IS IT SOMETHING IN THE WATER OVER THERE?

Turkmenistan borders Afghanistan and Iran to the north.

Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov has passed a decree forbidding young men in the country to wear long hair or beards.

The president said the Education Ministry should be in charge of checking people's hair as the issue was most pressing among the young...

President Niyazov appeared on television saying that men can no longer grow their hair and that beards are not allowed, at least among the young.

He gave no reason - but that is not unusual in Turkmenistan.

In this part of the world, rulings on hair are generally connected to Islam in some way, but it seems likely that Mr Niyazov's decree is more broadly directed against individualism of any kind...

It is forbidden now to listen to car radios or to smoke in the street; opera and ballet performances have been banned on the grounds that they are unnecessary...

On Sunday he is to fire 15,000 nurses and other health workers and replace them with army conscripts.

The frightening thing is that this sort of lunacy somehow makes sense to these guys...