Of war and coffee in Lebanon

Al Jazeera

bored soldier, with his machinegun hanging from his shoulder, feeds bread to fat pigeons in Nejmeh Square in downtown Beirut, the Lebanese capital.Not far from here, the Chabaro and Saab families, Beirut's oldest working coffee roasters, once had a busy store - but today, few in the area can even remember their names. Beirut's downtown has morphed into something of a ghost town, with flashy, high-priced shops and posh restaurants that often sit empty.

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