Sonia Gandhi's name removed from richest leaders list

Days after naming Congress party president Sonia Gandhi among the world's richest leaders, an American news site has removed her from the list, saying it had been unable to verify the story.

"Sonia Gandhi and the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani have been removed from this list," the Huffington Post wrote in an editor's note at the end of an updated version of a story titled "The Richest World Leaders Are Even Richer Than You Thought".

"Gandhi was originally included based on a listing on a third party site which was subsequently called into question," it said by way of explanation.

"Our editors have been unable to verify the amount, removed the link, and regret any confusion. Qatar's emir was succeeded by his son Tamim in 2013," the portal added.

Four days earlier, the Post had listed Gandhi as the 12th richest world leader, putting her assets at $2 billion without giving details of how it arrived at the figure.

Topping the new HuffPost list is Russian President Vladimir Putin "believed to be worth between $40 and $70 billion". Russia's GDP per capita is $14,000, it noted.

He is followed by Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud and UAE President and ruler of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

"Ever wondered just how rich the richest world leaders really are?" the Huffington Post said in the updated story.

"To put it in perspective, President Barack Obama may be worth several million dollars, but he does not even come close to some of his contemporaries."

HuffPost's roster of some of the richest world leaders currently in power "includes a mixture of kings, presidents, sultans and queens".

"For comparison, each country's GDP per capita is juxtaposed with a leader's personal net worth, just to show how different life is for the haves and have-nots," it said.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)