Free Republic

At the Maldives' National Museum, smashed Buddhist statues are testament to the rise of Islamic extremism and Taliban-style intolerance in a country famous as a laid-back holiday destination. On Tuesday, as protesters backed by mutinous police toppled president Mohamed Nasheed, a handful of men stormed the Chinese-built museum and destroyed its display of priceless artefacts from the nation's pre-Islamic era. "They have effectively erased all evidence of our Buddhist past," a senior museum official told AFP at the now shuttered building in the capital Male, asking not to be named out of fear for his own safety. "We lost all...

Cops: She drove drunk, urinated By ALICE McQUILLAN and ALISON GENDARDAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Talk about a lack of class. The principal of a troubled city school was arraigned yesterday after cops caught her driving drunk - and urinating in a Bronx street - when she was supposed to be at work, police said. Evelyn Peralta-Tessitore, 41, principal of Public School 192 in Harlem, was charged with driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest. Cops said they spotted Peralta-Tessitore squatting and urinating beside the open door of her 2003 Mercedes-Benz about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday. Her car was stopped ata red...