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A bright orange helicopter races over the jungle to dump water on a raging wildfire that is adding to the air pollution choking Thailand’s northern tourist hub of Chiang Mai.Chutaphorn Phuangchingngam, the only female captain in Thailand’s national disaster prevention team, draws on two decades of flying to steer the Russian-made chopper through the thick smoke.Forest fires are burning in several areas of northern Thailand, contributing to the annual spike in air pollution that comes with farmers burning stubble to prepare their land for the next crop.Chiang Mai had the sixth worst air quality of any major city in the world on Thursday morning, according to monitor IQAir, and the city governor has warned residents against staying outdoors.Chutaphorn told AFP the dense forest and hilly terrain made helicopters the best tool to fight the blazes.”We use (helicopters) to put out fire in areas that are difficult to reach, especially in the mountains,” she said.Chutaphorn and her six-member crew flew over Huai Bok reservoir, collecting 3,000 litres of water each time before heading two kilometres to the fire zone, spread across more than 1.6 hectares (four acres).Northern Thailand is the latest area around the world to suffer significant wildfires, after South Korea — currently battling its biggest on record — Japan and California.While the causes of forest fires can be complex, climate change can make them more likely by creating hotter, drier weather that leaves undergrowth more prone to catching light.As well as damaging important forests, the fires are fuelling Thailand’s anxieties about air pollution, which causes millions of people to need medical treatment each year.- Smog crisis -Levels of PM2.5 pollutants — dangerous cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs — were almost 15 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit in Chiang Mai on Thursday, according to IQAir. The government banned crop burning early this year to try to improve air quality, with violators facing fines and legal action, but authorities said the measures have proven ineffective.”There are still large numbers of farmers who continue to burn their fields,” said Dusit Pongsapipat, head of the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in Chiang Mai.Danaipat Pokavanich, a clean-air advocate involved in drafting the Clean Air Act — a bill to curb pollution in Thailand — praised the firefighting efforts but called them a “temporary fix”.”The law alone won’t stop farmers from burning,” he said.He recommended offering financial incentives to encourage sustainable farming practices and investing in technology to reduce the need for burning.Until then, Chatuphorn and her team remain ready to take to the skies to do their part to clean up the air by putting out forest fires.”Flying a helicopter for disaster work is different from flying passengers,” she said, citing limited visibility as a major challenge.She remains committed to her childhood dream.”I just wanted to touch the cloud,” she said, after the helicopter landed. “Though now all I feel is just the smoke.”

Myanmar’s junta will muster its embattled troops for a show of strength on Armed Forces Day on Thursday after a year of seismic defeats and forcibly conscripting civilians to bolster its ranks.Thousands of soldiers will march before junta chief Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw, where a banner over the approach to the parade ground reads: “Only when the military is strong will the country be strong.”Special forces guarded the main entrance to the remote, purpose-built capital, where the annual parade has become progressively smaller in the four years of civil war since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government.The junta has lost the key northern town of Lashio — including a regional military command — and swaths of the western Rakhine state since the last Armed Forces Day. It has also sought to conscript more than 50,000 people.The civil war pits the junta’s forces against both anti-coup guerillas and long-established ethnic minority armed groups.More than 3.5 million people are displaced, half the population live in poverty and one million civilians face World Food Programme aid cuts next month following US President Donald Trump’s slashing of Washington’s humanitarian budget.At the same time, trade sanctions have isolated Myanmar, making it increasingly dependent on China and Russia for economic and military support.”The military has never been defeated this severely,” said Jack Myint, a non-resident fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.However, observers agree its grip on the centre is secure for now.”The reality is they still have a superior supply of arms,” said Myint, and they “don’t have to defeat everyone to maintain control”.War monitors say the past year has seen a spike in air strikes by the junta’s Russian-made jets.Eleven people, including a doctor, were killed when a clinic in western Myanmar was bombed on Saturday, locals said, one week after a bombardment in the heartlands killed 12 people, according to a local official.- Election promised -The past year has shown how strong a hand Beijing holds in Myanmar, with a willingness to play off the military and its opponents to pursue economic opportunities and stability on its borders, according to analyst Myint.After public concern spiked in China over scam centres in Myanmar, thousands of workers were repatriated at Beijing’s demand.”Beijing sees all these smaller players in the sandbox like insolent children not getting along,” Myint said.”They whip out the carrot one time, they whip out the stick the next, and hold it together in a manner that best serves their interests.”Russian deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin is to attend the parade, Myanmar state media said, along with the Belarusian defence minister.The bespectacled Min Aung Hlaing is expected to preside over Thursday’s ceremony in his medal-festooned dress uniform and deliver a speech to the country of more than 50 million.He has promised elections later this year or early 2026 but, with much of the country beyond the government’s control, analysts say it would not be a genuinely democratic vote.However, cliques in the junta are pushing for polls to weaken Min Aung Hlaing’s position amid discord over his handling of the conflict, according to one US-based Myanmar analyst speaking on condition of anonymity.Min Aung Hlaing serves as both acting president and commander-in-chief but he would have to relinquish one of those roles to hold an election.”Min Aung Hlaing does not want to hold the election,” the analyst said. “But generals close to him have warned that the situation is getting worse.”

The United States has removed multimillion-dollar bounties on leaders of Afghanistan’s feared Haqqani militant network, including the current Taliban interior minister, the State Department and the Taliban government said.The Haqqani network was responsible for some of the deadliest attacks during the decades-long war in Afghanistan.The men remain on Washington’s list of “specially designated global terrorists” but the bounty price has been scrapped.Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani told AFP that Washington had “cancelled rewards” for Sirajuddin Haqqani — who also heads the Haqqani network — as well as other key leaders, Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani.Sirajuddin Haqqani had long been one of Washington’s most important targets, with a $10 million bounty on his head.The US State Department said that “the three persons named remain designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), and the Haqqani Network remains designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a SDGT”.But while the wanted page remains active, the bounty on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) website has been removed.”It is the policy of the United States to consistently review and refine Rewards for Justice reward offers,” a State Department spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday.- ‘Largely symbolic’ -The bounty cancellation came days after the first visit by US officials to Afghanistan since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the announcement afterwards of the release of a US citizen by Taliban authorities.US-based Afghan political analyst Abdul Wahed Faqiri told AFP that the bounty removal is likely “largely symbolic” but a way for the United States to “give credit to Sirajuddin Haqqani”, seen as an emerging more moderate “alternative”. Media reports talk of increasing tensions between the “pragmatic” Haqqani figures and a more hardline circle around Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who vie for influence within the government.Despite the US bounty and international travel bans, Sirajuddin Haqqani has travelled outside Afghanistan multiple times since the Taliban government swept back to power in 2021.The government in Kabul is not recognised by any country and has expressed hopes for “a new chapter” with Trump’s administration.Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban during his first term in office, that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and their return to power. 

From a gated community for her Zoroastrian faith in Pakistan’s megacity Karachi, 22-year-old Elisha Amra has waved goodbye to many friends migrating abroad as the ancient Parsi community dwindles.Soon the film student hopes to join them — becoming one more loss to Pakistan’s ageing Zoroastrian Parsi people, a community who trace their roots back to Persian refugees from today’s Iran more than a millennium ago.”My plan is to go abroad,” Amra said, saying she wants to study for a master’s degree in a country without the restrictions of a conservative Muslim-majority society.”I want to be able to freely express myself”, she added.Zoroastrianism, founded by the prophet Zarathustra, was the predominant religion of the ancient Persian empire, until the rise of Islam with the Arab conquests of the seventh century.Once the Parsi community in Pakistan had as many as 15,000-20,000 people, said Dinshaw Behram Avari, the head of one of the most prominent Parsi families.Today, numbers hover around 900 people in Karachi and a few dozen more elsewhere in Pakistan, according to community leaders, many staying together in compounds like where Amra lives.She acknowledges her life is more comfortable than many in Pakistan — the Parsis are in general an affluent and highly educated community.But says she wants to escape the daily challenges that beset the city of some 20 million people — ranging from power cuts, water shortages and patchy internet to violent street crime.”I’d rather have a life where I feel safe, and I feel happy and satisfied,” she said. Zubin Patel, 27, a Parsi working in e-commerce in Karachi, has seen more than two dozen Parsi friends leave Karachi for abroad in the past three years.”More than 20-25 of my friends were living in Karachi, they all started migrating”, he said.- Derelict homes -That is not unique to Parsis — many young and skilled Pakistanis want to find jobs abroad to escape a country wracked with political uncertainty and security challenges, a struggling economy and woeful infrastructure.The number of highly skilled Pakistanis who left for jobs abroad more than doubled according to the latest figures from the Pakistan Economic Survey — from 20,865 in 2022, to 45,687 in 2023.Parsis are struggling to adjust in a fast-changing world.The religion, considered among the oldest in the world, forbids conversion and mixed marriages are frowned upon.”There is a better chance to find a Zoroastrian partner in Canada, Australia, UK and America than in Pakistan,” said Avari, who heads of a chain of hotels.He points out that Parsi population of Toronto is some 10 times greater than Karachi.Avari, 57, said that a wave of Parsis left Pakistan during the hardline military rule of Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s, who enforced a programme of Islamisation.Since then, Islamist violence has targeted religious minorities, and while Parsis say they have not been targeted, they remain wary.He suggested the community’s high levels of education and Western outlook to life meant many eyed a future abroad, while for those who do stay, family size is shrinking.”Couples are more interested today in looking after their career; they are not interested in family,” he said.”When they do get married, they will have one child — and one child is not enough to make a positive impact on the population.”Parsi members were among the pioneers of the shipping and hospitality industries in Karachi, and the city’s colonial-era historic district is dotted with Parsi buildings including hospitals and schools.But as the community declines, many buildings have crumbled, with as many as half the homes in elegant tree-lined streets of the century-old Sohrab Katrak Parsi Colony lying abandoned.- ‘Difficult decision’ -For many among the younger generation, the only pull left keeping them in Pakistan is their ageing relatives.Patel, the e-commerce worker, said he would leave if he could.”It would be a difficult decision,” he said. “But if I have an opportunity which would give my parents … a healthy lifestyle, then I’d obviously go for it”.Amra, who visits her 76-year-old grandfather almost daily, worries that her parents will be alone when she leaves. “You have to figure out a way, eventually, to either bring them to you or come back,” she said.

South Africa’s Quinton de Kock struck an unbeaten 97 as holders Kolkata Knight Riders registered their first win of the IPL season with an eight-wicket hammering of Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.Spinners Moeen Ali and Varun Chakravarthy combined to help restrict Rajasthan to 151-9 after KKR elected to field first in Guwahati.De Kock bossed the chase with his 61-ball innings laced with eight fours and six sixes as Kolkata achieved their target with 15 balls to spare.De Kock, who has retired from Tests and one-day international cricket for South Africa and whose T20 international future remains uncertain, showed no signs of rustiness.”To be fair, haven’t felt any challenges yet,” De Kock said.”Have had three months off which felt nice. Had about a 10-day build-up to this season. Only my second game here, just taking it as I see it.”Kolkata signed De Kock in November’s auction after he was released by Lucknow Super Giants.He handed his team a quick start, hitting two fours but then lost opening partner Moeen, run out for five.Skipper Ajinkya Rahane fell after a brisk 18 but De Kock stood firm and along with impact substitute Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who made 22, steered the team home in an unbeaten stand of 83.De Kock finished with a six off Jofra Archer as Kolkata bounced back from their opening loss to Royal Challengers Bengaluru.Rajasthan suffered their second straight loss.Earlier, Kolkata fast bowler Vaibhav Arora dismissed Sanju Samson, bowled for 13, and Chakravarthy and Moeen soon took two wickets each.Wicketkeeper Samson is Rajasthan’s regular captain but has been forced to play only as a batter in the first three matches due to an injury.Chakravarthy, who starred in India’s recent Champions Trophy triumph, got stand-in-skipper Riyan Parag out caught behind for 25.Former England all-rounder Moeen, in for the unwell Sunil Narine, stifled the opposition with his off-spin and was rewarded with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal for 29.The 37-year-old and Chakravarthy both struck again as Rajasthan slipped to 82-5 in 11 overs.Wickets kept tumbling for Rajasthan and despite wicketkeeper-batsman Dhruv Jurel’s 33 and 16 from Archer, they settled for a below-par total.”I think 170 was a reasonable score but we fell short by 20 runs,” said Parag. “The plan was to get Quinny out early but he didn’t so we shifted to containing them in the middle overs.”Arora and fellow quick Harshit Rana also took two wickets each.Kolkata, under Shreyas Iyer who is now Punjab Kings captain after a $3.17 million move in the auction, won their third IPL title last year.

Former Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal has thanked fans for their support as he recovers from a serious heart attack he suffered during a match earlier this week.The 36-year-old was leading Mohammedan Sporting Club in a match of the 50-over Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League when he was rushed to a nearby hospital complaining of severe chest pain on Monday. He has since been relocated to a larger medical facility in the capital where he remains under observation.  “It’s the heartbeat that keeps us alive, but we often forget that this beat can stop at any moment, without any warning,” Tamim wrote on social media on Tuesday.”I offer my heartfelt gratitude and love to all of you. Please keep me and my family in your prayers. Without your love, I am nothing.”Elder brother and former Bangladeshi international Nafees Iqbal was by Tamim’s bedside along with other family members. Tamim was in critical condition when he was rushed to hospital, Razeeb Hasan, the medical director at the facility where Tamim received treatment, told reporters on Monday.He also said Tamim had to undergo surgery to implant stents to clear an artery blockage.Tamim scored more than 15,000 runs for Bangladesh in a career spanning 15 years and remains the only Bangladeshi to score hundreds in all formats of international cricket.

Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus flew to Beijing on Wednesday for his first state visit as frosty relations with neighbouring India spur his caretaker administration to court new friends.The 84-year-old Nobel laureate will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday before returning Saturday after several other high-level meetings. Yunus took charge of Bangladesh last August after the toppling of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi after a student-led uprising. India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her overthrow sent cross-border relations into a tailspin. “Muhammad Yunus has chosen China for his first state visit and with this Bangladesh is sending a message,” Dhaka’s top foreign ministry bureaucrat Mohammad Jashim Uddin told reporters on Tuesday.Several agreements are expected to be signed on economic and technical assistance, cultural and sports cooperation, and media collaboration between the two countries.”We are expecting declarations on key issues including the economy, investment and economic zones,” Jashim Uddin said.Talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh’s immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017. China has acted as a mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled because of Myanmar’s unwillingness to have them returned. “Rohingya repatriation will be a point of discussion as we all know China previously attempted to broker a deal,” Jashim Uddin said.Yunus will also attend the Investment Dialogue with Chinese Business Leaders and is set to receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University. Tensions between India and Bangladesh have prompted a number of tit-for-tat barbs between senior figures from both governments. They have also almost entirely halted the flow of medical tourism to India by Bangladeshis, thousands of whom crossed the border each year to seek care in their larger neighbour. Jashim Uddin said talks in Beijing would touch on the establishment of a Chinese “Friendship Hospital” in Bangladesh. Yunus’s caretaker administration has the unenviable task of bedding down democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections expected by mid-2026. It has requested India allow Hasina’s extradition to face crimes against humanity charges for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the unrest that toppled her government, to no avail. Yunus has also sought a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bid to reset relations, with both expected to be at the same regional summit in Bangkok next month. His government has yet to receive a response, with Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar saying the request was “under review”. 

A Buddhist monastery in Bangladesh has found renown for opening its doors to the needy during Ramadan — a beacon of interfaith harmony in a time of religious tension.For more than a decade, the Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery in Dhaka has provided free meals for hundreds of the capital’s poorest residents to break their fast each evening during the Muslim holy month.Its work has assumed a new resonance this year after political upheaval that last summer ousted autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, leaving many religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation fearful of persecution. “I live nearby and earn very little from my job. This meal is a relief,” said Moushumi Begum, who joined around 200 others at the fast-breaking meal known as iftar. “I am grateful for their kindness and pray to God for their wellbeing.” The monastery’s abbot, Buddha Priya Mahathero, said the annual tradition began in 2013 with the simple principle that no one fasting should be turned away hungry.”We have fostered a culture of harmony,” he told AFP.”We saw people struggling for food during Ramadan. That’s when we decided to step in,” he added.”What began as a small effort has continued, and we hope to keep doing our part.”The monastery was founded in 1960, more than a decade before Bangladesh became an independent nation, and has long been known as a paragon of interfaith philosophy. One of its biggest early initiatives was the establishment of an interfaith orphanage for children whose parents were killed during the country’s 1971 liberation war.Buddhists make up around three percent of Bangladesh’s population of 170 million, the second-largest religious minority after its substantial Hindu community.- ‘Pledged to protect us’ -Hasina’s ouster in last year’s student-led revolution saw several reprisal attacks against Hindu households. The interim administration that took office after her toppling came down strongly on such attacks, arresting dozens of people in the months that followed. It has also insisted that some of those attacks were motivated by political vengeance rather than religious animosity, and blamed organised disinformation from neighbouring India for exaggerating the magnitude of the problem.Non-Muslim Bangladeshis have nonetheless voiced unease at developments since the fall of Hasina’s government, which despite a litany of rights abuses was seen as a steadfast protector of minority religious communities. Numerous shrines to Sufi saints were vandalised after Hasina’s overthrow, with suspicion falling on Islamist hardliners who consider that branch of the Muslim faith heretical. Several attacks on Hindu temples were also reported in the chaotic hours after Hasina went into exile in India.The Dharmarajika Buddhist Monastery has not suffered a similar fate, and its custodians say that leaders from several political parties had paid visits to offer their respect and support. “All of them pledged to protect us,” Swarupananda Bhikkhu, a monk at the monastery, told AFP.”Our gates have always been open, regardless of religious identity.”

India batsman Shreyas Iyer led from the front with an unbeaten 97 to set up an 11-run win for Punjab Kings in a big-hitting IPL clash with Gujarat Titans on Tuesday.Iyer’s 42-ball knock steered the team to 243-5 after being invited to bat first at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.Gujarat finished on 232-5 despite a valiant 41-ball 74 by opener Sai Sudharsan who set up a blazing start to the run chase, featuring a 84-run second wicket stand with England’s Jos Buttler (54).Both sides walloped 16 sixes each across the two innings on the fourth day of the cash-rich Indian Premier League T20 tournament.Iyer, who led Kolkata Knight Riders to a title win last year, has already gone some way to justifying his top price tag, after Punjab paid a whopping 3.17 million dollars for him in the November auction.”Ecstatic, to be honest,” said Iyer. “Getting 97 not out in the first match is always the icing on the cake. No better feeling to be honest”The top-order batter started with a boundary off Gujarat’s South African import Kagiso Rabada and three balls later smashed a six.”It was important for me to go ahead and adapt. I got four off the first ball, and that gave an immense boost. That flicked six off Rabada — I think the momentum changed.Iyer allowed attacking opener Priyansh Arya to take charge as the Indian young left-hander hammered 47 off 23 deliveries before being denied his fifty by Afghanistan spin wizard Rashid Khan.Gujarat’s Sai Kishore joined the bowling charge to strike twice in two balls, including trapping Australia’s Glenn Maxwell lbw for a first-ball duck, but Marcus Stoinis avoided the hat-trick.- ‘Got our chances’ -Maxwell walked back without a review but tracking technology later revealed the ball would have gone over the stumps as a dejected Punjab coach Ricky Ponting looked upset.Iyer stood strong as he took on the attack with sixes and fours and found support from Australian hard-hitter Stoinis, who smashed a 15-ball 20 before becoming Kishore’s third wicket.Iyer reached his fifty in 27 balls and kept up the charge as he struck three sixes and a four in a 24-run over off seam bowler Prasidh Krishna. Iyer went past his previous IPL best of 96 but missed out on his century as partner Shashank Singh dominated the strike in the latter stages and finished on an unbeaten 16-ball 44.Iyer and Shashank hammered 81 runs between them in 28 balls to finish with a flourish.”We got our chances when we were bowling and batting,” said Gujarat skipper Shubman Gill. “Too many runs we conceded in the back end of the innings.”In reply, the left-handed Sudharsan and Gill, who hit 33 off 14 balls, handed Gujarat a blazing start but the ever-increasing run-rate made the home team fall behind the chase despite having wickets in hand.Sudharsan fell to left-arm pace bowler Arshdeep Singh and Buttler, after reaching his fifty, was bowled by South African left-arm quick Marco Jansen.Impact player Sherfane Rutherford, a left-handed West Indian hard-hitter, made a desperate effort to pull off a miracle with his 28-ball 46 before falling to Arshdeep in the final over.

Until Taliban authorities took power in Afghanistan, women like Fatima were able to freely sell their hair to be made into wigs, bringing in crucial cash.But a ban last year has forced the 28-year-old and others to covertly trade hair — collected from shower drains or the salon floor — braving the risk of punishment one strand at a time.”I need this money,” said Fatima, 28, one of the few women still in paid private employment in Kabul after the Taliban regained control in 2021.”I can treat myself to something or buy things for the house.”The woman, who withholds her last name for security reasons, sells every 100 grams of hair for little more than $3, a small addition to her monthly salary of $100.Buyers who want to export the locks for wig production abroad “would knock on our doors to collect” the hair, she said.One of those buyers is a man, who also requested anonymity, sending the manes to Pakistan and China from Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries.Taliban authorities have cracked down on the rights of women, imposing what the UN calls a “gender apartheid”.They banned women and girls from universities and schools, effectively strangling their employment hopes.Women have also been barred from parks and gyms, while beauty salons have been shut down.- ‘Not allowed’ -Last year, Taliban authorities imposed vice and virtue laws regulating everyday life for men and women, including banning sales of “any part of the human body” including hair.They have not said what the punishment for violations would be.”We must respect the appearance that God has given to humans and preserve their dignity,” Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (PVPV) spokesman Saiful Islam Khyber told AFP.He said the trading of hair had become “normalised” in the country and that now “selling body parts is not allowed.”Hair sales are so sensitive that the ministry which handles morality issues burned nearly a ton of human strands in Kabul province in January.The PVPV said in a statement it burned the batch “to protect Islamic values and human dignity”.The restrictions have not deterred Fatima, however.During prayer times, when Taliban officials and forces attend the mosque, Fatima sneaks to a Kabul waste site to hand over her cache of tresses.The few extra dollars are significant, with 85 percent of Afghans living on less than a dollar a day, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).- Secret salon -At a secret salon in Kabul, two worn-out leather chairs sit in a small, cold room where hairdresser Narges now only receives about four customers a week.Before the 2021 takeover, the 43-year-old widowed hairdresser used to give crop cuts to five to six clients every day.Now, only the wealthiest of her customers brave visiting the salon, and even they sometimes ask if they can take valuable spare hair home with them.”They’re the only ones who can still care about beauty,” she said.For others, the threat of a Taliban punishment is too much to risk.Wahida, a 33-year-old widow whose husband was a soldier killed in 2021, has a constant worry about how she will feed her three children.She still collects hair that has fallen from her eight-year-old daughter’s head and her own, with strands from the root more valuable than those cut with scissors.The unemployed Afghan woman, who now relies almost entirely on charity, stuffs them in a plastic bag to keep them for a potential sale later.”I had a glimmer of hope when I used to sell my hair. Now that it’s banned, I’m devastated. I’m hoping buyers will come back to my door,” she said, sitting in her home.”I know there are places to sell. But I am afraid of getting caught there.”