Hamas cracking down on 'inappropriate' hairstyles, says rights group

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - Hamas security forces in Gaza have been rounding up young men and forcing them to get haircuts on grounds of inappropriate hairstyles, a rights group has charged.

Some of the youths have even been beaten for styling their hair in a way deemed unacceptable to Gaza's ruling Islamist movement, or wearing low-hung trousers, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said on Sunday.

Buddhists-Muslims violence spreads in Myanmar

Sectarian clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar spread to at least two other towns in the country’s heartland over the weekend, undermining government efforts to quash an eruption of violence that has killed dozens of people and displaced 10,000 more.

President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the region on Friday and deployed army troops to the worst hit city, Meikhtila. But even as soldiers were able to impose order there after several days of anarchy that saw armed Buddhists torch the city’s Muslim quarters, unrest was reported in two other towns to the south.