Free Republic

More than 20 deer have moved in on Kinlochleven near Fort William in Lochaber, Scotland, and are said to have begun to "intimidate" the community. A lone stag arrived four years ago before slowly attracting hinds and the wild animals eventually started wandering the streets and local parks. In January a proposal to kill off the herd was vetoed, with villagers arguing they could learn to live side by side with the new settlers. The village used to house a giant aluminium smelting works but now much of its economy is supported by tourists walking the West Highland Way, with...

The mother of missing Long Island woman Gabby Petito said her daughter seemed “OK” before she vanished — though she hinted that there could’ve been trouble brewing. Petito, 22, last spoke to her mom over FaceTime around Aug. 25 while on a tour of national parks out west in a converted van with her beau, Brian Laundrie. “She seemed OK to me at the time, other than I don’t know where the relationship was going with the boyfriend,” her mother, Nichole Schmidt, told news station KSL-TV.

Redmond will support it inside Azure and send code back to the FreeBSD Foundation Microsoft has published its own distribution of FreeBSD 10.3 in order to make the OS available and supported in Azure. Jason Anderson, principal PM manager at Microsoft's Open Source Technology Center says Redmond “took on the work of building, testing, releasing and maintaining the image” so it could “ensure our customers have an enterprise SLA for their FreeBSD VMs running in Azure”. Microsoft did so “to remove that burden” from the FreeBSD Foundation, which relies on community contributions. Redmond is not keeping its work on FreeBSD...

Bogota, Jul 23 (EFE).- Five members of Conservation International and a cameraman working for the environmental organization were kidnapped in northern Colombia by suspected members of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, guerrilla group, Colombian media reported. The group was caught by surprise by ELN fighters in the hamlet of La Paz, which is close to Sincelejo, the capital of Cesar province, some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from Bogota, according to radio and television reports. The environmentalists had left Sincelejo last week and were working on a project to protect sections of the Serrania del Perija, a mountain range rich...

CARACAS, Venezuela The government of Venezuelan has donated 100-thousand dollars to a Santa Cruz-based non-profit organization dedicated to preventing violence among youths. Deputy Justice Minister Yuri Pimentel made the announcement during a meeting in Venezuela's capital with American singer and activist Harry Belafonte, who accepted the donation on behalf of the California Coalition of Barrios Unidos. The California Coalition of Barrios Unidos began as a community based peace movement in the violent streets of urban California in 1977.

It defies belief. Ex-President Jimmy Carter, who crystallized a fraudulent recall referendum for Venezuela's dictator Hugo Chavez, now says his Carter Center will return to Caracas "to help consolidate peace and democracy." He also says he's got a final report on the Venezuelan recall referendum. (There've been some other final reports but somehow he's got to issue a final final final report) He's up to no good. No one has demoralized Venezuela's democracy more than America's worst-ever president. The only legitimate reason he has to go to Caracas is to beg Venezuelans for forgiveness after that sorry show he put...

Boston Teen Arrested in McAllen Break-In An 18-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged today with breaking into a McAllen pawn shop and stealing handguns. An officer found Atbin Hoshang Forghan of Canton, Massachusetts, outside Danny's Pawn Shop before dawn. Forghan allegedly was carrying stolen munitions, a bulletproof vest and a switchblade. Forghan was arraigned today on charges of burglary and possessing prohibited weapons. Bond is 550-thousand dollars. Investigators say Forghan traveled to McAllen by bus from the Boston area earlier this week and he had visited the pawn shop. McAllen police also contacted Homeland Security officials. An investigator with the...