Merkel ‘world’s most powerful woman’

GERMAN chancellor Angela Merkel tops Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most powerful women for the second year in a row, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice slipped to fourth from second last year.

Merkel “continued to impress the world with her cool leadership at two back-to-back summits”, Forbes said.

The magazine cited her work getting leaders at the Group of Eight summit to agree to goals for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and persuading EU leaders to get moving on a treaty to replace their failed constitution.