GENEVA (AP) — A rare Burmese ruby in a platinum ring with diamonds sold for $30.3 million at auction, setting a world auction record for any ruby and for any stone by Cartier, according to Sotheby’s.

At 23.1 carats, the gem is one of the largest Burmese rubies in the world. Chip Clark/National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution We don't need Wagner or Tolkien to tell us how ...

The gems are second only to colored diamonds in value, but their troubled provenance has made them an anathema to many. By Nazanin Lankarani Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has long been a producer ...

Thanks to the film Blood Diamond, audiences recently had a Hollywood glimpse of how gems called conflict stones can be used to fund oppressive military regimes. However, diamonds are not the only ...