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With its high literacy rate and traditional mercantile culture, Lebanon has traditionally been an important commercial hub for the Middle East.

No census has been taken since 1932, and Muslim groups have demanded that representation should reflect their increased proportion in the population.

The UN has demanded the dismantling of all armed groups in Lebanon, including Palestinian militias and the military wing of Hezbollah, which controls much of southern Lebanon.

When the Hezbollah militia seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid in July 2006, Israel responded with a 34-day military offensive and a blockade that wrecked post-civil-war stability. More recently, the Syrian civil war has spilled over into Lebanon, raising fears that the already fragile political truce could collapse into sectarian conflict again.

Economic promise

An enterprising population, extensive diaspora with generous remittances, and a promising tourism industry could provide Lebanon with a healthy economic future, but regional conflicts overshadow immediate hopes of a return to the cosmopolitan prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s.

Everyone, it seems, is talking about the cloud. This white paper is one of a series that aims to move beyond the hype that currently surrounds the cloud. This paper looks at security. It asks what are the most important security issues today? And how, if at all, will these be impacted by the cloud?

It looks at what a CEO should be asking his CIO about security to ensure his enterprise adopts cloud services appropriately and securely.

While not all business processes and services will be ideal for migration to the cloud, and not all organisations will place the same value on the benefits the cloud delivers, the goal of improving organisational performance should not be limited by an irrational fear of the cloud.

Recent research from BT Global Services found that
CEOs and CIOs are almost equally concerned about security in the cloud.

For that reason, this paper offers practical guidance on the headline security issues and should be a vital desk companion to CEOs and CIOs looking to foster better understanding of how data and network security affects their organisation.

This BT white paper looks at:
• Cyber Crime: What’s the problem?
• Practical advice
• Social media in the workplace
• Security in the cloud
• Enterprise cloud use

JOHANNESBURG May 19 (Reuters) – South Africa’s justice
minister on Sunday accused an Indian High Commission official
and some South Africans of colluding to obtain permission for a
plane chartered by a rich family close to President Jacob Zuma
to use an air force base to land.

The affair – dubbed “Guptagate” after the influential
Indian-born Gupta family – has transfixed South Africa since the
private flight landed at Pretoria’s Waterkloof Air Force base
last month with nearly 200 guests for a lavish family wedding.

It has also shone an uncomfortable spotlight on Zuma’s
relationship with Gupta brothers Atul, Ajay and Rajesh, whose
South African business empire stretches from mining and
resources to aviation and technology.

Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said the Gupta family had
resorted to using diplomatic channels after their initial
requests for a special reception at Johannesburg’s main airport
had been repeatedly denied.

“An individual in the High Commission communicated directly
with individuals at the air force command post. The collusion of
officials resulted in the irregular approval of the flight
clearance,” he told a news conference attended by a number of
government ministers, summarising the findings of an
investigation into the matter.

“The landing of the chartered commercial aircraft, flight
JAI 9900, was a direct result of manipulation of processes.”

Other people implicated in the affair at Waterkloof, one of
South Africa’s most important military sites, include Bruce
Koloane, a top foreign ministry bureaucrat, and a Waterkloof
movement control officer who helped secure the landing rights.

Neither official was available for comment.

Details of the report will be released next week.

Officials at the Indian High Commission could not
immediately be reached for comment. A Foreign Ministry spokesman
in New Delhi said this was an internal South African issue and
declined to comment further.

So far India has been saying that no protocols had been
breached and that the plane was carrying politicians from the
Samajwadi Party, a regional ally of the Delhi government led by
prominent national politician Mulayam Singh.

South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said
relations with India remain “solid and sound”. The findings of
the report will be shared with the Indian authorities, she said.

Radebe said several criminal cases have already been opened,
and he expects others to follow as the investigation unfolds.

He said the preliminary findings already showed the name of
the president and two other government ministers had been used
to exert influence on civil servants.

Even so, the episode has so far failed to suck in Zuma, who
missed the wedding due to a state visit to the Republic of
Congo, but it is seen as another example of the
influence-peddling and cronyism that the president’s critics say
has become endemic since he came to power in 2009.

Two of Zuma’s children have served as directors of a number
of Gupta companies, according to South Africa’s companies
database, and the family is a major financial backer of the
ruling African National Congress (ANC).

In addition to several suspended base commanders, some
policemen had been arrested for moonlighting as private security
guards in the luxury car convoy that took the wedding guests
from the air base to Sun City.

The police have also opened a criminal case against a
Pretoria car hire firm for the illegal use of flashing ‘blue
lights’ in the suite of BMWs in the convoy.

(Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel in New Delhi;
Editing by Jon Hemming)

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron is “losing control of his party”, Conservative Party grandee Geoffrey Howe said on Sunday, as a row raged over whether a close aide to Cameron had labeled grassroots activists “mad, swivel-eyed loons”.

The furor threatens to further alienate Cameron and his inner circle from the core of his party, with whom ties are already almost at breaking point.

Differences with the grassroots over Britain’s membership of the European Union and Cameron’s support for legalizing same-sex marriage have raised questions over his leadership and could hurt the party’s chances in the next election, due in 2015.

“Sadly, by making it clear in January that he opposes the current terms of UK membership of the EU, the prime minister has opened a Pandora’s box politically and seems to be losing control of his party in the process,” Howe wrote in an article for the Observer newspaper.

Howe was former prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving cabinet minister, but fell out with her over relations with Europe and is best remembered for a scathing resignation speech that helped topple her as leader in 1990.

Cameron’s Conservatives have been rattled by the surging popularity of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), whose main aims are to pull Britain out of the EU and curb immigration.

Its rise has fuelled a heated national debate over whether Britain derives sufficient benefits from EU membership to outweigh the financial cost and the ceding of some important powers to Brussels, like the ability to limit immigrants from the other 26 countries in the union.

An opinion poll by pollster ComRes for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday newspapers put support for UKIP at 19 percent, which ComRes said was the highest level the party had achieved in any survey yet.

The opposition Labour party led with 35 percent, while the Conservatives were on 29 percent and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners on 8.

“The ratchet-effect of Euroscepticism has now gone so far that the Conservative leadership is in effect running scared of its own backbenchers, let alone UKIP,” Howe said, referring to the hundreds of rank-and-file Conservative members of parliament who occupy the rows of seats behind Cameron and his ministers.

REFERENDUM PROMISE

In January, Cameron promised that if the Conservatives won the 2015 election they would call a national referendum in 2017 on whether Britain should stay in or leave the EU. But that did not go far enough for many Conservatives, who last week forced him to back a new bill that would enshrine it in law.

The Conservatives’ restive right wing also last week voted to criticize the government’s legislative agenda for not including such a bill in the first place, an unusual move in British politics that embarrassed Cameron.

Compounding Cameron’s problems are media reports that an un-named close aide, at a private dinner last week, described the Conservative grassroots as “swivel-eyed loons”.

Cameron’s office says the comment did not come from them, and insist the prime minister is still in charge of his party.

The row comes at an especially bad time for Cameron, whose flagship bill to legalize same-sex marriage will be debated in parliament this week. Conservative activists wrote to Cameron on Sunday warning that the move would boost UKIP’s membership.

“The prime minister seems to have gathered around himself a metropolitan elite who seem to inhabit a different planet to most of us … Droves of previously loyal Conservative Party members are leaving,” Bob Woollard, chairman of the Conservative Grassroots umbrella group, told the BBC.

Cameron says he would like to do more to satisfy the Conservative core, but is held back by being in coalition with the left-leaning Liberal Democrats.

Ties between the two parties have frequently come under strain since they teamed up in 2010, but they have pledged to stay together to help revive Britain’s weak economy.

However, in an article published on Sunday, Cameron hinted that he could end the partnership before the 2015 election.

“Can we improve the state of the country? Can we fulfill our manifesto? The best way to do that is to continue with the coalition, but if that wasn’t the case then we’d have to face the new circumstances in whatever way we should,” he told Britain’s Total Politics magazine.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) - The Nikkei share average is set to
extend its record-breaking run on Monday, as further weakness in
the yen and signs of an improving U.S. economic outlook bolsters
prospects for higher Japanese corporate earnings in the current
business year.
    Wall Street's record closing highs on Friday is also
expected to underpin the market, likely pushing it to a fresh
5-1/2 year peak.
    Market players said the Nikkei was likely to trade between
15,150 to 15,400 on Monday after rising 0.7 percent to 15,138.12
on Friday. During trade, the index rose as high as 15,157.32,
the highest since December 2007.
    Nikkei futures in Chicago closed at 15,350, up 1.1
percent from the close in Osaka of 15,190.
    Analysts expects exporters to attract buying after the
dollar broke above the 103-yen level on Friday buoyed by strong
U.S. consumer sentiment data.
    The Dow and the S&P 500 finished at fresh record highs on
Friday.
    Data showed Americans felt better about their economic and
financial prospects in early May, with consumer sentiment at its
highest in nearly six years, while a gauge of future economic
activity rose in April to a near five-year high.
    "Strength in the U.S. market and signs of a recovery in the
U.S. economy are serving as a tailwind to the Nikkei's further
gains. It's promising that the yen is staying below 100 yen to
the dollar," said Yutaka Miura, a senior technical analyst at
Mizuho Securities. He expects the Nikkei to stay comfortably
above the 15,000-mark over the medium term.
    Analysts said that investors are increasingly becoming
upbeat about the prospects for higher corporate earnings for the
 fiscal year through March, as the weakening yen has improved
the outlook for many exporters.
    They expect an average operating profit rise of 30 percent,
compared with the companies' conservative forecasts of around a
20 percent increase in their operating profits.
    Many exporters have used assumptions of around 90-95 yen to
the dollar.
    The dollar last traded at 102.83 yen, taking a breather from
its recent sharp rally, but still not far off a 4 1/2 year high
of 103.32 tapped on Friday.
> Dow, S&P end at records, stocks mark 4th week of gains
> Dollar tops 103 yen, a 4-1/2-year high, on robust U.S.
data
> Prices fall on improved consumer sentiment
> Gold hits 1-month low as Fed pressured to end stimulus
> Oil rallies for third day, shrugging off firm dollar
    STOCKS TO WATCH

    --Toyota Motor Corp
    Toyota is planning to increase production of lithium-ion
batteries by six times, as the automaker prepares to eventually
use them in its flagship Prius gasoline-electric hybrid cars,
the Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday. 

    --Panasonic Corp
    Sanyo Electric Co may cease to exist under a reorganization
by Panasonic that includes global jobs cuts, Nikkei reported.

    --Sony Corp
    Sony plans to appoint Chugai Pharmaceutical Co
Chief Executive Osamu Nagayama as chairman, the Nikkei reported.

    --Yahoo Japan Corp
    Yahoo Japan said late on Friday it suspected that up to 22
million of its user IDs may have been "leaked" and it detected
an unauthorized attempt to access the administrative system of
its web portal Yahoo Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported.

    --Mori Seiki
    Mori Seiki plans to take "sole control" of its German
partner Gildemeister, according to a regulatory filing
published on the Austrian competition authority's website on
Friday.

RIO DE JANEIRO May 17 (Reuters) – Brazilian steelmaker CSN,
or Cia Siderúrgica Nacional SA, is still evaluating
the possible purchase of the Steel Americas unit of ThyssenKrupp
AG, the company said in a regulatory filing late
Friday.

CSN has made no binding bids or agreements regarding the
possible purchase, the company added. Earlier this year, people
familiar with CSN’s plans said it was considering a purchase of
Steel Americas, but the company has said little publicly about
the process.

The array of enterprise communication formats available today has expanded, ranging from instant messages to blogs and wikis, as well as more traditional means such as email and internal web pages.

But documents, including proposals, requirements, plans, agreements, and reports, remain the primary currency of business, and document collaboration continues to be a core activity of knowledge workers in their day-to- day work. As a result, knowledge workers are demanding and need more efficient and effective tools for document collaboration and exchange.

As IT organizations look to enhance or expand their enterprise collaboration capabilities, they should consider three important trends and their implications:

• Project teams that span multiple third-parties are becoming the norm, and the need to maintain security outside the firewall is increasing.

• The need for dynamic documents that enable more effective and engaging communications is growing.

• Reducing costs via better efficiency remains at the top of the executive agenda.

This Adobe Acrobat white paper looks at:

• Global collaborators are distributed—inside and outside the enterprise

• Demand for dynamic documents is growing

• IT faces continued pressure to reduce costs via better efficiency