'HuffPost' removes Sonia's name from list of richest leaders

An American news website has removed the name of Congress President Sonia Gandhi from the list of richest leaders of the world after the party derided the portal for the "absurd and ridiculous" item.

"Sonia Gandhi and the former emir of Qatar Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani have been removed from this list," the editor of Huffington Post wrote on its website on Monday after the list of the world's richest leader was updated.

"Gandhi was originally included based on a listing on a third party site which was subsequently called into question," said the editor without giving name of the third-party site.

"Our editors have been unable to verify the amount, removed the link, and regret any confusion," the Huffington Post said, four days after it listed Gandhi as the 12th richest world leader putting her asset to $2 billion.

The Congress had questioned the authenticity of such a figure.

"If Huffington Post would stick to huffing 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," Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said in New Delhi after the list was released on Monday.

While putting Gandhi's wealth at $2 billion, Huffington Post had not given details of how it arrived at such a figure.