British Queen faces legal battle over Koh-i-Noor diamond

The British Queen faces a legal battle over a £100million diamond which forms part of the Crown Jewels. India claims that the Koh-i-Noor gem was stolen by the British after colonisation of the Punjab. Now a group of Indian businessmen and Bollywood members have instructed British lawyers to begin High Court proceedings to force the UK government to return it.

They will argue that the 105-carat diamond is part of their country’s heritage. The gem, whose name means Mountain of Light, was a “gift” to Queen Victoria in 1850. It was first used in Queen Alexandra’s crown at her husband King Edward VII’s coronation in 1902.

It is now set in the late Queen Mother’s crown at The Tower of London. The case comes in the week India’s PM Narendra Modi is to visit the Queen.

From The Sun

Promises and Betrayals in the Middle East

Documentary on how British double-dealing during the First World War ignited the conflict between Arab and Jew in the Middle East.
This is a story of intrigue among rival empires; of misguided strategies; and of how conflicting promises to Arab and Jew created a legacy of bloodshed which determined the fate of the Middle East.

Snowden Smear Piece Sums Up Journalism's Sad State

"One of the authors of a controversial Sunday Times article alleging that Edward Snowden's actions endangered the lives of British spies defended the story in an interview on CNN Sunday.

The Young Turks

The Crimean War

The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was a conflict between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire. The war was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire.
It is sometimes considered to be one of the first "modern" wars as it "introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare", including the first tactical use of railways and the electric telegraph.
The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (for The Times newspaper). News from war correspondents reaching Britain from the Crimea kept the public informed of the day-to-day realities of the battlefield for the first time.