Putin the powerful

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin has been named the most powerful man in the world, according to Forbes magazine.

“As the undisputed, unpredictable and unaccountable head of an energy-rich, nuclear-tipped state, no one would ever call him weak,” said Caroline Howard, Senior Editor at Forbes.

Putin, for a second year, beat both US President Barack Obama, who came second, and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who came in at number 10.

Other powerful people included on the list were CEOs of big companies , including co-founders of Google, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who were number 9, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in spot number 22, who was the youngest man on the list, and Apple’s CEO Timothy Cook, who was placed at number 25.

Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, took spot number three and Pope Francis, Head of the Roman Catholic Church, came in at number four.

Ninety-year-old King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, was the oldest man on the list, at number 11.

Other powerful European people were France’s Prime Minister Francois Hollande, who was ranked as number 17, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was number 5 on the list and one of two women featured in the top 25.