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A treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires buried for decades on a glacier off France’s Mont Blanc has finally been shared between the climber who discovered them and local authorities, eight years after they were found. The mountaineer stumbled across the precious stones in 2013. They had remained hidden in a metal box that was onboard an Indian plane that crashed in the desolate landscape some 50 years earlier. In September 2012, India took possession of a bag of diplomatic mail from a Boeing 707 flying from Mumbai which crashed on the south-west face of Mont Blanc on 24...

Now we know one reason why Obama bowed to the Saudi monarch. The Saudi Kingdom gave the Obama team suitcases of jewels during their infamous Apology Tour.

'King of clubs' being sheltered by Syrian army By Damien Mcelroy in Damascus (Filed: 11/05/2003) The king of clubs from America's card deck of most wanted Iraqis is being sheltered at a military base in the Syrian capital Damascus, according to a Gulf diplomat. Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former vice-president of Iraq and one of Saddam Hussein's closest henchmen, is said to be under the protection of Syria's Republican Guard in the decrepit military base near the airport. He is among thousands of regime figures who are believed to have slipped into Syria before Damascus sealed the border. Izzat had...

A gunman stole $136 million of jewelry from an exhibition at the Intercontinental Carlton Cannes hotel in July. Investigators and gem experts are still wondering how it happened. The terrace doors of the opulent Intercontinental Carlton Cannes hotel on the French Riviera were supposed to be locked. But before lunchtime on the last Sunday of July, a thief—whose face was obscured with a bandanna and a motorcycle helmet—managed to slip through them and directly into an exhibition room loaded with millions of dollars worth of Leviev diamonds, "the world's most extraordinary." Armed with an automatic pistol and an uncanny familiarity...

The story of the missing Russian crown jewels begins, as so many great adventures do, in a library. In this case, it was the U.S. Geological Survey Library in Reston, Va. Richard Huffine, the director, was looking through the library's rare-book collection when he came upon an oversized volume. "And there's no markings on the outside, there's no spine label or anything like that," he says. "This one caught our eye, and we pulled it aside to take a further look at it." Researcher Jenna Nolt was one of those who took a look. "The title page is completely hand...

She has a five-decade history of shoplifting and faces theft charges in San DiegoWhen you think of an international jewel thief, you don’t think of 79-year-old Doris Payne. News articles detail her long criminal career. She’s been arrested in at least five states and served several prison stints. Payne told one reporter she had given up her five-decade shoplifting career. Even so, she was in a San Diego court this week on a jewelry theft charge. Police say she stole an $8,600 diamond ring from Macy’s at the Fashion Valley mall in January. She has pleaded not guilty. Payne, who...

Six people have been arrested for their alleged involvement in a high-end burglary ring that targeted upscale homes throughout South Florida, stealing expensive watches and jewelry that totaled more than $2 million. Authorities have dubbed them the "Dinner Set Crew" because of the similarity of the burglaries to those committed by the infamous Dinner Set Gang in the 1960s, which struck during the dinner hour, when couples were out and their homes typically unoccupied.

A flawless vivid blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats sold on Tuesday for a record 10.5 million Swiss francs (6.2 million pounds), the highest price paid per carat for any gemstone at auction, Sotheby's said. The rectangular-shaped blue stone, the rarest to enter the international market this year, went to an anonymous buyer bidding by telephone after hectic bidding see-sawed between two callers for 15 minutes. It was the centrepiece of its semi-annual sale in Geneva, conducted by David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby's jewellery department in Europe and the Middle East, who said the results showed the market's resilience despite the...

CIA's 'family jewels' on show By Alex Spillius in Washington Last Updated: 2:51am BST 23/06/2007 The CIA calls them the "family jewels" but there is nothing pretty about them. State secrets: Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford Next week America's spy agency will release 700 pages of documents on secret and illegal operations, which will confirm the worst suspicions of its Cold War activities. They promise to involve assassination plots against foreign leaders, domestic spying and kidnapping and infiltration of Leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s. They will include accounts of break-ins and theft and "behaviour modification" experiments on...

Jewels for the crown By Caroline Davies Last Updated: 2:12am GMT 26/02/2007 The Duchess of Cornwall's jewellery collection has been significantly boosted by the generosity of the Saudi Royal Family, according to an official list of gifts given to her and the Prince of Wales on overseas tours to be made public today. Not only did they present her with the stunning ruby necklace she wore to dramatic effect on a recent visit to America, but she came away from Saudi with a further two necklaces – one of emeralds, the other of sapphires. The jewellery is described as parures...

It doesn't matter what you call them, cooked right, testicles are a treat! If you have any family jewel recipes I've missed, send me a mail.

Burma rebuilding risks Pagan jewel By Andrew Harding BBC News, Burma Pagan's temples are one of Asia's most important cultural sites The sunsets are still spectacular - a golden glow brushing the curves of 2,000 ancient temples and pagodas clustered on the edge of the Irrawaddy River in central Burma. But today some of the world's leading experts have accused Burma's military regime of waging "archaeological blitzkrieg" against the legendary Buddhist treasures of Pagan. "They're ruining it," said Richard Engelhardt, regional advisor for the UN's cultural arm, Unesco. "It makes me feel hopeless and helpless and angry and disappointed," he...

Osama bin Laden tried to purchase the world's largest pearl, the Pearl of Allah, as a gift to Saddam Hussein "to unite the Arab cultures," and Hussein was prepared to accept, according to the pearl's owner. Victor Barbish, who owns sixty-six percent of the pearl on behalf of his daughter, told WorldNetDaily he received an offer in 1999 from individuals who said they were "from bin Laden's group" to purchase the pearl for $60 million to give to Hussein as an overture of unity between al-Qaida and the Iraqi government.

RABAT (Reuters) - Surgeons have managed to stitch back a Moroccan boy's penis after it was bitten off by a donkey, the official MAP news agency reported Thursday. Professor Mouaad Mounir, chief urologist at Ibnou Toufail hospital in the southern city of Marrakesh, was quoted as saying the operation on the seven-year-old boy was carried out last week. He said the operation had taken 45 minutes and was successful. MAP did not say how the donkey managed to bite off the boy's penis. A source at the hospital confirmed the agency's report, but declined to give further details. Donkeys in...