ooops ..... whilst (using IE9) Kobo have retained the Free Ebooks header and link, and you can even make the choice of free ebook category, you then get the message:
'Sorry, but this page isn’t available in your region.
To see the great Kobo offerings that are available where you are, go here:
http://store.kobobooks.com.'
So, it seems that it's been disabled.