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Reporter's Notebook: Amid Beirut Devastation, Humanity on Display

Anchal Vohra

   BEIRUT - Hours after I filed a report on the economic crisis in Lebanon
   and how a plummeting Lebanese pound had led to a tripling, even
   quadrupling of prices of basic commodities and made them unaffordable
   for many, Lebanon faced another -- and perhaps much bigger -- tragedy.

   One or more massive explosions at the port in Beirut, about a
   five-minute walk from my neighborhood, had shaken the city and turned
   much of my home's interior -- doors, windows, and furniture -- into
   rubble. I wasn't alone. My neighbors, the whole street, and much of the
   city in my adopted country, Lebanon, were shrouded in smoke and a layer
   of shattered glass.

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