By Bill Varner

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Lebanon’s election today to the United Nations Security Council for the first time in 57 years stems from its progress toward political stability and brings a moderate Arab voice to the panel, diplomats said.

“It is a symbol that Lebanon has overcome the civil war and is rebuilding its institutions and its presence abroad,” French Ambassador Gerard Araud said. “Lebanon has always been a bridge between the West and East, and I think that will be its role in the Security Council.”

Lebanon will replace Libya, whose leader last month urged that the Security Council be abolished and power shifted to the General Assembly as the representative of Arab nations in the body’s debates. Lebanon was last elected to the 15-nation body, the UN’s principle policy-making body, in 1952.

Issues likely to come before the council include how to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, allegations of war crimes by both sides during Israel’s military offensive against the Islamic group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and concern that weapons are being smuggled to Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in violation of Security Council resolutions.

by Duncan Greenberg, Want to become a tech titan or hedge fund tycoon? Up your chances by dropping out of college or going to Harvard and working at Goldman Sachs.

Are billionaires born or made? What are the common attributes among the uber-wealthy? Are there any true secrets of the self-made?

We get these questions a lot, and decided it was time to go beyond the broad answers of smarts, ambition and luck by sorting through our database of wealthy individuals in search of bona fide trends. We analyzed everything from entrepreneurs' parents' professions to where they went to school, their track records in the early stages of their careers and other experiences that may have set them on the path to extreme wealth.

Our admittedly unscientific study of the self-made members of the Forbes 400 yielded some interesting results.

First, a significant percentage of them had parents with a high aptitude for math. The ability to crunch numbers is crucial to becoming a billionaire, and mathematical prowess is hereditary. Some of the most common professions among the parents of Forbes 400 members (for whom we could find the information) were engineer, accountant and small-business owner.

BEIRUT — Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's opposition movement Hezbollah, and Walid Jumblatt from the Western-backed majority on Saturday urged the formation of a unity government "as soon as possible."

"Both sides agreed on the need to overcome as soon as possible the obstacles hindering the formation of a new government," they said in a joint statement after a rare meeting on Friday night.

The two leaders last met on June 19, their first encounter for three years.

BEIRUT AFP — Lebanese politicians from across the spectrum on Friday welcomed the rapprochement between Damascus and Riyadh but warned it was insufficient to guarantee the formation of a government in Lebanon.

"The Syrian-Saudi summit is not enough," acting Social Affairs Minister Mario Aoun told local radio on Friday.

"What we see around us does not lead to the hope that we will have a government in the near future as the United States still has not given the green light," said Aoun, a member of the opposition.

Prime minister-designate Saad Hariri has tried without success to form a national unity government since June, when his US- and Saudi-backed coalition clinched victory in a general election over a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Syria and Iran.