Huffington Post retracts names of Sonia Gandhi and Emir of Qatar from list of richest leaders of the world
Recently Huffington Post listed Indian politician, Sonia Gandhi, as the 12th richest leader in the world. Now the newspaper has taken down her name from the list saying it "regrets" the error.
"Sonia Gandhi and the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani have been removed from this list. Gandhi was originally included based on a listing on a third party site which was subsequently called into question. Our editors have been unable to verify the amount, removed the link, and regret any confusion," Huffington Post wrote.
The list that claimed Gandhi, who is the Indian National Congress party president, to be richer than Queen Elizabeth-II, gained massive attention in India as the country is gearing up for Assembly Elections early next year. According to the newspaper, Gandhi's assets were in the region of $2 billion. The report did not specify the source of the information.
Huffington Post published the list of 20 richest political leaders of the world. It placed Russia President Vladimir Putin at number one and reported his wealth to be $40 billion. He was followed by Bhumibol Adulyadej, the king of Thailand, and Hassanal Bolkiah, the Sultan of Brunei.
During the recent elections in New Delhi, Gandhi declared her assets to be worth $225,000.
"If Huffington Post would stick to huffing and puffing then I think they would do a much better job for themselves. Because if you do put out these absurd and ridiculous things out in print, then you only open yourself to be made a laughing stock. I would not even like to dignify with a response," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told India Today.
Along with Gandhi, Huffington Post also retracted the name of the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani, also listed to be worth $2 billion.
