rudd time mag list of worlds most influential

Rudd in Time's most influential people

From correspondents in New York
May 01, 2008 05:30pm

AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made Time magazine's list of the world's most influential people, alongside the US president and Iraq's radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Just five months after he was elected, the magazine has included Mr Rudd in this year's list of 100 names, including world and business leaders, celebrities and sports stars.

In a blurb written alongside Mr Rudd's listing, Australian actress Cate Blanchett said it was his apology to the nation's stolen generations that had impressed her most.

"For years, Australia's government refused to apologise to Aborigine for past wrongs done to them - most notably, the systematic removal of children from their parents,'' wrote Blanchett, who was chosen by Mr Rudd for a lead role in last month's 2020 ideas summit in Canberra.

''(The apology) was a watershed moment: the parliament building was filled with Aborigines, the grounds overflowed with many more people, and there were gatherings in every major city.

"Most Australians felt as I did, that wrongs were put right.''

Blanchett also mentioned Mr Rudd's signing of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, saying the move "required overturning years of government obstinacy''.

News Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch also made this year's list, following his acquisition of Dow Jones and its main masthead, the Wall Street Journal.

Paul Steiger, a former managing editor of the Journal, wrote in the magazine that Murdoch's move was a risky one.

"A return to his roots and a victory lap of sorts, acquiring the Journal poses for Murdoch perhaps his greatest test as a publisher,'' Steiger said.

"He aspires to make money and extend the paper's reach while maintaining its prestige - a tall order, even for him.''

Other notable names on the list include the three US presidential candidates, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and Republican John McCain; US President George W Bush; Iraq's radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr; the Dalai Lama; Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; and TV queen Oprah Winfrey.

It's Winfrey's fifth time on the list. She's made the cut more times than anyone else.

Mr Rudd also made an impression on Time's readers, who ranked him 133 out of 207 candidates. Murdoch was ranked 67.

But it was video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, who created games such as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Brothers, who topped the readers' list.

The main list was not ranked.