Tag Archives: Wales

Computers

Microsoft to rename SkyDrive after losing trademark suit

Leave a comment

Microsoft will be forced to rename its SkyDrive cloud storage service after failing to defend its trademark against U.K. broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting.

BSkyB, as the service is more commonly called, filed suit against Microsoft in 2011 in the English High Court, successfully arguing that the “Sky” portion of its name could be confused with Microsoft’s own SkyDrive, and that Microsoft’s use of the name SkyDrive infringed Sky’s rights in the ‘Sky’ mark.

In June, Microsoft lost the case in England and Wales, and failed on appeal as well.

For Microsoft, losing the case will have financial consequences, as the company will be forced to rewrite promotional materials, which have increasingly focused upon SkyDrive as the glue that holds its various software services together. Microsoft hasn’t said how much it will all cost, but will probably provide an accounting in subsequent earnings reports, if the amount is materially significant.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Articles of Interest

Meet Britain's Youngest Lawyer Ever

Leave a comment

By Ruth Brown

This is not the kind of bar most teenagers are interested in getting access to: Gabrielle Turnquest, an 18-year-old from Florida, has become the youngest person ever to be called to the bar in England and Wales. Turnquest got her undergraduate degree at Liberty University in Virginia at age 16,… …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Royal Riches: What the Monarchy Costs Great Britain

Leave a comment

By Eamon Murphy

Royal finances: what the monarchy costs Great Britain

Filed under: , ,

AP/Lefteris Pitarakis

Here’s a paradox about Great Britain. In many ways, it’s a more progressive country than the United States, its colonial offspring. It has a more generous welfare state (including national health care), a more progressive tax structure, and a third major political party to the left of Labour. Most workers are entitled to at least 28 paid days of vacation per year, and same-sex marriage will soon be legal throughout England and Wales.

And yet Great Britain maintains one of the most conservative institutions on the planet: a hereditary monarchy, something Americans would never countenance. This despite the fact that King Charles I lost two civil wars, leading to his own decapitation and the short-lived abolition of the monarchy, in the mid-17th century.

And though the royal family’s political significance has long since been reduced to the ceremonial, the Windsors still have a massive financial footprint. As sovereign, the Queen owns the Crown Estate, a property portfolio worth £8.1 billion ($12.4 billion) as of last month — the first time its value has exceeded £8 billion. It includes a lot of prime real estate — “large parts of London’s West End,” “15 retail parks in various towns and cities,” shopping centers, offices, agricultural lands, forests, and “most UK coastline,” according to the BBC — and 15 percent of its annual revenues is used to fund the monarchy. The rest goes to the Treasury.

As a result of the these assets’ recent performance, the Queen is getting a raise: the Sovereign Grant, as her cut of the Crown Estate’s revenues is called, is set to increase next year from £36.1 million to £37.89 million (more than $55 million) — a gain of 5 percent, and the second consecutive bump to her allowance.

“The Crown Estate as a whole dates from the time of the Norman Conquest,” explains the monarchy’s official website — more than 900 years ago — but the current arrangement came into effect in 1760. That was the year King George III — the intolerable tyrant of the Declaration of Independence — signed the revenues over to the Treasury, and in return, stopped having to pay for the civil government, the national debt, and his own personal debt. Those expenses were covered by something called the Civil List, funded by the Treasury and supplemented more recently by grants from other departments, until the Sovereign Grant Act of 2011. Buckingham Palace called the change “a modern, transparent and simpler way of funding the head of state,” but opponents of the monarchy are unconvinced. “Pegging royal funding to Crown Estate revenue makes no sense at all,” said the group Republic, which advocates replacing the Queen (or King) with an elected head of state. “The two are not related. Crown Estate revenue has always been there to provide funds for the government.”

<div …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Articles of Interest

Royal Baby Birthday: Meet The Babies Who Share The Date (PHOTOS)

Leave a comment

By The Huffington Post News Editors

With the whole world watching , July 22, 2013 was the day Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Without the whole world watching, thousands of other babies were born this day, too, and they are their parents’ whole worlds.

The Royal Mint had previously announced plans to give a “lucky” silver penny to all U.K. parents who have babies on the same day as Kate. And this afternoon, Clarence House, the official London residence of The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, tweeted an invitation to all who share the day to also share the celebration. The result is a cute-fest of new faces who joined happy (and likely exhausted) moms and dads today — royal and otherwise.

Take a look and if you — or someone you know — had a baby today, join the fun by tweeting @HuffPostParents with #WelcomeToTheWorld.

Read More…
More on Babies

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post

News, Politics, Government

The Price Of The Autism-Measles Panic, 15 Years Later

Leave a comment

By Emily Willingham, Contributor

Several news outlets today are reviewing the measles outbreak in Wales, citing public health experts who lay the blame for the burst in cases squarely at the feet of Andrew Wakefield’s bogus MMR vaccine scare in 1998 and the subsequent media coverage. The Wall Street Journal has a particularly in-depth story [hits paywall if you click the link here, but clicking from Google News seems to give full access], “Fifteen Years After Autism Panic, a Plague of Measles Erupts,” that digs into the roles of both in the Wales outbreak, that left 1219 people infected with measles and one in ten hospitalized. Most were hospitalized with pneumonia or dehydration, and most fell into the age range of children who should have been vaccinated around the time of the Wakefield scare. …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

News, Politics, Government

Alcohol deaths among women in 30s see 'worrying rise'

Leave a comment

Alcohol-related deaths of women born in the 1970s have “disproportionately increased” in the last decade, according to a study of three cities in England and Scotland published Friday.

Researchers called for urgent action to tackle what they said was a “worrying trend” in rising deaths from alcohol misuse by women in their 30s and 40s, unseen among men of the same age group.

The study, undertaken by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, was based on research in three cities: Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool.

It looked at all alcohol-related deaths from 1980 to 2011 among people born between 1910 and 1979.

Overall, alcohol-related deaths were three times higher in Glasgow in the late 1980s than in Manchester and Liverpool and increased in all three cities until the early 2000s when it levelled out.

Women born between 1970 and 1979 were the exception to this trend, however, with death rates continuing to rise.

Researchers said that women born in that decade were dying from alcohol-related causes at an earlier age than women born before 1970 and in “notable numbers” during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The report comes a day after the government dropped plans to introduce minimum price levels for alcohol in England and Wales.

The Scottish government wants to introducing minimum unit pricing north of the border despite a legal challenge from the Scotch Whisky Association.

Researchers urged policymakers to act to reverse the trend, saying the findings should act as a “warning signal” to prevent further tragedies.

“The similarity of trends in alcohol-related deaths in young women in Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool raises real concerns for the long-term health of this cohort in both England and Scotland,” the report said.

“It is imperative that this early warning sign is acted upon. Given this increase in the younger cohort is seen in all three cities, it is hard to dismiss this as a city-specific phenomenon.

“Failure to have a policy response to this new trend may result in the effects of this increase being played out for decades to come.”

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Wrong hospital? Media paranoia in UK royal baby wait

Leave a comment

After more than two weeks camped outside St Mary’s Hospital in London, the media waiting for Prince William’s wife Catherine to give birth are having terrible thoughts — what if they are in the wrong place?

Camera crews, journalists and photographers have been staking out St Mary’s since the beginning of the month after royal officials revealed Catherine would have her baby there.

But as the days tick by with not so much as a royal corgi dog making an appearance, paranoia is setting in.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday reported that the Duchess of Cambridge may instead give birth at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, near her parents’ home west of London.

The 31-year-old has been dividing her time in the past four or five weeks between her London base at Kensington Palace and the Middleton’s Bucklebury home, royal sources told AFP.

And the Telegraph noted that if she goes into labour while staying with her parents, the half-hour drive to the Royal Berkshire in Reading may be preferable to risking the 50-mile (80-kilometre) trip through the traffic to central London.

A spokesman for Buckingham Palace told AFP: “There are contingency plans for wherever the duchess might be in the country, and that has always been the case.”

The Royal Berkshire Hospital may be closer but as a purely National Health Service facility, it does not offer the same luxuries as St Mary’s.

Although St Mary’s is also run by the state-funded NHS, Catherine is booked into the private Lindo Wing, which offers plush suites and top quality cuisine.

No such facility exists at the Royal Berkshire, where — if she gives birth there — Catherine might end up staying on a post-labour ward with a number of other new mums.

The palace refused to confirm where the duchess has spent the past week since her reported due date on July 13, or to say whether William was with her.

But the spokesman confirmed the prince has not been at work in northwest Wales, where he is a search and rescue helicopter pilot, since the weekend.

“He’s not on shift,” he said.

Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday revealed her impatience to meet her third great-grandchild, joking that she hoped it would arrive before she goes on holiday in Scotland next week.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Crime down to lowest since records began

Leave a comment

Crime in England and Wales was down nine percent in the year ending March 2013 from the previous year, with figures at their lowest since records began in 1981, according to figures released on Thursday.

Crime was down to less than half of its peak level reached in 1995, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, despite four years of cuts in police numbers.

The fall in recorded crime spanned all the main categories of “victim-based” offences — as opposed to general crimes against society — except for theft from the person, which was up nine percent, and sexual offences, which were up one percent.

Criminal damage and arson were down 15 percent and robbery by 13 percent.

Homicides stood at 552 for the year, just one less than the year before.

A total of 8.6 million crimes were recorded against households and adults over the year, plus another 800,000 crimes against children aged 10 to 15 — half of those violent crimes.

The rise in sex crimes was thought to be partly linked to publicity surrounding sexual assaults by the late TV presenter Jimmy Savile prompting more victims to come forward.

The figures combine police statistics with those from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, in which about 37,500 households provided information on their experience of crime.

Total crime recorded by police was down seven percent.

Another one million offences not officially classified as crimes, such as speeding, were dealt with by the courts during the year.

Figures from the Home Office on Thursday showed that the number of police officers in England and Wales had fallen for a fourth straight year, with government austerity after the financial crisis compelling forces to make deep cuts.

Police numbers were down 3.4 percent, or 4,516, over the year, taking the total to its lowest level since 2002.

The biggest drop was in London’s Metropolitan Police, which shed 1,742 officers.

Prime Minister David Cameron said, “I think we should congratulate the police. As a government we have asked them to do more with less resources.

“They have performed, I think, magnificently and I think all the work that has gone into crime prevention has helped as well,” he added, on a visit to London’s Hammersmith police station.

Figures for fraud appeared to be up 27 percent, with 229,018 offences, but the ONS said this might be down to a change in how offences are recorded.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Britain legalizes gay marriage

Leave a comment

Britain has legalized gay marriage after Queen Elizabeth II gave her royal stamp of approval.

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow told lawmakers that the royal assent had been given Wednesday — the day after the bill to legalize same-sex marriage in England and Wales cleared Parliament.

The queen’s approval was a formality. It clears the way for the first gay marriages next summer.

The bill enables gay couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies in England and Wales. It also will allow couples who had previously entered into a civil partnership to convert their relationship to a marriage.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

MPs pass gay marriage bill

Leave a comment

MPs passed a bill legalising same-sex marriage in England and Wales, paving the way for the first gay weddings in 2014.

The House of Commons decided not to oppose a number of minor amendments to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill proposed by the House of Lords.

The legislation is now expected to receive official assent from Queen Elizabeth later this week after MPs agreed to changes such as ensuring protections for transgender couples.

Already on Monday night, jubilant gay rights activists danced outside parliament as the government-backed bill passed unopposed through the House of Lords. Some members there wore pink carnations.

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which is overseeing the new law, told AFP the bill would probably receive royal assent on Wednesday or Thursday.

“But we are looking at seeing the first gay weddings in the middle of 2014 because there are various issues to sort out, such as its impact on pensions,” the spokesman added.

Government computer systems also need to be updated to allow same-sex marriages to be registered, at an estimated cost of ??2 million.

But the government hopes legalising gay marriage will bring an overall boost to the economy, estimating that the change could bring in up to ??14.4 million a year for caterers, hotels and the rest of the wedding industry.

The bill survived a stormy passage through parliament, with dozens of Tories voting against it.

Tory minister Gerald Howarth criticised the way the government had backed the bill.

“I have to say that it is astonishing that a bill for which there is absolutely no mandate, against which a majority of Conservatives voted against, has been bulldozed through both Houses and just two hours of debate tonight is an absolute parliamentary disgrace,” he said.

“I think the government should think very carefully in future if they want the support of these benches. Offending large swathes of the Conservative Party is not a good way of going about it.”

An attempt in the Lords last month to kill off the legislation with a “wrecking amendment” failed.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the new law would ensure that gay couples felt “recognised and valued, not excluded”.

Gay rights activists have vowed to press on for equal marriage in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

But opponents of gay marriage have warned that the legislation will “come back to bite” Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Coalition for Marriage campaign group said it would mobilise a 700,000-strong support base ahead of next year’s European elections and the general election in 2015.

“They are passionate, motivated and determined to fight on against a law that renders terms like ‘husband and wife’ meaningless,” said the group’s chairman Colin Hart.

Civil partnerships for gay couples have been legal in Britain since 2005, giving them identical rights and responsibilities to straight couples in a civil marriage.

But campaigners point to differences, such as gay couples’ inability to choose a religious ceremony or to call their partnership a “marriage”.

The new law will ban the Churches of England and Wales — which are …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

British gay marriage bill clears crucial hurdle

Leave a comment

The first gay marriages in England and Wales are set to take place in 2014 after the legislation passed through parliament’s upper chamber the House of Lords on Monday.

Jubilant gay rights activists cheered outside parliament as the bill cleared unopposed, while gay lawmaker Lord Waheed Ali told colleagues in an emotional speech: “My life and many others will be better today than it was yesterday.”

The government-backed legislation now passes back to the lower House of Commons for final debates on Tuesday, but they are expected to be little more than a formality.

A spokesman for the culture ministry, which is overseeing the legislation, said the bill would probably receive official assent from Queen Elizabeth II, the head of state, on Wednesday or Thursday.

“But we are looking at seeing the first gay weddings in the middle of 2014 because there are various issues to sort out, such as its impact on pensions,” the spokesman told AFP.

Supporters of the bill in the House of Lords wore pink carnations, while gay marriage activists danced outside the Houses of Parliament.

Gay rights activists have vowed to press on for equal marriage in Britain’s other constituent nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the new law would ensure that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people felt “recognised and valued, not excluded”.

The legislation represents “the kind of open, modern, tolerant and diverse society we want Britain to be in the 21st century”, he added.

But opponents of gay marriage warned that the legislation would “come back to bite” Prime Minister David Cameron.

The Coalition for Marriage campaign group said it would mobilise a 700,000-strong support base ahead of next year’s European elections and the general election in 2015.

The bill survived despite opposition from dozens of members of Cameron’s own Conservative party, and an attempt to kill it off with a “wrecking amendment” in the Lords last month failed.

Veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said it was “a defeat for discrimination and a victory for love and marriage”.

“It is of huge symbolic importance, signalling that same-sex love has social recognition, acceptance and parity,” he said.

Gay couples in Britain have had the right to enter into a civil partnership since 2005, giving them identical rights and responsibilities to straight couples in a civil marriage.

But campaigners point to some differences such as international recognition, which applies to marriage but not partnerships.

The new law will ban the established Churches of England and Wales — which are opposed to gay marriage — from conducting ceremonies.

Other religious institutions will be able to “opt in” if they wish.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own laws on the matter.

The Scottish government published its own same-sex marriage bill last month, but Northern Ireland’s assembly voted to block a similar measure.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Soldiers die in heat wave trying for SAS

Leave a comment

Two British soldiers died during a training exercise over the weekend as they took part in a gruelling selection process for the elite SAS unit on the hottest day of the year, military sources said on Monday.

Police and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are investigating Saturday’s deaths in the Brecon Beacons mountain range in south Wales, while a third soldier remains in a serious condition in hospital.

Military sources said the men were members of the Territorial Army, Britain’s reservist force, who were hoping to join the elite Special Air Service (SAS) regiment.

The MoD refused to confirm media reports that the men collapsed from heat exhaustion while struggling through a tough selection process in temperatures of 29.5 degrees Celsius (85.1 degrees Fahrenheit).

“At this stage we are not ruling anything out,” a ministry spokesman told AFP.

It is understood that live ammunition was not involved in the incident.

An unnamed army officer told the Daily Mail newspaper: “The troops are desperate to prove they are up to joining the SAS and push themselves harder and harder.

“There is going to be a huge inquiry into what happened because, on the face of it, these lads look like they’ve been marched to death.”

The Brecon Beacons offer some of Britain’s most rugged terrain, and the mountain range is regularly used for military training exercises.

In January, an army captain also believed to have been trying out for the SAS was found dead on a snow-covered mountain in the Brecon Beacons.

An MoD spokesman said there were no plans to change “routine exercises” in light of the latest deaths in the mountains.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Benefits cap introduced across Britain

Leave a comment

A cap on the amount of benefits households can claim is being rolled out across England, Scotland and Wales from Monday as part of a major government overhaul of welfare.

Under the changes, couples and single parents of working age will be entitled to no more than ??500 a week in benefits, including jobseekers allowance, housing and child benefits, while single people can receive up to ??350 a week.

The changes aim to ensure that people on benefits do not earn more than the average working family.

The government says the reforms will encourage more people back into work but critics argue that they will unfairly hit larger families and say they fail to take into account regional differences in the cost of living.

The cap, which does not apply in Northern Ireland, has been in place in the London boroughs of Haringey, Enfield, Croydon and Bromley since April.

Defending the changes, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said the reforms had already led to more people returning to work in those areas.

“A very, very significant number have gone out to work; in fact, what the Jobcentre staff have told us as we have been going round is that they have seen a genuine increase since they have alerted people to the fact that they are likely to be in the cap,” he told the BBC.

“This is both about saving money and, more particularly, about changing a culture that had left families, particularly large families, finding it easy and a reality for their lives to stay out of work on taxpayers’ benefits.”

The cap will incorporate a whole range of benefits, including the new Universal Credit for jobseekers and those on low incomes, being rolled out nationally from October as part of the shake-up.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

News, Politics, Government

Everyone is ready, but Britain's royal baby bides its time

Leave a comment

The hospital is ready, the Wikipedia page and Twitter accounts are up and Britain’s famously creative press are running out of ideas. But Sunday arrived with no sign of the royal baby.

Prince William is filling the time until his wife Catherine goes into labour, playing polo, taking part in charity matches on Saturday and Sunday with his younger brother Harry.

He has taken a couple of days off from his work as a search and rescue helicopter pilot in Wales, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said, although he refused to say when the prince might be going back.

The palace has stayed tight-lipped about the birth of the new third in line to the throne, saying nothing for days other than to reiterate that Catherine is due some time in mid-July.

The press had pencilled in Saturday as the day, but bookmakers William Hill tipped Sunday as the likely due date, with Paddy Power offering equal odds on Sunday and Monday.

The only thing that is certain is that babies rarely come on time and that when this new heir to the Windsor dynasty arrives, the world will be ready.

In keeping with the digital age, the newborn already has its own page on Wikipedia, entitled “Child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge”, to use William and Kate’s formal titles.

Several spoof Twitter accounts have also been set up, with one, @RoyalFoetus, already claiming 5,500 followers. On June 19, it declared: “One is done with gestating.”

International media are camped outside St Mary’s Hospital in London where Catherine is due to give birth, and a row of parking spaces have been reserved by the royals outside the private Lindo Wing until the end of the month.

The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the 31-year-old’s gynaecologist, Marcus Setchell, will be given a police escort to hospital when she goes into labour.

It has previously been reported that Setchell had given up alcohol for several weeks in preparation for the birth.

In the absence of any proper news about the baby, such tidbits formed the bulk of the royal coverage in Britain’s normally hard-hitting Sunday newspapers.

The Sunday Express reported exclusively that Catherine had spent the weekend at her parents’ home in Berkshire, about 40 miles (65 kilometres) west of London.

Meanwhile the Mail on Sunday published a poll revealing that 53 percent of Britons think William and Catherine should not hire a nanny.

A further 56 percent think she should cut back significantly on her royal duties after the birth.

The paper said that palace officials expected Catherine to resume some public engagements in the autumn — provided of course, that the baby ever arrives.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Automobiles

Report: Circuit of Wales gets key go-ahead vote by local government

Leave a comment

By Jonathon Ramsey

Circuit of Wales proposal

Filed under:

A development company called Heads of the Valleys, led by Michael Carrick, is working through the steps to build a 250-million-pound ($378M US) motorsports facility in Blaenau Gwent, Wales, about 33 miles due north of Cardiff. After more than a year of work so far, the latest success is that the Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council has given approval to the outline plan of the circuit.

Called the Circuit of Wales, the 830-acre site will be a “low carbon automotive center of excellence” that will comprise a 3.5-mile car track, motocross, karting and off-roading tracks, hotel and commercial and retail complexes. To fulfill the low-carbon bit, the facilities will also include an R&D park for entities exploring “the boundaries in environmental technology and energy solutions.”

The plan is ultimately to host World Touring Car, MotoGP, World Superbikes and World Motocross. All of the facilities will be available to locals, a motorsports academy will assist new talent, and Welsh universities are expected to be able to tie their expertise in with the stakeholders in the technology park. The next step is for Heads of the Valleys to draw up and get approval for the detailed plan of the circuit.

Circuit of Wales gets key go-ahead vote by local government originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 13 Jul 2013 13:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

News, Politics, Government

32 police officers injured in Belfast riots

Leave a comment

Northern Ireland’s police commander says 32 officers have been wounded and reinforcements are arriving from Britain to combat rioting by Protestant extremists inspired by the Orange Order brotherhood.

Chief Constable Matt Baggott says 400 officers from England, Scotland and Wales are being deployed Saturday on Belfast’s streets to help prevent any direct Catholic-Protestant clashes a day after the Orangemen’s annual July 12 parades descended into chaos in two parts of the capital.

Baggott blamed leaders of the Orange Order for encouraging mobs to try to overwhelm police lines in north Belfast, where officers blocked one small parade from passing a hostile Catholic district.

He says leaders of the anti-Catholic fraternal order behaved recklessly, incited violence and had “no plan” for controlling crowds. The rioting lasted six hours.

…read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Health

Measles Threatens Two Million Children In The UK

Leave a comment

Up to two million children in Britain who did not receive MMR vaccines a decade ago because of Dr. Andrew Wakefield‘s now discredited autism scare are at risk of measles. Experts are urging health authorities to implement a national “catch-up” campaign to prevent measles, which has spread dramatically in Wales, from affecting the rest of Britain…

From: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/259339.php

News, Politics, Government

Yugoslav wars left population heavily armed

Leave a comment

The wars from 1991 to 1999 as Yugoslavia broke up took up to 200,000 lives, turned millions into refugees and left much of the region’s people traumatized and heavily armed. It was the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II.

The millions of weapons that remained in possession of civilians after the fighting have caused fatalities every week, as traumatized former soldiers either shoot family members or commit suicide or children find guns at home and die while playing with them.

All of the seven new countries that emerged have banned civilians from owning weapons with varying degrees of success.

SERBIA

Serbia has about three million weapons owned by civilians, according to the Small Arms Survey, a nongovernmental organization from Switzerland. It says Serbia has the fifth-highest number of weapons per capita in the world, with some 38 firearms for every 100 people.

In contrast, the U.S. has 88.8 weapons per 100 people and leads the list worldwide, with Yemen second at 54.8 arms per 100 people. England and Wales are low down on the list with 6.2 weapons per 100 people.

Serbian gun laws were tightened several years ago when authorities proposed an amnesty for all those with illegal weapons. Heavy weapons like mortar launchers that were handed over were impounded, but small arms were allowed, with owners required to get a license and pay taxes on them.

In recent years there have been several incidents where hand grenades were activated during minor arguments, including one last year when four people were killed when they were refused entry into a bar in northern Serbia.

On Tuesday, police said a 60-year-old veteran gunned down 13 people in a house-to-house rampage in a Serbian village. The motive for that was unknown.

MACEDONIA

Macedonia takes second place in the region, with approximately 24 weapons per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey. Authorities have introduced voluntary firearm surrender schemes and weapons seizures to reduce the number of illegal guns, collecting tens of thousands.

MONTENEGRO

Montenegrins have 23 guns for every 100 people, according …read more

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News