Washington, Mar 16 (IANS): Noted journalist Aparisim 'Bobby Bobby Ghosh, an Indian national, has been named the editor of Time International.

"Bobby, quite simply, is a magnificent journalist who has done the highest level of work that one can aspire to in our profession," the Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson and Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel told staffers in an announcement Friday.

Currently Time's Deputy International Editor, Ghosh takes over from Jim Frederick, who is vacating the position "to move on to other challenges," the memo said.

"The breadth of his interests and the depth of his expertise is reflected in a sampling of his recent international covers, from soccer star Leo Messi to Bollywood icon Aamir Khan to a profile of Egyptian president Mohamad Morsi," it said.

The first non-American to be named World Editor in Time's more than 80 year history, Ghosh started his career at the Deccan Chronicle, in Visakhapatnam; then went to work in Business Standard in Kolkata and BusinessWorld in Mumbai and Delhi.

His recent India stories for Time have included profiles of cricket god Sachin Tendulkar, Bollywood star Aamir Khan and world chess champ Vishy Anand.

During his five years as Time Baghdad bureau chief throughout the worst of the Iraq war, Ghosh "wrote two of our most unforgettable cover stories: Life in Hell, and Sunnis vs. Shi'ites," the memo read.

"He was not only fearless in his work in Iraq but he was the guardian of all who worked for us in Baghdad."

Ghosh joined Time in 1998 after ten years as a journalist in India and two on the staff of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong. He became a senior editor at Time Asia, where he wrote a weekly Time.com column called Subcontinental Drift.

Ghosh then moved to London to become a senior editor at Europe and in 2007, he became the first non-American World editor in Time 's history, the memo noted.