No longer dogs of war running ragtag armies, the new breed of private soldiers operate their million-dollar contracts from executive boardrooms worldwide. Whether they're ex-special forces, CIA spooks or Foreign Legionnaires, you'll find them exchanging gunfire with insurgents in Baghdad, patrolling[...]

You think that the recession isn't biting? Look again. You think that the riots in August 2011 were unpredicted? Think again. 75 years after George Orwell's classic expose on life in the North, Stephen Armstrong returns to find that many things have changed, but not always for the better. Here he fi[...]

In his "Chronicles", Froissart described Otterburn as the best fought and the most severe battle of his time. Fought at Redesdale, in Northumberland, in August 1388, the battle originated from the ongoing war between the Scots and the English but rapidly descended into a personal feud between the Sc[...]