Global anger on widening gap between rich and poor

DAVOS, Switzerland - The world's 26 richest people own the same wealth as the poorest half of humanity, Oxfam said on Monday, urging governments to hike taxes on the wealthy to fight soaring inequality.

A new report from the Britain-based confederation of 20 independent charitable organizations, published ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, also found that billionaires around the world saw their combined fortunes grow by $2.5 billion each day in 2018.

The world's richest man, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, saw his fortune increase to $112 billion last year, Oxfam said, pointing out that just one percent of his wealth was the equivalent to the entire health budget of Ethiopia, a country of 105 million people.