[Apache] Following symbolic link

Hello all,

I use the following script to run a command on my linux machine:

<?php
$output = shell_exec('ls -lart');
echo "<pre>$output</pre>";
?>

The script works fine if I use commands like cat ls dir. I get a output
back.

But now I made a symbolic link called groupmanager wich points to
/usr/lib/news/bin/ctlinnd. ctlinnd is a program to add a new group to a NNTP
server. normally this program should output "ok" or an error. but I get no
output. So the command isn;t executed. Its proberbly a security issue.

I added this to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

<Directory /usr/lib/news/bin>
Options All
AllowOverride All
</Directory>

My appache server is running under the user "apache".

I tried to do in the bash "sudo apache" to try the command manually under
this user... but it says the user isn;t available at the moment (even if I
shutdown apache)

if I type the command manual in the bash under user root everything works
fine.

I already performed chmod 777 on the files I need. but it stil doens;t works

anyone know what the problem here?