Ex-Afghan king : from throne to chessboard

Zahir Shah's long life echoes several ages of joy and depression in the Afghan psyche. His life was a full circle. It began with the agonies of the British colonial invasion, and then come the joys of independence; this is replaced by the tragedy of the Russian invasion. The circle is closed with his death when the Anglo-American soldiers and guns are roaring in Afghanistan. And no one knows what tragi-comic destiny the future has in store for the country ruled for forty years by the late Zahir Shah.