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Warrent Buffet,Bill Gates and Carlos Slim(L-R).US tycoons are back on top with Microsoft founder Bill Gates again the world's richest man in a year when even billionaires felt the heat of the global recession, Forbes magazine said Wednesday.
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US tycoons are back on top with Microsoft founder Bill Gates again the world's richest man in a year when even billionaires felt the heat of the global recession, Forbes magazine said Wednesday.
The wealthy few did not escape big shocks this year, with net worth on the list of 793 billionaires -- down from 1,125 billionaires in 2008 -- plummeting to 2.4 trillion dollars from 4.4 trillion, Forbes said.
"The biggest news today is that we are here and there still are billionaires," Forbes spokeswoman Monie Begley joked at a press conference.
The much-watched annual rich list put Gates back on top with a net worth of 40 billion dollars, although he saw his bank balance lose 18 billion over the last 12 months.
In second came investor Warren Buffett with 37 billion dollars, despite losing 25 billion dollars this year in the value of his Berkshire Hathaway shares.
Also losing 25 billion dollars, Mexican telecoms king Carlos Slim still managed to come in third with 35 billion dollars.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, at number 17, was notable as the only top 20 member to see a net gain.
That was not because of his salary, which is a symbolic one dollar a year, but thanks to re-evaluation of Bloomberg financial news agency after the mayor bought a 20 percent stake from Merrill Lynch last year for 4.5 billion dollars.
About 64 percent of the billionaires are self-made and their average age is 63.7, a slight rise resulting from the lower number of rich Russians and Chinese, whose average ages last year were 46 and 48.
By contrast with that aging trend, Gates is a relatively youthful 53.
The youngest billionaire prize this year goes to Albert von Thurn und Taxis of Germany, who is 25 and listed as having 2.1 billion dollars.
But one of the young success stories from last year -- Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg -- dropped off the list altogether.
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(Agencies)
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《福布斯》雜志于本周三公布全球富豪榜，美國富豪重振雄風，微軟公司創始人比爾?蓋茨重登榜首。在今年全球經濟危機的形勢下，就連億萬富翁們也感到了“寒意”。
《福布斯》稱，今年富豪們也難逃經濟危機的重創。2008年全球共有1125名億萬富翁，而今年僅有793名，且他們的凈資產總值從去年的4.4萬億美元跌至今年的2.4萬億美元。
《福布斯》女發言人莫尼?貝格利在新聞發布會上開玩笑說：“今天最大的新聞是我們還在這里，我們還有億萬富翁?！?/font>
盡管蓋茨的資產在過去一年中縮水180億美元，但他仍以400億美元的凈資產重登倍受關注的年度富豪榜之首。
“股神”沃倫?巴菲特以凈資產370億美元屈居第二。去年他持有的伯克希爾哈撒韋公司的股票大幅貶值，令他損失250億美元。
同樣損失250億美元的墨西哥電信大亨卡洛斯?斯利姆仍以350億美元的身價名列第三。
紐約市長邁克爾?彭博排名第17位。在上榜的前20名富豪中，僅有他在過去一年中實現了資產凈增長。
但這并不是因為他象征性的1美元的年薪，而是因為他去年以45億美元的價格從美林公司購得彭博財經新聞社20%的股份后，彭博社的股票價值被重新評估。
在上榜的億萬富豪中，有64%是白手起家，他們的平均年齡為63.7歲。由于今年俄羅斯和中國的富豪排名相對靠后，所以相對于去年他們46歲和48歲的平均年齡，今年上榜富豪的平均年齡略有增長。
與富豪榜的老齡趨勢相比，蓋茨還相對比較年輕，只有53歲。
本年度最年輕的億萬富豪是來自德國的阿爾伯特?馮?托恩和塔克西斯。今年25歲的他以21億美元的身價躋身該榜。
而去年創造成功神話的年輕富豪、Facebook的創始人馬克?扎克博格今年則跌出該榜。
相關閱讀：
《福布斯》首推影星吸金榜 威爾?史密斯居榜首
《福布斯》美國富豪榜： 蓋茨歸來
（實習生許雅寧 英語點津姍姍編輯）
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