New York: When it comes to power, politics trumps business, according to a new Forbes ranking on Wednesday that found heads of state occupying six of the top 10 spots among the world's most powerful people, led by US President Barack Obama. The annual list selected what Forbes said were the world's 71 most-powerful people from among the roughly 7.1 billion global populace, based on factors ranging from wealth to global influence.
Obama was joined in the top 10 by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia and British Prime Minister David Cameron. The list's highest-ranked businessman was Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at No 4. US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, both public officials, also made the top 10.
"This year's list reflects the changing of the guard in the world's two most powerful countries: the United States and China," Michael Noer, Forbes' executive editor, told Reuters in an email. Noer noted that China's President Hu Jintao, last year's third most-powerful person, fell off the list as he is leaving power, and his successor, Xi Jinping, ranked ninth instead.
Both US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who have stated they will not be serving in Obama's second term, were not in this year's rankings. While elected and appointed officials and business people made up the vast majority of Forbes' most powerful, Pope Benedict XVI placed
08:24 AM, Dec 06, 2012
Los Angeles: It was too expensive. It lacked editorial focus. And for a digital publication, it was strangely cut off from the Internet. That's the obituary being written in real time through posts, tweets and online chats about The Daily, the first-of-its-kind iPad newspaper that is being shut down this month. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said on Monday that The Daily will publish its final issue on December 15, less...
03:59 PM, Dec 04, 2012
London: Prime Minister David Cameron rejected the idea of a law to regulate the British press on Thursday, risking a split in his government after an inquiry advised legal backing for a watchdog to police the sometimes outrageous conduct of newspapers. Opposing an independent regulator enshrined in law will delight the British press ahead of the 2015 election but may raise concern inside the coalition government that Cameron lacks the...
06:32 AM, Nov 30, 2012
New York: Media magnate Rupert Murdoch stirred an online row with a tweet complaining about the "Jewish owned" press and apologised again in a bid to calm the furore. Murdoch, whose News Corporation empire includes Fox television, BSkyB, The Wall Street Journal, the London Times and HarperCollins publishers wrote on Saturday on Twitter: "Why is Jewish owned press so consistently anti Israel in every crisis?" Facing accusations of anti-Semitism, Murdoch...
09:07 AM, Nov 20, 2012
London: Few seem to be enjoying the management meltdown at the venerable BBC more than Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp. chief whose rival British newspapers have been caught up in their own lengthy, embarrassing and expensive phone-hacking scandal. But the troubles for both media organizations highlight that the news industry in Britain is at rock-bottom in public esteem, and could face increased restrictions from the government of Prime Minister David...
01:30 AM, Nov 13, 2012
Greedy owners and cataract-ic managers have hollowed out Indian journalism from within, but it is self-obsessing editors with yacht-size lifestyles that have inflicted the most ...
08:07 PM, Oct 14, 2012
London: Rupert Murdoch said Britain's Prince Harry should be given a break, days after his Sun tabloid added to the 27-year-old's embarrassment by printing pictures of him cavorting naked in Las Vegas, in defiance of appeals from Royal lawyers. "Prince Harry. Give him a break. He may be on the public payroll one way or another, but the public loves him, even to enjoy Las Vegas," the media mogul said...
07:31 AM, Aug 27, 2012
London: Key former aides of media baron Rupert Murdoch and Prime Minister David Cameron were on Tuesday charged with criminal conspiracy to hack into phones of individuals and other charges, taking the year-long phone-hacking row to a new level. Rebekah Brooks, Murdoch's high-profile former aide and editor of the News of the World, and Andy Coulson, who was Cameron's director of communications, are among eight people who face a total...
04:45 PM, Jul 24, 2012
London: Besides media baron Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World, British papers Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Star and Star on Sunday, have come under the scanner of the Scotland Yard for alleged payments made to prison guards for stories. Appearing before the Leveson Inquiry into ethics, culture and practices of the British press, Sue Akers, senior police officer in charge of the investigations, today said that prison...
08:03 PM, Jul 23, 2012
London: News Corp's Rupert Murdoch has stepped down from a string of boards overseeing the Sun, Times and Sunday Times newspapers in Britain, the company said in an internal memo on Saturday. The company described the news as a "corporate housecleaning exercise" linked to the announcement in June that News Corp would split into two separate companies: a smaller publishing division and a much larger entertainment and TV group. But...
02:59 AM, Jul 22, 2012
Los Angeles: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said on Thursday that its board has approved a plan to split into two companies, one containing struggling newspaper and book publishing businesses and the other comprising faster-growing entertainment operations. Murdoch will serve as chairman of both new companies and CEO of the entertainment company. The Murdoch family, which controls nearly 40 percent of the voting shares in News Corp., is expected to maintain...
09:12 AM, Jun 29, 2012
London: Actor Russell Crowe is reportedly in line to portray media tycoon Rupert Murdoch in a new film. The Gladiator star is tipped to take on the role of the media mogul in a movie based on Good Times, Bad Times, the memoirs of former Sunday Times editor Harold Evans, reported Contactmusic. "You have to be brave to play someone like Murdoch. Russell can do it," a source said. Actor...
12:08 PM, Jun 27, 2012
Los Angeles: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is preparing to spin off its newspaper business into a separate company, an acknowledgement that the printed page that gave rise to a media empire will never again be central to its future. Murdoch's plan to split his company represents a break from the past. The 81-year-old billionaire built the company from a single Australian newspaper he inherited from his father. And through the...
08:59 AM, Jun 27, 2012
London: A lawyer for Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group says the company could face 500 lawsuits from victims of tabloid phone hacking -- far more than have so far been filed. Michael Silverleaf told a court hearing on Friday that "we are dealing with 500 claims, potentially" from people who say their voicemail messages were intercepted by the now-defunct News of the World. Murdoch's News Group Newspapers has paid millions...
12:21 AM, Jun 02, 2012
Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his ties with media baron Rupert Murdoch at the phone-hacking inquiry. ...
07:11 PM, May 29, 2012
London: British leaders are forced to court powerful press barons such as Rupert Murdoch or risk savage media attacks which render them unable to govern effectively, former Prime Minister Tony Blair told an inquiry on Monday. Interrupted by a heckler who accused him of being a war criminal for supporting the US invasion of Iraq, Blair paused briefly before continuing to justify his ties to Murdoch with whom he said...
06:50 PM, May 29, 2012
London: Tony Blair's decision to openly court Rupert Murdoch to win power and ensure favorable coverage during his decade-long tenure as British prime minister will come under scrutiny when he faces a media inquiry on Monday. The inquiry, ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron after Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid admitted hacking phones, has tarnished Britain's elite by laying bare the collusion between politicians, the police and...
11:00 AM, May 28, 2012
Brooks has in the past few days been questioned by the Leveson inquiry into media standards and ethics. ...
03:19 PM, May 15, 2012
London: Known for using the internet and new media, British Prime Minister David Cameron somehow believed that 'LOL' meant 'Lots of Love' when sending texts to ex-editor of the News of the World Rebekah Brooks, until she enlightened him that it actually meant 'Laugh Out Loud'. Brooks, 43, who was arrested for allegations of perjury and in relation to phone-hacking scandal at the now-defunct tabloid of Media mogul Rupert Murdoch,...
10:43 AM, May 12, 2012
London: Rupert Murdoch has reportedly told staffers at his UK newspapers that his business can emerge "better and stronger" following the phone-hacking scandal, even as a panel of British MPs on Monday branded the news baron "unfit" to run his global media empire. In his email shot to his employees in the UK, the 81-year-old Australian-American Chairman of News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate, has also said that some...
11:46 AM, May 02, 2012
