All hail Angela Merkel!

Who, according to Forbes, is the most powerful woman in the world?

It's not Condi Rice (#2). Nor is it Oprah (#14), Hillary (#18), or Melinda Gates (#12). Nor is it China's Wu Yi (#3), Chile's Michelle Bachelet (#17), or New Zealand's Helen Clark (#20). Nor is it, back in the U.S. again, Ruth Bader Ginsburg (#32), Laura Bush (#43), or Nancy Pelosi (#48). Nor is it Queen Elizabeth II (#46). Nor is it any of the women in the news business -- like Katie Couric (#54), Diane Sawyer (#60), and Christiane Amanpour (#79) -- or any of the women who run some of the world's leading companies and investment firms -- like PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi (#4), Morgan Stanley's Zoe Cruz (#10), and eBay's Margaret Whitman (#22).

No, the most powerful woman in the world -- and you can find the list of the top 100 here -- is Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who last year just narrowly squeaked into power. For more on Merkel, see a Time profile here. Last September and October, I wrote a six-post series on the German election. The last one, #6, is here.

(By the way, there are no Canadians on the list. Which is a little embarrassing.)