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Forbes magazine has released this year’s list of the richest people in the world. And at the top remains Carlos Slim a Mexican telecom tycoon who is worth a whopping $74.5 billion dollars. Mr Slim is up $20,5 billion dollars from his net worth last year meaning he is even richer than he was when he won the world’s richest person in 2010.

The richest person listed for Ireland was Pallonji Mistry, who is 103rd overall and worth $8.8bn. Mistry lives in Mumbai in India but is registered as having Irish citizenship. Pallonji has shares in Jaguar, Land Rover and Tetley.

Next on the Irish list worth $4.2 billion is Denis O’Brien. Mr o’Brien is 254th on the Forbes richest list. his company Digicel operates in numerous Caribbean and Pacific Islands. Denis O’Brien also has shares in the company Comunicorp which owns 42 radio stations across Europe, including Today FM, Dublin’s 98, Newstalk, Spin 1038 and Spin South West in Ireland.

John Dorrance III  the US-born heir of the Campbell Soup empire has a fortune of $2.4 billion. Mr Dorrance, the 488th richest person in the world, currently lives in Dublin. He sold off much of his 10.5 per cent stake in Campbell Soup for $1.5 billion in the mid-1990s.

All in all there were 5 Irish citizens on the Forbes richest list this year.

Carlos Slim’s (The richest man in the world) parents are Lebanese but they immigrated to Mexico where Carlos was born and raised. He made his money through a series of smart business decisions. Carlos now owns companies in nearly every sector of business with his current largest ventures being telephone companies. Slim currently owns  Telmex one of the largest telephone providers in Latin America, the company owns 90 percent of  telephone lines in Mexico city.

Second on the Forbes richest list is Bill Gates. One of the world’s most famous billionaires, he is worth $56 billion from his company Microsoft. Your computer probably has Mr Gates software on it nearly every computer uses Microsoft. Bill Gates may have been the world’s richest man this year had he not given away a third of his fortune to charity. Gates has not been the number 1 on the Forbes richest list since 2009.

I wonder who will be the richest person in the world next year, Hopefully we’ll have more Irish entries!

Eight endangered giraffes were brought across water to their new home in Kenya yesterday.

The giraffes, four male and four female were the first giraffes to ever be transported across water in Kenya. The animals are Rothchild giraffes first known as Baringo Giraffe’s were moved to a wildlife reserve on Lake Baringo this species of giraffe’s native habitat.

There are only a few hundred of these kinds of Giraffes left in the wild. Dublin zoo was lucky enough to have its very own Rothchild Giraffes Maeve and Robin give birth to a baby girl named Arria last November.  Arria was named in a national competition held by Dublin zoo.

The eight giraffes now living in Lake Baringo will hopefully make some babies of their own in the next few years, as there are only a few hundred of these giraffes  left in the wild they are in danger of becoming extinct.

Foto Island Wildlife reserve in Cork has eight Rothchild giraffes, one of which named Nollaig turned 21 this year. Rothchild giraffes are the tallest animal in the world. If you had the chance to  name a baby giraffe what would you call it?