Years of turmoil weigh on Beirut as Syria strains Lebanon

National Public Radio

As satellite trucks were pulling up to the site of a massive car bomb in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on Friday, Jihad Kalaajii was quietly salvaging what he could from his antique shop, loading 300-year-old framed calligraphy and volumes of Islamic poetry into the back seat of his car.

"These things show what we were before," he says, gesturing to one of the 100-year-old manuscripts. "And imagine where we are now; imagine the degradation."

Source: National Public Radio FULL STORY