Awash in money

Forbes Magazine on Monday published its latest list of the world's richest people, indicating they'd amassed even more money over the past 12 months.

It identified a record 1,226 billionaires around the world, saying the US was still home to most of them, with the Asia Pacific region and Europe rounding out the top three.

According to Forbes, Mexico's telecommunications giant Carlos Slim (pictured above) remained the richest person on the planet, with his net assets increasing to $73 billion (56 billion euros) from $69 billion a year earlier. Microsoft's Bill Gates held on to second place with a net worth of $67 billion, followed by Spanish clothier Amancio Ortega, who called $57 billion his own in 2012.

No German near the top

The average net worth of the billionaires listed by Forbes was $3.7 billion, while their combined assets reached a volume of $5.4 trillion, compared with $4.6 trillion in the previous year.

Also making into the list were 138 women, with the richest among them being Liliane Bettencourt, whose family has a stake in L'Oreal. She was reported to own $30 billion.

The founder of retail chain Aldi, Karl Albrecht, was once again listed as Germany's richest person. The 93-year-old was able to raise his assets to a volume of $26 billion. But that was not enough to prevent him from dropping out of the top 10 and taking 18th place in the table of the mega rich.

hg/dr (AP, AFP)