Washington, Jan 27 : American billionaire Bill Gates has called for raising taxes in the country, and feels the rich people should swallow a larger burden of the tax hike.

"Even as the economy improves and you end the wars, you're going to have to raise taxes and certainly, whatever form it takes, and I'm not an expert on this - the rich should bear a larger increase than the rest," Politico quoted Gates, as saying on Thursday.

There has been an argument that the riches of the country might coerce companies to create lesser jobs if there is a tax hike, but Gates feels there isn't much of a connection between both of them.

Washington, Oct 19 : A new malaria vaccine that has been shown to cut the risk of disease in young children by half could prevent millions of deaths a year.

First results from an ongoing large-scale Phase III trial has found that malaria vaccine candidate, RTS, S reduces the risk of malaria by half in African children aged 5 to 17 months.

Bill Gates, whose foundation has contributed 1.75bn dollars to the effort, said it was a “huge milestone” in the fight against the disease.

“This is proof that it is possible to create a vaccine that is effective against malaria,” he said.

Washington, Oct 17 : Bill Gates is said to be escaping from his Washington mansion and renting a massive estate for a warmer winter.

The 55-year-old business magnate has the option of splashing 12.9 million dollars and buying the 4.18-acre property, but Gates is said to be renting the Wellington, FL equestrian estate for 120,000 dollars per month, TMZ. com reported.

The Tuscan-style mansion boasts of 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 7,352 square foot main house, a guesthouse, an 8-stall barn and a couple pastures.

Washington, Sept 22 : Microsoft founder Bill Gates stays atop the annual Forbes list of the richest Americans, with wealth valued at 59 billion dollars.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who also continued giving his wealth to good causes, dropped 11 billion dollars to 39 billion dollars as the value of his Berkshire Hathaway firm slid, and was placed second in the list.

Fellow investor George Soros also entered the top 10, with 22 billion dollars, the BBC reports.

Forbes list of world''s richest people includes:

Bill Gates-59billion dollars-Microsoft, software

Warren Buffett- 39 billion dollars-Berkshire Hathaway, investment

New York, June 13: Microsoft founder Bill Gates has hinted that his pal and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg has got engaged to his long time girlfriend Priscilla Chan.

Speaking to London’s Daily Mail, Gates said that the young tech titan has asked his girlfriend to marry him.

Zuckerberg, 26, has been dating Chan, 26, since they were students at Harvard in 2005.

Gates, 55, spilled the beans on his friend’s potential nuptials when talking about how fellow philanthropist Zuckerberg decided to give 1 million dollars to Newark’s beleaguered school system last year.

Washington, April 22 : The World Bank, United States, Bill Gates and others Thursday launched a billion-dollar fund for small farmers in the developing world to help reduce hunger.

With more than 1 billion people left hungry, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the global economic crisis was "only half-solved". The fund would ramp up agricultural production in poor countries and help smaller farmers access markets for their goods.

While the global economy was recovering from a deep recession, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said "a world where more than 1 billion people struggle with hunger ... is not a balanced, stable world".

New York, March 11 - Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has topped the Forbes magazine list of the world's richest billionaires.

The list, released Wednesday, valued Slim's fortune at $53.5 billion, $500 million ahead of long-time list topper Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. Legendary investor Warren Buffet was third with $47 billion.

Like most of the other billionaires, the top three saw their fortunes rise in 2009, a sign of the improvement of the world economy, said Forbes.

Overall, the 10 richest people had $342 billion, or $88 billion more than last year.

The number of billionaires also increased to 1,011. That's much higher than the 793 super-rich who made in onto the list last year, but lower than the record number of 1,125 in 2008.

Washington, Jan 30 : The decision of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to devote 10 billion dollars to vaccine research, development and delivery in the next ten years has drawn a warm response.

Diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria lead to the death of 5 million children worldwide annually, mostly in low-income countries, because those who need vaccines do not have access to them. The Gates Foundation seeks to eradicate this global inequity.

Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), pointed out that the "announcement is a major boost for global health and vaccines."

New York, January 26 : Bill Gates was spotted partying hard at the Sundance Film Festival.

The billionaire shook his legs on a banquette during a performance by John Legend and the Roots at an after-hours party for Microsoft search engine at Film Lounge.

"He gyrated in a VIP booth until 2 a. m. Everybody was snapping photos of him until his security rushed him out the back door after he tipped a waitress 500 dollars," the New York Post quoted a source as saying.

Referring to Kristen Stewart, Gates apparently told the source that he wanted to look for "that chick from ''Twilight'' ."

Smoking is injurious to health. It takes several lives every year. Bill gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg have decided to save lives from the clutches of tobacco. They announced that $375 million would be invested in various anti-tobacco campaigns. This task would be accomplished through various anti-smoking groups that are working with the government. They added that number of smokers has reduced due to bans in bars and restaurants that were introduced in California and New York.

It was a Friday full of emotions when Bill Gates delivered his final speech to the Microsoft employees in an auditorium at Microsoft's headquarters campus.

Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft 33 years ago, decided to devote his full-time attention to philanthropy. "My life's work really is about software and working with incredible and smart people," Gates said with tears in his eyes.

Aiming to thwart Google's standing as the most popular search engine, Microsoft on Wednesday revealed its program to offer rebates to people who use it search to find and buy some products.

The sales of Windows Vista have been "rapid", and more than 140 million copies have been sold worldwide, claimed the Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates yesterday.

Gates was speaking in Tokyo when he disclosed the figures. Gates said the figure represented "a very rapid sales rate".

Washington: It appears that US Congress yielded to the might of the Redmond, Washington based software giant, Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates. Just a day after Gates appeared on Capitol Hill to press the Congress to increase the annual number of H-1B visas, two legislators introduced two bills to fulfill Bill’s will.