Forbes: Slim world's richest for 4th year in a row

NEW YORK Mexico's Carlos Slim remains the world's richest man for the fourth year in a row, according to Forbes, while Warren Buffett dropped out of the top three for the first time since 2000.

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Forbes: 5 wealthiest people of 2013

And Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg saw his ranking drop 31 spots as his net worth declined by $4.2 billion.

A record 1,426 people around the world made Forbes magazine's latest annual count of billionaires, up 16 percent from last year. Their average net worth was $3.8 billion, rising 3 percent from 2012. The total net worth for the list's billionaires was $5.4 trillion, compared with $4.6 trillion a year ago.

The U.S. continued to be home to the most billionaires in the world, with 442 of them. It was followed by the Asia-Pacific region, with Europe rounding out the top three.

There were 210 new faces on the list, with Forbes saying many were helped by rebounding equity markets and strong consumer brands.

Slim's net worth increased to $73 billion from $69 billion a year earlier. Bill Gates of Microsoft Corp. held on to second place with a net worth of $67 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s Buffett slipped to the fourth spot with a $53.5 billion net worth. Buffett was surpassed by Spanish clothier Amancio Ortega, who jumped two spots from 2012 with a net worth of $57 billion.

While Buffett dropped in the rankings, he added $9.5 billion to his net worth -- making him the second-biggest gainer of the year. The largest gainer was Ortega, who added $19.5 billion to his net worth.

There were 138 women on the list, up from 2012's 104. Liliane Bettencourt -- whose family owns a stake in L'Oreal -- is the world's richest woman with a net worth of $30 billion.

Brazil's Eike Batista had the biggest drop in his net worth, with it declining $19.4 billion from the previous year. Facebook's Zuckerberg saw his net worth fall to $13.3 billion from $17.5 billion. His ranking fell to No. 66 from No. 35 in 2012.

There were 60 people that dropped off the list, including Zynga's Mark Pincus and former Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon.

[SuperGuruDOTnet]

In my opinion the world's richest man is not only one who has accumulated much wealth, but has also enriched the lives of all those he associates with and is wealthy by helping others which is the cause of his wealth, who's name is even Rich. Rich DeVos.

[beelaboola]

One day the people of the world will realize how disgusting it actually is that individuals are allowed to have so much money. In a world where nearly half of it is starving on a daily basis, children are sold into prostitution, and sick people cannot get the health care they need--all for the lack of money--the idea that someone could have 73 billion dollars can only be called OBSCENE. People who might say that I'm envious of the money are missing the point. My wanting more money has nothing to do with the obscenity of one person having more money than he and his next 20 succeeding generations could possibly need. This is especially true when one realizes that there is really a fixed pie of wealth in this world, and one person's having so much of it prevents others from having a liveable share ot it.