CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner, while ostensibly moving into his éminence grise phase, still occassionally pulls the spotlight in his direction to talk up the United Nations and the future of the world, as he did last night as part of Reuters' "Newsmakers" series. Turner, who nine years ago pledged $1 billion over ten years to the U.N., spoke about the need to strengthen the international body, alleviate suffering around the world, and control nuclear proliferation. He also took the opportunity to suggest that only women should be allowed to hold public office around the world for the next 100 years.

"If we had women holding all the public offices, the amount of money on the military would be immediately cut way back and more would be spent on healthcare and education," Turner said. "There wouldn't be lack of family planning or birth control if the women ran things."

Turner aside, the event had an interesting interactive element to it as well. As the interview was being conducted, the audio was streamed onto the Web site Global Voices Online, which serves as an online hub for blogs from around the world. During the talk, a representative from GVO took emailed questions from a blogger in Iraq and another in India who had been listening in on the conversation, allowing them to participate in real time.

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