NEW YORK (dpa) – The world has 1,226 billionaires, up from last year's 1,210, topped by Carlos Slim of Mexico and Bill Gates of the United States, Forbes Magazine said Wednesday in its annual billionaire rankings. Slim has a net worth of 69 billion dollars, followed by Gates with 61 billion dollars, among the top 10 richest people in the world. The third spot went to Warren Buffett of the United States (44 billion dollars) followed by Bernard Arnault of France (41 billion dollars), Amancio Ortega of Spain (37.5 billion dollars), Larry Ellison of the United States (36 billion dollars), Eike Batista of Brazil, (30 billion dollars), Stefan Persson of Sweden (26 billion dollars), Li Ka-shing of Hong Kong (25.5 billion dollars) and Karl Albrecht of Germany (25.4 billion dollars). The top 10 billionaires have a combined net worth of 395.4 billion dollars, down from 406 billion dollars in 2011. Forbes said there are 128 new billionaires to the list, compared with 214 newcomers in 2011. One hundred and seventeen people dropped off the billionaire list this year. Billionaires came from 58 countries, with the US leading the list with 425 billionaires, followed by Asia-Pacific (315), Europe (310), the Americas (90) and the Middle East and Africa (86). BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/kyKwi Tags: Billionaires, Forbes, Lists Section: Business, Latest News
