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Ex-King Returns to Palace
Sunday, August 4, 2002
Reuters

Having renounced all claim to the throne, his main role was to oversee the loya jirga, or grand assembly, of Afghan chieftains and leaders that approved a transitional government established after the U.S.-led air bombardment last year helped the Northern Alliance unseat the Taliban.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Reuters
Former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who returned to Afghanistan this year after more than three decades in exile in Italy, moved back into the royal palace.

The palace complex has been substantially renovated by the government, keen to use him as a figure of unity.

"It is like the birds coming back to their nests," Zahir Shah, 87, said as he was given a tour of the historic complex by President Hamid Karzai.
(More: The Washington Post News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

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