Top Lebanese officials rejected conditions set by the March 14 opposition for the resumption of dialogue, saying the March 14 coalition should participate in the all-party talks without providing any excuses. “Before calling for (the formation of) a neutral cabinet, let it first participate in the dialogue,” Speaker Nabih Berri’s visitors quoted him as […]

    A dispute broke out on Wednesday between Phalange Party and Hizbullah students at Saint Joseph University in Beirut’s Monot district. The dispute, whose causes remain unknown, soon developed into a fistfight. The security forces have since intervened to end the clash.The army also reinforced its presence in the area to prevent the situation from deteriorating. Contacts […]

  Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has expressed confidence that Syria’s Christians would not be affected if the regime of President Bashar Assad collapses in the ongoing turmoil in the country. “The Syrian regime is dictatorial and the Lebanese have suffered from it,” al-Rahi told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper published on Wednesday . “Assad’s collapse does not affect […]

    President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday said that a letter sent to United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon by Syria’s envoy to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari was not based on “verified facts.” “It is not based on verified facts, and moreover the information of the Army Command and the Lebanese security agencies say totally otherwise,” Suleiman […]

The art of Apple collecting data from users. Difference it does it in an artful transparent way without havings its user on alert on what they may be discussing or sharing with Sirus vs Facebook and Google does it in a more classical way.

This display a new strategy of Apple for the next decate seeking to get to business analytics and data management. I would see them competitors with the many other websites that have unlimited ways of reaching and studying behavior of their customers.

IBM is keeping them honest and reminding privacy importance.

(WIRED) — If you work for IBM, you can bring your iPhone to work, but forget about using the phone’s voice-activated digital assistant. Siri isn’t welcome on Big Blue’s networks.

The reason? Siri ships everything you say to her to a big data center in Maiden, North Carolina. And the story of what really happens to all of your Siri-launched searches, e-mail messages and inappropriate jokes is a bit of a black box.

IBM CIO Jeanette Horan told MIT’s Technology Review this week that her company has banned Siri outright because, according to the magazine, "The company worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere."

It turns out that Horan is right to worry. In fact, Apple’s iPhone Software License Agreement spells this out: "When you use Siri or Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text," Apple says. Siri collects a bunch of other information — names of people from your address book and other unspecified user data, all to help Siri do a better job.

  The international community on Monday expressed concern over the situation in Lebanon following clashes involving pro- and anti-Syrian groups, which has sparked fears of a widening conflict. Washington expressed concern over the fighting last week in North Lebanon as well as Sunday night in the Beirut neighborhood of Tariq Jedideh, which left two people dead. The […]

  A Pakistani national could be planning to place chemical agents in the ventilation system of Rafik Hariri International Airport, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday. The daily said that the airport’s security apparatuses are now questioning people that have Pakistani or Indian features after receiving the information from a Western intelligence agency that also provided them […]

Judge Saqr Saqr decided on Tuesday to release Shadi al-Mawlawi after over a week in custody. Islamist al-Mawlawi will be released on bail of L.L. 500,000 after a hearing that was held on Tuesday, reported LBC television. A request for his release had been submitted last week, but it was rejected in order to carry out more […]

    The muftis and clerics of Akkar on Sunday stressed that they will not allow any side to stir a strife between citizens and the military institution and called for a general strike across Lebanon, following the shooting death of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed at an army checkpoint in the Akkar town of al-Kweikhat. “We […]