By the daily Star

The Lebanese ICT sector
holds a lot of economic potential given its fast-growing pace and its
vast reach to the different aspects of consumers’ daily life, health,
transport, etc. In fact, the sector’s added value amounted to $1.3
billion in 2013 and is estimated to have reached $1.7 billion in 2016,
hence contributing to more than 3 percent of gross domestic product. The
ICT sector is considered the fastest-growing sector of the economy
after recording a 7 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in the
last two years alone.

According to Business Monitor International,
the market size of information technology, which is an expanding
segment of the ICT sector, registered a 12.6 percent CAGR in the last 10
years and is expected to hit $436 million in 2016 and $466 million in
2017.

The wave in favor of data usage seems to be modifying the
ICT market’s dynamics in Lebanon. Between 2013 and 2015, according to
the Telecommunications Ministry, the number of subscribers for broadband
internet more than doubled, going from 480,000 to 1.24 million.
Similarly, mobile data subscriptions hit 2.92 million in 2016 as
compared to 2.02 million in 2015.

In the same context, low-cost
Voice over Internet Protocol services through mobile devices boosted
demand for data services at the expense of the standard calling
services. Considered as the most successful technology of the last
decade, VoIP services such as Skype, Viber and recently WhatsApp are
becoming more popular among the Lebanese population as they provide a
cheaper alternative for communication services. In fact, revenues
deriving from voice calls are witnessing a double-digit decline
simultaneously with data usage growing at a double-digit pace. “In fact,
more than 50 percent of Alfa’s revenues are derived nowadays from data
services rather than voice” said Marwan Hayek, chairman and CEO of Alfa.

by Monty Munford 

Steve Wozniak is a legend, rather better known as one of the
co-founders of Apple, rather than the less-of-dapple contestant in a
recent series of Dancing With The Stars. While never as charismatic as Jobs and who never made the fortune
that Jobs amassed.  According to many sources, Wozniak is still worth
$100 million, who travels widely and attracts a loyal audience wherever
he goes.

Wozniak, however, was certainly cool in Beirut. Out of a total
audience of 24,000 people, he was speaking on the main stage, where
people were literally crawling other each other to be one of the lucky
8.00o who got to see him live and in person. He remains relevant without being constantly involved in investing in
technology or Silicon Valley. While some of the Beirut audience
were there to hear Steve Jobs stories by Wozniak-osmosis, others were
emerging entrepreneurs working out of garages (nowadays known as
accelerators) who just wanted to know how to scale their own

Moreover, Wozniak had stories and good ones. His collectors’ piece
business card is made out of metal and looks like something Captain Kirk
may have  assembled on the Starship Enterprise 3D metal printer. He
told the audience that after 9/11, even on private jets, diners would
have to use plastic cutlery.

NEW YORK, Dec 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Women’s rights
campaigners in Lebanon said they were confident that lawmakers were set
to abolish a law that absolves convicted rapists of their punishment if
they marry their victim. Rights groups have led a campaign protesting the law on the grounds it sides with rapists rather than protecting victims.

Elie Kayrouz, a member of Lebanon’s parliament who sits on a
parliamentary committee tasked with examining the law – article 522 of
the penal code – said the committee had agreed to recommend its repeal. “For article 522 there is consensus among all members of the
committee to abolish this article,” he told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation in a telephone interview.

But the committee has yet to issue a formal statement announcing its
decision because it was still working on reforming other elements of the
penal code, Kayrouz said.

In order to become law, parliament will have to vote on a bill following the parliamentary committee’s recommendations. “It is likely that the parliament will pass … the repeal of article
522 as proposed by the committee,” said Rothna Begum, Middle East
women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

By Natasha Bertrand

At least nine people were killed and 50 were wounded after a
truck plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday evening,
German
police said. Berlin police tweeted
that “a suspicious person was arrested near
#Breitscheidplatz,” the site of the incident. Police said they
are investigating whether the suspect was the truck driver.

A person who had been in the truck’s passenger seat at the time
of the incident was killed in the crash, police said.  The video below appears to show the scene in the aftermath of the
incident: The truck, which apparently
belonged to a Polish transportation company, ran into

the market outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church about

8 p.m. local time on Monday.

The owner of the company
told German newspaper Bild that he had not communicated with
the driver of the truck since about 4 p.m. local time,
approximately four hours before the incident. He said he assumed
the truck was stolen. The passenger who was killed in the crash was Polish, Reuters
reported, citing German police. The nationality of the
suspected driver is still unclear.

Facebook has activated its safety-check feature for “The
Attack in Berlin, Germany.” A bystander tweeted
that “there is no road nearby,” indicating she believed that the
incident was not an accident.

by Natasha Bertrand

The assassination on Monday of Russia’s ambassador to
Turkey at an art gallery in Ankara is unlikely to fracture
relations between the two countries as they work to improve their
tumultuous relationship, analysts said. “On the contrary, both Russia and Turkey will point to the
murder as reason why they should cooperate more closely in
fighting terrorism,” geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer, president
of the political risk firm Eurasia Group, told Business Insider
on Monday.

“Erdogan will surely express great regret to the Russian,
and acknowledge that Turkey must do more in their domestic
security environment,” Bremmer said, referring to Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “That means more crackdowns at
home, but not a sudden blowup with Moscow.”

The death of the ambassador, Andrey Karlov, immediately prompted
comparisons to the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz
Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 that led Austria-Hungary to declare
war on Serbia, which ultimately sparked World War I.

But statements released by Russian and Turkish officials in
the aftermath of Karlov’s death suggested Moscow and Ankara were
determined not to let the incident derail their
rapprochement. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said in a statement
that the government would not allow the assassination to harm
Russian-Turkish relations.

Erdogan echoed Yildirim’s sentiment,
calling the attack “provocation” aimed at damaging Turkey’s
normalization of ties with Russia. He said that Turkey and Russia
will jointly investigate the assassination, reiterating that
“intense cooperation with Russia” over Aleppo was “helping
to save lives.” “I call out to those who are trying to break this relationship,”
Erdogan continued, “Your expectations are wasted.”

Nike is breaking new ground with the HyperAdapt 1.0, its first
self-lacing sneaker for the general public. The sneakers are pretty slick and easy to use for a
first-generation product, and they’re full of promise for things
to come, as I said in
my hands-on review of the shoe.

For most buyers, however, there remains a $720 barrier to
purchase.  Though the shoe is not part of a limited-time collection, it’s
being rolled out slowly, in waves, and only in particular
stores in the US. Interested customers need an appointment to
test out or purchase the shoe, and stock can be hard to come by
depending on how you time your visit. Nike says it has seen an “extremely strong response” from
customers interested in the product.

Though it’s not the newest Jordan-branded shoe or a limited-time
collaboration, it’s clear who the shoe is targeting with its high
price and limited supply: collectors, according to
NPD sports retail analyst Matt Powell. “I think the shoe will sell very well,” Powell told Business
Insider. Flight Club, one of the biggest shoe resellers both in New York
City and online,
has noticed that demand for the shoe has been high. 

“Since its release, the Nike HyperAdapt 1.0s have sold extremely
well for us,” Flight Club spokesman Steven Luna told Business
Insider. “Being the first of its kind, a self-lacing sportswear
shoe, we were certain it would generate much fanfare amongst
sneaker and technology enthusiasts.”

By Gulf news- Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: The fate of nine Lebanese Army soldiers, allegedly taken
hostage on August 2, 2014 by either Daesh or Fateh Al Sham (former Al
Qaida-affiliated Al Nusra Front), gained attention this week after
several remains were found near Arsal near the Syrian border

On
Tuesday, authorities requested family members to give DNA samples,
ostensibly to verify whether they matched with any of those missing. On
Friday, local news channels reported that the Lebanese Armed Forces
(LAF) would first share the results of various tests conducted over the
course of the past 24 hours with family members, before revealing
details to the public.

It was unclear, however, when anxious
families — some of whom have held a two-and-a-half-year vigil at Riad El
Solh Square — would be briefed. Staff members overseeing the matter
were mum, however, with Hussain Yousuf, the father of captured soldier
Mohammad Youssuf, claiming that he would only trust head of the General
Security Major-General Abbas Ebrahim.

Lebanon has acquired a new 30-minister government led by Saad Hariri, bringing together the entire political spectrum except for the Kataeb party that rejected the portfolio it was offered. The new cabinet, which was announced on state television on Sunday evening, will keep Gebran Bassil as foreign minister, Ali Hassan Khalil as finance minister and […]

By Paul Astih – english.aawsat.com

Beirut- Hopes on the formation of the Lebanese government before
Christmas and the New Year began fading after the emergence of a series
of new obstacles. According to informed sources, several problems, which are hard to
overcome, emerged in the past few days, bringing Prime
Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s efforts to form the cabinet into a
standstill.

Among those obstacles is the insistence of the two main Shi’ite
parties – Hezbollah and Amal Movement – on the formation of a 30-member
cabinet. Such a request would bring back consultations to square one
because they will require a new distribution of portfolios on the
different political parties, said the sources.

Other obstacles include the rejection of some political parties to be
allocated minister of state posts, they told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Such problems led to concerns at the Center House (Hariri’s residence
in downtown Beirut) that the March 8 alliance and their ally President
Michel Aoun would try to impose a deal on an electoral draft-law based
on full proportional representation in return for facilitating the
formation of the government.

By Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: The deputy head of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council, Shaikh
Abdul Amir Qabalan, urged politicians to produce a new electoral law
that fulfils just representation, which means “the adoption of a
proportional representation law considering Lebanon as a single
electoral district, which allows a Muslim Lebanese to elect his
Christian brother and a Christian can elect his Muslim brother in order
to make Lebanon a country of true partnership without partiality to any
of its components”.

Several versions of a new electoral law are
under discussion in Lebanon, topped by proportionality — albeit in
different versions — gaining the most traction. Proponents believe that
such a law would gradually eliminate reliance on sectarianism while
opponents insist that Lebanon’s socio-political make-up would make the
country ungovernable because so many parties compete for their share of
power. They argue that no clear majority can be elected since doing so
would automatically eliminate the smaller but vital components of
Lebanese society.

While the National News Agency reported
Qabalan’s Friday prayer declarations — a position that was favoured by
Hezbollah but rejected by the Future Movement — the head of the Phalange
Party, Sami Gemayel, voiced his support for an electoral law that would
create smaller constituencies, saying this would best guarantee proper
representation.