U.S. financier Warren Buffet, 77, has overtaken his friend and partner in philanthropy, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, as the richest man in the world according to Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is up and Paul McCartney is down in an annual list of Britain's richest music figures, released Friday. Lloyd Webber's fortune was valued at 750 million pounds (US$1.5 billion; EUR1.1 billion) by the Sunday Times' annual Rich List, up 50 million pounds from last year.