Mexican Slim beats Gates in rich ranks

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim is the world's richest man, worth an estimated $67.8 billion, after overtaking Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates, according to a respected tracker of Mexican financial wealth.A 27 per cent surge in the share price of America Movil, Latin America's largest cell phone operator controlled by Slim, from March to June made him close to $8.6 billion wealthier than Gates, said Eduardo Garcia in Sentido Comun, the online financial publication he founded.Garcia estimated that Gates was worth $59.2 billion.Forbes magazine reported in April that Slim had overtaken billionaire investor Warren Buffett for the No 2 spot in the world's richest stakes but was still behind Gates.Mexico has a huge rich-poor divide, with a tiny elite holding most of the country's wealth and around half the population living on less than $5 a day.Forbes bumped up Slim because gains from his holding company Carso and fixed-line telecom Telmex added to the Mexican's fortune while shares of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway fell in the same period.