"Thank You"s Lost in Translation

Readers of English language media who followed the G8 summit will no doubt be aware that the new Iraqi President, Ghazi Yawar, thanked the United States for liberating Iraq. The Washington Post, for instance, writes that

Yawar, in white headdress and brown robe, thanked Americans for "the sacrifices" endured during the war in Iraq and said Iraqis are "determined to have a free, democratic, federal Iraq." He assured Bush that "we are moving in steady steps towards it."

True to form, this thank you appears nowhere in the French language media, so far as I can tell from searchers of the French Google news service.

But while you can't find [Ghazi "remercie les etats unis"], [Ghazi "remercier les etats unis"], etc. (alternate phrasings of thanked/thanks America) in the French media, you can find this:

L'Irak remercie la France pour son rôle sur la résolution de l'ONU

SAVANNAH, Géorgie (AP) - Le président irakien Ghazi al-Yaouar a remercié la France de son rôle dans «l'élaboration» et »l'amélioration» de la résolution à l'occasion du déjeuner réunissant les membres du G8...

Iraq thanks France for its role in U.N. resolution

Iraqi president Ghazi al-Yawar thanked France for its role in the "elaboration" and "improvement" of the resolution during a breakfast of G8 members...

This, the plot thickens, is a thank you that you cannot find (or at least that I could not find) in the English language Google news service. Try digging up any hits for the combination of [Ghazi thanked(/thanks) France] that actually report on the Iraqi thank you to France that is making headlines in the land of Chirac.

The media watchphrase of the 21st century: "We decide what we report."