World's richest woman dies

French businesswoman and billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, whose family founded L'Oreal and still owns the largest stake in the cosmetics giant, has died aged 94, her daughter said on Thursday.

Bettencourt, listed by Forbes as the world's richest woman, was the heiress to the beauty and cosmetics company her father founded a century ago as a maker of hair dye.



Bettencourt and her children owned 33 percent of the company. Her daughter Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers said in a statement the family remained committed to L'Oreal and its management team.

"My mother left peacefully," Bettencourt-Meyers said, adding that she had died during Wednesday night at her home in Paris.