Taliban morality enforcers arrest men for having the wrong hairstyle or skipping mosque

MANDALAY: When a massive earthquake hit Myanmar last month, centuries of sacred history tumbled down -- towering Buddha idols, sky-scraping stupas and the pure-white pagoda where 83-year-old Khin Sein has prayed for most of her life.
The magnitude-7.7 tremor razed Nagayon Pagoda in the central city of Mandalay, Myanmar's last royal capital where ancient heritage was decimated in the disaster which claimed more than 3,700 lives.
For around 200 years, the temple was adorned with a carving of a sacred serpent said to have shielded the Buddha from the elements after his enlightenment.
The quake that struck one month ago on Monday reduced it to a heap of shapeless masonry, half burying the snake's bowing head.
"I cried out to pray that Nagayon Pagoda would save me when the quake started," said Khin Sein. "But my son told me that the pagoda was already gone."
"I don't think any bricklayer or architect could rebuild it the same as it once was," she told AFP, her eyes welling with tears as she paced the perimeter of the temple where she had prayed for 51 years.
"I want the original back but I know it's not possible."


The March 28 quake has left more than 60,000 people living in tent encampments, according to the United Nations, and pushed two million people into "critical need" in a country already devastated by civil war since a 2021 coup.
As the ground sheared up to six metres (20 feet), more than 3,000 monasteries and nunneries were destroyed alongside more than 5,000 pagodas, the ruling junta says.
Myanmar's second city of Mandalay and the adjacent cities of Sagaing and Inwa, dotted around the quake's epicentre, are all ancient seats of power, steeped in history and now pockmarked with ruins.
Cultural capital Mandalay was where the British captured the country's last king in 1885, beginning colonial rule of the whole nation.
The Royal Palace's crenellations have crumbled in places with ornate bastions collapsed askew.
A one-kilometre colonial-era bridge has collapsed into the Irrawaddy River towards Sagaing, where the horizon was once prickled with pinnacles of pagodas and stupas now contorted or simply gone.
Inwa served as capital for nearly 360 years until it was abandoned after a magnitude-8.2 quake struck in 1839.
Three quarters of the historic buildings inside its ancient cultural heritage zone were damaged in this year's jolt, officials say.
Thu Nanda has come to visit what remains of Me Nu Brick Monastery.
Built in 1818, entire portions of its gleaming north and west wings have been devastated, its gold filigree exterior cracked with terracotta-colour innards spilling out.
"The old things are the most valuable," said Thu Nanda, a 49-year-old monk. "The loss of historic heritage is breaking our hearts."
"Even if we are able to repair it, people will not be able to feel it in its original form. Old is just old. It cannot be restored," he said.
"I think the loss of our heritage affects not only our country but also the world."


Myanmar is still grappling with the recovery of human remains from the ruins and the oncoming summer monsoon season. Heavy rains are already forecast this week as thousands mark one month camped outside.
While surveyors have investigated damage to historic buildings, reconstruction efforts are focused on aiding the living victims with little thought yet for the restoration of heritage landmarks.
Myanmar has seen more than its fair share of destruction. The four-year war has made air strikes and sieges of urban centres commonplace.
Thousands have been killed, 3.5 million are displaced and half the population now live in poverty.
Nonetheless Thein Myint Ko, surveying the three-centuries-old Lawka Tharaphu Pagoda, says: "I have never experienced such tragedy in my 65 years alive".
He serves on the board of trustees of a building largely ruined by the force of the quake.
Its gold stupa was cracked like eggshells, and now volunteer workers from a nearby village spade at the dusty remnants beneath.
"I feel devastated," said Thein Myint Ko.
But what was left unscathed has become more precious to the annals of Myanmar.
Somehow a monumental eight-metre marble statue of the Buddha is largely undamaged -- its gold halo shattered and a crack at its base, but its serene expression unperturbed.
"No one was injured and the Buddha image survived," said one man clearing rubble at the feet of the statue. "It is such a blessed pagoda."
lmg-jts/pdw/sco

PARIS: Ten suspects go on trial in Paris on Monday over the 2016 robbery of the US celebrity Kim Kardashian, which saw some $10 million worth of jewelry stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.
Kardashian, now 44 — who left Paris traumatized hours after the robbery on the night of October 2-3, 2016 — is due to testify at the trial on May 13 in a court appearance that will be a major event in itself.
Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames like “Old Omar” and “Blue Eyes” that recall the old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s film noirs.
Kardashian, then 35, was threatened with a gun to the head and tied up with her mouth taped up. The theft was the biggest against a private individual in France in the past 20 years.
The trial will also go into how the perpetrators received the information as to where Kardashian was staying during Paris Fashion Week, and picked the very moment when her bodyguard was absent, accompanying her sister Kourtney to a night club.
It is thought Kardashian’s frequent posts about her wealth, personal life and whereabouts may have facilitated the perpetrators’ actions. The trial gets under way from 1230 GMT.
The star was staying at an exclusive hotel in central Paris favored by celebrities when two armed and masked men stormed into her room at around 3:00 am after arriving at the establishment by bicycle.
They shouted that they wanted the diamond engagement ring from her now ex-husband, the US rapper Kayne West.
Kardashian had been showing it off on her social media channels — it alone was valued at $4 million (3.5 million euros).
They made off with the ring among $10 million worth of jewels.
The only item recovered was a diamond necklace dropped in the street while the thieves escaped.
It all lasted just 10 minutes, with Kardashian’s bodyguard arriving to rescue his client after he was alerted.
The suspects were arrested three months after the robbery, through DNA evidence.
But the gold seized was apparently melted down and investigators, who took hundreds of thousands of euros from the suspects when they were arrested, believe that much of the stolen haul was sold in Belgium.
Twelve suspects were charged, with 10 going on trial from Monday. One died in March this year and another is to be tried separately for health reasons.
“It wasn’t a major armed robbery” but an “easy” heist, said the main suspect, Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, known as “Old Omar.” His DNA from the scene helped investigators find him and the co-defendants.
He admitted tying up Kardashian, but disputes investigators’ claims that he was the mastermind behind the robbery.
He says he was approached by an unnamed “sponsor” who suggested the scheme on behalf of an “informant” very close to the star, who then gave them the green light.
According to his lawyer, Khedache now has severe hearing and speaking problems and can only express himself in writing.
Another key suspect is Didier Dubreucq, 69, known as “Blue Eyes,” accused of being the second person who stormed into Kardashian’s room. He denies the charges.
Yunice Abbas, 71, meanwhile stayed in the lobby while the two other men went up to her room, it is alleged.
He controversially sought to capitalize on the crime by writing a book titled: “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian.”
Others on trial are accused of being facilitators and informants, including Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian’s long-serving Paris driver.
He is accused of supplying information about her movements, which he denies.
Despite the “media hype,” the trial “must allow for calm debates,” warned one of the defense lawyers, Margot Pugliese.
The trial is due to last until May 23.