Meet World's Next Most Powerful Woman

You might not have heard of her, but Dilma Rousseff is likely to be the most powerful woman in the world about a week from now. The stout 63-year-old ex-guerrilla and cancer survivor is poised to become Brazil's next president in elections next Sunday, reports the Independent, with a 50%-to-30% lead in polls virtually guaranteeing that the protege of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will succeed him.

Thanks to Brazil's booming economy and 200-million-strong population, that places her ahead of other female political luminaries such as Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton. Rousseff, who was imprisoned and tortured as a leader of a group that resisted a Western-backed military regime, has been a key player in Lula's economic revitalization efforts, as well as his attack on widespread poverty. For the rest of the profile, click here.