Free Republic

Mat Schulz goes hunting for the endangered bison in a primeval corner of Poland. For most people, Poland is connected with images of factories, coalmines and shipyards. But between the industrial landscapes there are mountains, lakes and sea. Most surprisingly, on the border with Belarus, Poland also has mainland Europe's last primeval forest - 8000 years old and 1250 square kilometres in size. The Bialowieza Forest still exists because Polish and Lithuanian royalty used it for hunting from the 14th century. When, in the 19th century, the land became part of Russia, the tsar reserved it for the same purpose....

GARDINER, Mont. - Montana's first bison hunt in 15 years opened at sunrise Tuesday, with a 17-year-old boy bagging the first buffalo within 90 minutes. The hunt, aimed at thinning out the bison population near Yellowstone National Park, came after years of protests from animal rights activists. State and federal officials say the hunt will help manage a population that has grown to an estimated 4,900 animals, more than some fear the area can support. Some ranchers are also worried some diseased bison could spread illness to cattle. George Clement, a teenager who took the day off from school, killed...

HELENA, Mont. - A hunter who drew one of two dozen coveted licenses to take part in one of Montana's first bison hunts in 15 years is a convicted felon who legally can't carry a gun. The state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks acknowledged that it has no authority to strip the man of the license. However, officials have alerted the man's probation officer. "Obviously as a convicted felon (on probation), he cannot possess or use a firearm," said agency spokeswoman Mel Frost. "If he does use a firearm, it is not violating Fish, Wildlife and Parks rules. It...

A mother has filed a complaint to the Patient Commission after finding her newborn baby had the name armband of another woman.No one at Haukeland University Hospital can explain how the error occurred despite numerous and strict routines concerning the identification of newborn infants, newspaper VG reports.A DNA test determined that the woman was the biological mother to the child she had had home for several weeks and that no exchange of babies had taken place at the maternity ward.The hospital was baffled by the error, as each newborn is tagged on both the foot and arm but in this...

Norway's most controversial refugee has lodged a threat against the country that has hosted him and his family for the past 14 years. Mullah Krekar calls his possible deportation "an offense" that shouldn't go unpunished. Mullah Krekar continues to fight deportation back to Iraq, and calls any such order "an offense" that should be punished.Oslo newspaper Aftenposten reported Tuesday that Krekar, in an interview with Arab TV station Al-Jazeera, vowed he will never go along with a deportation order issued by Norwegian authorities. Cabinet Minister Erna Solberg initially ordered him sent out of the country in February 2003, calling Krekar...

The latest round of opinion polls hints that the national elections on Sep. 12 will contain considerable excitement in terms of producing a majority government.The red-green coalition of the Labor (Ap), Socialist Left (SV) and Center (Sp) parties remain vastly more popular than the tripartite center-right governing alliance, but the prospects of a clear left-leaning parliamentary majority are not so clear.In the latest poll by AC Nielsen for the Newspapers' News Agency (ANB), SV fell back fully three percent points from June measurements, to 12.8 percent, just marginally better than their 2001 showing. In compensation, Labor advanced 1.2 percent points...

A new government could spell the end of many telephone sales approaches, but humanitarian organizations will in any event be allowed to try to raise funds.The Socialist Left Party (SV) has proposed strict regulation of telemarketing, and potential coalition partner Labor is willing to consider tougher measures, newspaper Bergens Tidende reports.Current Minister of Children and Family Affairs Laila Dåvøy, a Christian Democrat, agrees that something should be done."I see that this has become a big problem for many people and this is particularly because the right to deny approaches has not worked properly. Even if the telephone subscriber has registered...

Armed police were forced to respond when a drunken national guardsman was seen bearing a weapon.The soldier had his AG3 rifle confiscated and was left to sleep his bender off in the drunk tank after being arrested in downtown Bodø, newspaper Avisa Nordland reports.Bodø police were notified of a drunken armed man roaming the downtown area on Monday evening after the suspect dropped one of the two bags he was carrying and his AG3 rifle fell out.Police found the guardsman waiting for a southbound train to depart, with his weapon stowed in the baggage rack above his seat, en route...

The Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue (NSSR) demands that measures be taken to prepare foreign tourists better for the demands of braving Norway's natural elements.German fishing tourists and inexperienced foreigners in kayaks were surprised and imperiled by Monday's storm conditions in northwestern Norway - despite warnings several days in advance."Greater responsibility must be imposed on boat hire companies, both in relation to weather information, safety equipment on board and the boats themselves," NSSR information chief Ingvar Johnsen said.On Monday 40 foreign kayakers got into trouble in the Geiranger fjord when the wind suddenly turned. Two capsized, but the paddlers were...

The front-running Labor Party slipped a bit and the political right surged forward as Norway's national election draws nearer.Labor fell back 2.7 percent points to a still dominant 30.7 percent showing in the latest political party survey from MMI, carried out for NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) and newspaper Dagbladet.Labor allies in the likely 'red-green' alliance, the Socialist Left Party (SV) and the Center Party (Sp), ended up contributing the same: SV down 1.2 points to 13.1 and Sp up 1.2 to 7.9.The red-green coalition would still have a parliamentary majority of 90 seats if this poll reflected an election.The Conservative Party...

The Labor Party believes Norway needs more Vinmonopolet--the state alcohol outlets."Every municipality in the country, apart from the very smallest, should have their own "pol" stores," Labor Party social policy spokesman Bjarne Håkon Hanssen told newspaper Bergens Tidende.At the beginning of 2005 there were 195 of the state monopoly outlets, in the country's 436 municipalities.Hanssen believes this measure would be the best way of preventing wine from being sold in grocery stores.Deputy Health and Care Services Minister Kristin Ravnanger said that it would not be particularly profitable for Vinmonopolet to increase their number of stores, something that the monopoly itself...

Two simultaneous accidents were too much for the ambulance service at Blefjell Hospital Kongsberg, but a resourceful bystander helped out with a delivery van.An unlucky motocross driver took a nasty spill during training at Basserudåsen last Thursday, and a call to emergency services only resulted in learning that another accident was occupying the available ambulance, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.Although Torgeir Lande could not tell how badly hurt the motocross driver was, he could see that the man's arm was dislocated, as was a finger, and one foot was badly injured.Lande said the victim was in great pain and decided the...

Staff at Vardø police station in northern Norway are exasperated for an unusual reason - they have too little to do.Vardø, an urban municipality with around 2,400 residents, lost its status as a separate police district during a recent reform, stripping it of responsibility for key tasks, newspaper VG reports.At the same time, crime in Vardø has been significantly reduced, leaving the remaining officers with a lot of empty time on their hands. A lack of funds for overtime pay means that evening duty is scarce, and so potential crimes are not being detected."At the present time we have too...

Police in Øksnes and Bø in Vesterålen, high up on Norway's northwest coast, have such equipment shortages that they have to call a taxi to respond to emergency calls.Area police have had their fleet of vehicles trimmed from two to one due to budget cuts, and have repeatedly had to ring a taxi when needing another car to respond to a call, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.The mayor is so exasperated that he is considering donating a kick-sled to the force for the winter."If we are to have mobile police in the municipality then we are going to have to pool...

Rumors abound concerning the placement of around 20 wolves along the Swedish border, from Elverum to Halden."For now they are only rumors but they will be investigated. If there is something to them we will crack down on it, as we will if there is any illegal hunting," Knut Normann Mælen of the Hedmark police told newspaper Østlendingen.Last weekend police received tips about an organized wolf hunt in Våler but an investigation of the area turned up no suspicious behavior."Recently we have been getting reports of people in the forest with weapons and we want to find out exactly what...

Speeding and driving dangerously was bad enough, but a flimsy excuse was more than traffic police could stand.Acting district leader of UP, Norway's highway patrol, Tor Ødegård, was shocked by the excuse he was given after stopping a man who was doing 113 kph (70 mph) in an 80 kph (50 mph) zone."The man complained that his windshield wipers weren't working and the only way he could get the rain to glance off the windshield was to maintain high speed," Ødegård told Trondheim newspaper Adresseavisen.Ødegård noticed the car was driving much faster than others."In the end he got stuck behind...

Norway has the least amount of police per capita in the Nordic region, and it would take 1,600 new jobs to reach Swedish levels, according to calculations by the Federation of Police Unions (PF).Sweden has one police officer for every 381 residents, Denmark one for 396. According to a new PF report Norway is a distant last with the needs of 438 citizens covered per officer.The real difference between Norway's police workload and that of their Swedish colleagues is even greater, with Norwegian officers using 685 man-years on evictions and similar cases, while Sweden has a separate entity for such...

Nearly wiped out in the 1800s, the purebreds' newer enemy is a century of inbreeding QUITAQUE - Pushing a button that activates a feed dispenser on a trailer behind his pickup, Danny Swepston summoned a sound that nearly disappeared from the plains 131 years ago: The thunder of bison hooves. "Here they come now out of those mesquite trees," said Swepston, who as a wildlife leader for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is responsible for these bison. A stampede it wasn't. Fewer than 60 of the fur-covered, humpbacked animals make up the last purebred examples of the Great Southern...

SAN DIEGO – For the first time in a while, voting in San Diego seemed to go smoothly. During Tuesday's balloting, there was no question of whether people remembered to fill in a bubble when writing in a name. There were no computer glitches to frustrate workers.The troubleshooters whom the San Diego County Registrar of Voters had standing by didn't have much to do."We have a whole troubleshooting hotline where people are sitting very quiet," said Registrar Mikel Haas, about a hour before voting concluded.Even a power outage in Mira Mesa didn't stop the vote scanners, which have back-up batteries....

A leading researcher on terrorism believes Norway and Sweden are the two safest countries in Europe. That may further boost tourism, which already is setting records in Norway this summer.The number of cruiseships coming to Norway, for example, is the highest ever, and it's probably no coincidence. Increasing numbers of foreign tourists are heading to Scandinavia because of terrorism fears elsewhere.Now Magnus Ranstorp, who is Swedish himself but considered one of the world's foremost experts on terrorism, has ranked those European countries believed to be most vulnerable to terrorist attack.Ranstorp, a professor at St Andrews University in Scotland, was asked...