Modern world leaders

Examines the life and achievements of Nicolas Sarkozy, discussing his early life and education, his family, his political career, and the path he followed to become president of France.

Angela Merkel was born in West Germany but raised in East Germany. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Merkel started her rise to become Germany's first female chancellor. A scientist by training, she uses her analytical skills as she confronts issues in Germany, Europe, and the world with skill and tact.

Profiles the life and career of the Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China.

From the time he was a schoolboy in South Korea, Ban Ki-moon wanted to work for peace. In 2004 he became South Korea's foreign minister and two years later he became UN secretary-general.

At age 28, Ehud Olmert became the youngest member of Israel's parliament and eventually prime minister of Israel.

For ten years Gordon Brown was British Prime Minister Tony Blair's right-hand man. In 2007 Blair resigned and Brown became Prime Minister.

Profiles the life and career of the president of Chile.

Vladimir Putin is Russia's third president under their Democratic government experiment. Handpicked by Boris Yeltsin to succeed him, Putin held strong convictions about how his country should be managed and where he wanted to stand on the world's stage. Fiercely patriotic and ambitious, Putin began his career as a counterintelligence spy but when the Soviet Union's Communist rule dissolved in 1989 he was determined to find another way to serve his country.