MUGABE SEEMED INVINCIBLE BUT ERA ENDS

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe seemed almost untouchable for much of his nearly four-decade rule.

Shrewd and ruthless, he stayed in power despite advancing age, growing opposition, international sanctions and the dissolving economy of a onceprosperous nation.

Now that it seems to finally be here, the abrupt end of the Mugabe era is launching Zimbabwe into the unknown.

Mugabe is confined to his home after a military takeover. It was the most dramatic development in a factional battle within the ruling ZANU-PF party in which first lady Grace Mugabe had been angling, with Mugabe’s help, to take over the pres- idency in a dynastic succession.

Even if Zimbabwe’s generals allow Mugabe to keep his job for a while, he would likely be a transitional figurehead, no longer wielding unchallenged authority over this southern African country.

It is a humbling close to the career of a man who crushed dissent or sidelined opponents after leading Zimbabwe since independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Spry in impeccably tailored suits, Mugabe maintained a schedule of events and international travel, despite his age, and could be pugnacious. But his firing of VicePresident Emmerson Mnangagwa earlier this month seems to have been a serious miscalculation. Number of people killed after a powerful earthquake hit Iraq-Iran border. The 7.3-magnitude quake rocked a border area 30 kilometres southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9.20 pm on Sunday.