World News: Queen Elizabeth’s 96th birthday marked with gun salute and new photograph – Gulf Digital News

World News: Queen Elizabeth’s 96th birthday marked with gun salute and new photograph – Gulf Digital News

The 96th birthday of Queen Elizabeth will be marked on Thursday with gun salutes, the release of a Barbie doll and a new photograph showing Britain's longest serving monarch with two white ponies at Windsor Castle.

Government ministers joined members of the royal family in sending their best wishes to the queen, who has stepped back from most public duties this year over concerns about her health. She will spend her birthday in Sandringham, Norfolk.

"An inspiration to so many across the UK, the Commonwealth and the world, it's particularly special to be celebrating in this Platinum Jubilee year," a message from the queen's grandson Prince William and his wife Kate said on Twitter.

Elizabeth became the queen of Britain and more than a dozen other realms including Canada, Australia and New Zealand on the death of her father King George VI on February 6, 1952, while she was in Kenya on an international tour.

The news was broken to her by her husband Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99 after more than seven decades by her side.

When she ascended the throne, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong and Harry Truman were running the Soviet Union, China and the United States, respectively, while Winston