KEY POINTS:
They include the Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the Queen and Tyra Banks, a model who made headlines for showing that women with curves did belong on the covers of magazines.
Also featured are Maher Arar, who was abducted by US authorities because of flawed intelligence, and Peter Akinola, an archbishop who strongly opposes homosexuality.
This eclectic mix are among the cast who make up Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2007, published today.
Time said the list of 71 men and 29 women from 27 different countries highlighted the people "whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world".
There are plenty of safe bets among the 100.
Who would argue, for instance, that Microsoft founder Bill Gates and presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton do not deserve to be on the list?
But does Maher Arar, the Canadian-Syrian who was "renditioned" by US agents who claimed he was an al Qaeda operative and sent to Damascus where he was held and tortured for 10 months, really qualify as one of the world's 100 most influential individuals?
Mr Arar said he was delighted to be featured, while his profile in Time, written by the US senator Patrick Leahy, noted: "Maher Arar's case stands as a sad symbol of how we have been too willing to sacrifice our core principles to overarching government power in the name of security."
The magazine also listed Peter Akinola, the Archbishop of Nigeria, who has criticised the investiture in other countries of openly gay clergy.
The magazine said: "If the Anglican Communion falls apart, Peter Akinola will have been a catalyst, even if he does not end up prince of one of the pieces."
Artists and Entertainers
Tina Fey - television writer, producer and actress
Youssou N'Dour - musician
Anna Netrebko - soprano opera singer
Justin Timberlake - pop singer
Sacha Baron Cohen - comic actor and writer
Leonardo DiCaprio - actor
Nora Roberts - romance writer
Rick Rubin - music producer
Martin Scorsese - film director
Cate Blanchett - actress
Alber Elbaz - fashion designer
America Ferrera - actress
Simon Fuller - music manager and television presenter
Brian Grazer - producer
John Mayer - musician
David Mitchell - writer
Kate Moss - model
Rosie O'Donnell - actress
Brad Pitt - actor
Shonda Rhimes - screenwriter
Kara Walker - artist
Brian Williams - news anchor
Leaders and Revolutionaries
Queen Elizabeth II
Tzipi Livni - foreign minister and vice president Israel
Peter Akinola - Nigerian archbishop
Liu Qi - Beijing Communist Party secretary
Condoleezza Rice - US Secretary of State
Omar Hassan al-Bashir - leader of Sudan
John Roberts - US chief justice
Sonia Gandhi - leader of Indian Congress party
Raul Castro - defence minister of Cuba
Arnold Schwarzenegger - California governor
David Petraeus - US general
Hillary Clinton - 2008 US presidential candidate
Hu Jintao - President of China
Nancy Pelosi - US speaker of the house
King Abdullah - King of Saudi Arabia
Barack Obama - 2008 US presidential candidate
Michael Bloomburg - businessman
Ayutollah Ali Khamenei - supreme leader of Iran
Pope Benedict XVI - leader of the Catholic Church
Angela Merkel - German chancellor
Osama bin Laden - Saudi terrorist
Heroes and Pioneers
Oprah Winfrey - television presenter
Elizabeth Edwards - attorney and wife of US 2008 presidential candidate
Warren Buffett - businessman
Drew Gilpin Faust - Harvard president
Wesley Autrey - subway hero
Tony Dungy - American football coach
Roger Federer - tennis player
Tyra Banks - model and television presenter
Youk Chhang - director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia
George Clooney - actor
Michael J Fox - actor
Timothy Gittins - army officer
Judith Mackay - doctor
Chien-Ming Wang - baseball player
Maher Arar - software engineer (wrongly accused of terrorism)
Thierry Henry - soccer player
Zeng Jinyan - blogger
Garry Kasparov - chess player and politician
Amr Khaled - accountant and website ownern
Scientists and Thinkers
Al Gore - former US vice president and climate change champion
Neil de Grasse Tyson - astrophysicist and author
J Craig Venter - geneticist
Lisa Randall - theoretical physicist
John Mather - astrophysicist and Nobel Prize winner
Elizabeth Blackburn - biologist
Alan Stern - director of Nasa Science Mission Directorate
Tullis Onstott - geophysicist
Svante Paabo - evolutionary geneticist
Steven Nissen - heart specialist
Richard Dawkins - evolutionary biologist
Chris Anderson - physicist
Paul Allen - co-founder of Microsoft
Monty Jones - developmental plant breeder
Klaus Schwab - founder of World Economic Forum in Davos
Nora Volkow - director of US National Institute of Drug Abuse
Frans de Waal - psychologist, primatologist and ethologist
Douglas Melton - stem cell researcher
Kari Stefansson - neurologist
Builders and Titans
Richard Branson - entrepreneur
Cyril Ramaphosa - union leader
Erik Lie - business analyst
Pony Ma - internet guru
Chad Hurley and Steve Chen - founders of YouTube
Katsuaki Watanabe - environmental car designer
Bernard Arnault - chairman of Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton
Clara Furse - CEO of London Stock Exchange
Ken Lewis - CEO of Bank of America
Lakshmi Mittal - CEO of Arcelor Mittal
Shigeru Miyam - video game designer
Rhonda Byrne - author of self-help books
Steven Cohen - businessman
Steve Jobs - director of Apple
Philip Rosedale - creator of Second Life
Ho Ching - CEO of Temasek
Indra Nooyi - CEO of Pepsi Co
Stephen Schwarzman - CEO Blackstone Group
Michael Moritz - internet Entrepreneur
- INDEPENDENT
