Matthew DeBord

I live in a four-iPhone family, with a fifth on the way, that is ruled by a consistent theme: Everyone is always losing and destroying their earbuds. Well, all except for me. I don't lose or destroy mine, I just give them to someone who has and replace them with inexpensive SkullCandy earbuds that I buy two or three at a time to have a reserve for when a family member comes to me with a tales of loss or destruction.

This experience leads me to be beyond skeptical of Apple's new EarPod design for the iPhone 7, with its elimination of the traditional headphone jack and connector, and the new Bluetooth AirPods, which have already been widely ridiculed for getting lost before they've even shipped.

We already know that the Apple Lightning charger design is awful. We're lucky to get a few months out of the Apple units before the cords fail. Over the past few years, I think we've spent at least a new iPhone on dozens of charger replacements. And that's after we squeeze a few extra weeks out by using electrical tape to make a temporary repair.

GENEVA (AP) -- The United States and Russia early Saturday announced a breakthrough agreement on Syria that foresees a nationwide cease-fire starting next Monday, followed a week later by an unlikely new military partnership between the rival governments targeting the Islamic State and al-Qaida.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said shortly after midnight that the plan could reduce violence in Syria and lead to a long-sought political transition, ending more than five years of bloodshed. He called the deal a potential "turning point" in a conflict that has killed as many as 500,000 people, if complied with by Syria's Russian-backed government and U.S.-supported rebel groups.

The cease-fire begins at sundown Sept. 12, Kerry said, coinciding with the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday. Kerry's negotiating partner, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, confirmed the agreement and said it could help expand the counterterrorism fight and aid deliveries to Syrian civilians. He said Syrian President Bashar Assad's government was prepared to comply.

"This is just the beginning of our new relations," Lavrov said.

The Daily Star BEIRUT: A Lebanese lawmaker has caused an uproar among activists following a statement in which he suggested that women are sometimes to blame for their own rape. “In some cases, we need to ask if women play an active role in pushing men to rape them,” Kataeb MP Elie Marouni said during a conference organized Wednesday by the Lebanese Democratic Women’s Gathering (LDWG) at the Zouk Mikael Municipality. The conference centered on the abolition of the Lebanese Penal Code’s Article 522, which allows rapists to avoid prosecution if they marry the victim.

Responding to the remark, journalist and co-founder of women’s rights group FE-MALE, Hayat Mirshad, accused Marouni of offending every woman in the room. "As a female Lebanese citizen, I am ashamed that people like you represent me in Parliament," Mirshad told Marouni at the conference. When asked later about Mirshad's intervention, Marouni told LBCI that he "didn't know what that woman's name was" and that "the way she voiced her objection was inappropriate." "If only she had waited until the end of the conference, she'd have seen many women asking to take pictures with me," he added.

by Donna Abu-Nasr  Lebanon’s economy remains resilient despite the political instability that has prevented the election of a president for more than two years, according to central bank Governor Riad Salameh.

“We’re doing fine,” Salameh said in a telephone interview on Thursday, adding that measures taken this year to boost liquidity have put the economy in position to withstand challenges that include regional conflict and a barely functioning government. Foreign reserves are at a record high over $40 billion, the currency is stable and liquidity is adequate, he said. Growth will range between 1.5 to 2 percent this year, maintaining the 2015 pace.

Beset by sectarian crises and regional proxy conflicts, Lebanon has been without a head of state since President Michel Suleiman’s term expired in May 2014, as lawmakers haggle over a successor. Meanwhile, more than a million refugees have poured into the nation -- with a population of 4.5 million -- to escape the Syrian conflict, which has blocked Lebanon’s only overland trade route and kept Gulf Arab.