Free Republic

ISIS massacres 300 and kidnaps at least 400 including women and children during attack on government-held city ISIS have abducted at least 400 civilians including women and children after capturing new territory in an assault on Syria's eastern city of Deir Ezzor. Activists from the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they believed ISIS rounded up the civilians following an attack on the north of the city. 'After their attack on Deir Ezzor yesterday, IS abducted at least 400 civilians from the residents of the Al-Baghaliyeh suburb it captured and adjacent areas in the northwest of the city,' the...

The cubs fathered by Cecil the lion are being protected by his brother amid fears they will be killed by a male rival, researchers said today. The much-loved lion was killed by American dentist Walter Palmer earlier this month, sparking outrage around the world. After his death, there were fears his cubs would be killed by the next lion in the hierarchy so he could father his own offspring with the females in the pride. But a team at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Unit, which had been studying Cecil before he was shot dead, said the lion's brother had stepped...