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...

Pasadena police busted an illegal immigration operation based out of a house Wednesday afternoon, officials told News2Houston. Officers said they were making a welfare check at the 1500 block of Sheridan when a woman refused to open the door around 4:45 p.m. When officers went inside, they found 34 illegal immigrants in hot and closed-off back rooms. The immigrants are from several different countries, including Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador (news -web sites) and Mexico. The immigrants have been in Houston since the weekend, and complained of being fed only once a day and kept in hot rooms. Immigration officials...