Santa closed in Beirut
Crisis snuffs out
Christmas spirit

RTL

Beirut in December was once a shopping extravaganza, where day-long traffic jams clogged streets decked out with flashing Christmas lights and building-sized billboards advertising champagne and jewellery.

In barely two years of a brutal economic collapse, the lights have gone out on Beirut's commercial heyday and power shortages have left the city's streets shrouded in gloom. FULL STORY