Los Angeles - Global hip-hop star MIA and young Hollywood heartthrob Zac Efron have joined US President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama on Time magazine's coveted list of The 100 Most Influential People in the World. The US-based magazine splits the list into five categories: leaders & revolutionaries, builders & titans, artists & entertainers, and heroes & icons.
In the leaders group, Obama found himself with world figures such as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French Prsident Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. There were spots for rightwing Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, China's Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Vice President Xi Jinping, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Norah al-Faiz, the Saudi deputy minister for women's education.
The builders & titans section included disgraced financier Bernie Madoff alongside US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim made the list, along with designer Stella McCartney, former oil magnate T Boone Pickens, who has spent millions of his fortune to press for alternative energy projects in the US, and Robin Chase, co-founder of US car-sharing community Zipcar.
Infosys founder Nandan Nilekani was lauded for establishing India's first truly global company, while Jack Ma made the list for founding e-commerce site Alibaba.com.
Right-wing US radio host Rush Limbaugh featured on the entertainers list along with Sam and Dan Houser, makers of the Grand Theft Auto video games. Efron, Penelope Cruz and Indian composer AR Rahman were alongside German filmmaker Werner Herzog, South African artist William Kentridge and US comedians Tina Fey and Jay Leno and actor Tom Hanks.
The heroes and icons group included Tiger Woods, actor-activist George Clooney, Michelle Obama, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative founder Seth Berkley, and sex-trade opponent Somaly Mam. Alongside such well-known figures as Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Palin, Suraya Pakzad was honoured for her work for women's rights in Afghanistan, and Sister Mary Scullion was included for her work helping the US homeless.
Featuring among scientists & thinkers list were US economists Nouriel Roubini and Paul Krugman, environmental activist Amory Lovins, and Jon Favreau, Barack Obama's head speechwriter. Also: Dambisa Moyo, whose critiques of current African aid structures are changing the continent's finances, Nobel Prize physicist Yoichiro Nambu, social scientist Nicholas Christakis and Shai Agassi, whose Better Place enterprise is building battery-exchange and charging stations for a new generation of cars in Israel, Denmark, Australia, California and elsewhere.
