In from the cold: the return of former Afghan leader Karzai
Kabul (AFP) - As the Taliban entered Kabul, the country's president fled without a word. Then a former leader, Hamid Karzai, stepped in from the shadows -- and it appears he is following his old playbook of traditional tribal deal-making. The 63-year-old former president was once the fresh face of the new Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks, when he was plucked from relative obscurity and hailed as the modernising force with tribal ties that could transform the crippled nation. As a fluent English speaker, tribal elder and hailing from a prominent Pashtun family, he seemed to ...