Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Sets Lifespan

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has said it will spend all its assets within 50 years of them both dying, as the trustees want to focus the foundation's work in the 21st century.

In a statement posted on the charity's Web site, dated November 29, the foundation said: "We will be spending all of our resources within 50 years after the last of Bill's or Melinda's death." The news was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.

"The decision to focus all of our resources in this century underscores our optimism for making huge progress and for making sure that we do as much as possible, as soon as possible, on the comparatively narrow set of issues we've chosen to focus on," the foundation said in the statement.

Bill Gates, the world's richest person, co-founded software company Microsoft Corp.. Earlier this year he announced plans to step down from his day-to-day role to focus on his foundation, one of the goals of which is to improve access to technology in U.S. public libraries. It also focuses on fighting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and...........