PARIS (Kamal Qubeissi)
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was ranked third in the list of the World's Most Powerful People released Thursday by the leading American business magazine Forbes.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was ranked third in the list of the World's Most Powerful People released Thursday by the leading American business magazine Forbes.
After occupying the ninth place in 2009, King Abdullah moved six places forward to become the third most powerful after Chinese President Hu Jintao and American President Barrack Obama.
Hu Jinatao was described by Forbes as the "paramount political leader of more people than anyone else on the planet" and President Obama was described as the "commander-in-chief of world's largest, deadliest military, leader of world's largest (in spending) and most dynamic economy and holds the unofficial title of ‘Leader of the Free World.'"
Saudi King Abdullah was ranked third for being the head of the nation that "contains the world's largest crude oil reserves and two holiest sites in Islam."
King Abdullah was also praised for introducing a series of reforms while "maintaining good relations with deeply conservative religious establishment."
Although the list saw leaders like Jintao and King Abdullah moving forward, others retreated like Obama who ranked first in the 2009 list. Mexican businessman of Lebanese origins Carlos Slim Helu, the richest man in the world, moved from the sixth to the 21st place and co-founder of Google Sergey Brin from fifth to 22nd.
Some are no longer in the top 10 list like Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp who ranked seventh in 2009 and retreated to 13th in 2010. Bill Gates kept his last year's 10th place.
New leaders joined the top ten list this year, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was ranked sixth, Pope Benedict XVI, ranked fifth, British Prime Minister David Cameron, ranked seventh, and head of the Indian National Congress Sonia Gandhi, who ranked ninth. Both Cameron and Gandhi joined the Forbes list for the first time.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, fourth in 2010 and third in 2009, and Chairman of Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke, eighth in 2010 and fourth in 2009, stayed in the top 10ist.
UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan ranked 56 for controlling "97.8 billion barrels of proved oil reserves" and Chilean President Sebastian Piñera ranked 51 after he "led country through aftermath of brutal earthquake, mining rescue, and put economy on track for growth."
Last but not least comes in the 68th place the Australian Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, specialized in unraveling classified information that shock the world and publishing confidential documents. The power acquired by Assange is summarized by the sentence that describes his overwhelming influence.
"Governments and corporations with dirty laundry should be afraid, very afraid," said Forbes website.
(Translated from the Arabic by Sonia Farid)
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