that bastian of intelligent liberal thinking and independent challenging thought.

Its website is truly brilliant and interestingly as much as 70% of its unique users come from abroad, mainly the US. This, one could assume, is because they provide their news from a particular political perspective which is not widely available in conservative America.
It is a site I check on a number of occasions daily, no more so than for world news. This has been especially so over the last few days as the Israelis carried out their devastating and escalating attacks in Gaza.

But as I was reading Chris McGreal's piece earlier today, I couldn't help but notice guardian.co.uk's most viewed for the previous 24 hours. In first place, 'Matt Smith becomes new Doctor in BBC show', and number two, 'Why Israel went to war in Gaza'.

So on the day that Israel troops entered Gaza on a scale not seen since the pull-out in 2005, more online UK Guardian readers were interested in the new Dr Who actor than the escalation of fighting in the most important issue for resolving Middle-Eastern peace around? I really thought this was remarkable.

At least we can safely assume the 70% of world users will have by-passed the intrigue of the new Dr!