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 and its residents shrouded in gloom. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES