“We remain united in our grave concern over Iran’s nuclear program. We call on Iran to comply with all of its obligations under relevant UNSC (United Nations Security Council) resolutions and requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors,” the G8 leaders said in a declaration issued after their summit at the Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat in the state of Maryland.

The G8 leaders urged Iran “to continuously comply with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including its safeguards obligations,” the declaration said.

They also demanded Iran “address without delay” all outstanding issues related to its nuclear program, such as questions concerning possible military dimensions, while expressing the desire for “a peaceful and negotiated solution to concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.”

The G8 summit was held days ahead of the next round of resumed talks on Iran’s nuclear program due on May 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, which will be attended by five G8 nations, including Germany, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as China.

The first round of talks, held in Istanbul, Turkey, in April, ended on a positive note which eased the rising tensions between Tehran and the U.S.-led West that threatened to lead to armed confrontation.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is purely for peaceful purposes, but the U.S.-led Western nations suspect that it is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.

The G8 leaders welcomed the resumption of the talks, while urging Iran “to seize the opportunity” to resolve the dispute, by engaging in detailed discussions about near-term, concrete steps that can, through a step-by-step approach based on reciprocity, lead towards a comprehensive negotiated solution, the G8 declaration added.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who hosted the G8 summit at Camp David, told reporters that G8 leaders “are firmly committed to continuing with the approach of sanctions and pressure in combination with diplomatic discussions.”

The U.S. has imposed tough economic sanctions on Tehran in an attempt to persuade it from acquiring a nuclear weapon, which Washington warns could lead to military strike by the U.S. and its allies, especially Israel.

“And our hope is that we can resolve this issue in a peaceful fashion that respects Iran’s sovereignty and its rights in the international community, but also recognizes its responsibilities, ” Obama said.

In another move to exert pressure on Iran, the G8 leaders said a statement that they “stand ready to call upon the international Energy Agency to take appropriate action to ensure that the market is fully and timely supplied” in case of further disruption of oil supplies.

This indicated that the G8 leaders support Obama’s proposal to tap oil stocks for the second time in two years, if tensions flare up in the West’s nuclear standoff with Iran, a major oil supplier.

Obama, in his weekly radio and Internet address, criticized Republicans in Congress for trying to delay and dismantle the critical reform aimed at protecting consumers and making Wall Street play by the same set of rules, and shielding taxpayers from irresponsible behavior on Wall Street that nearly destroyed the U. S. financial system and cost millions of jobs.

“And yet, for the past two years, too many Republicans in Congress and an army of financial industry lobbyists have actually been waging an all-out battle to delay, defund, and dismantle Wall Street reform,” said Obama.

Referring to the more than 2 billion-dollar trading loss at JPMorgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank, Obama warned that “without Wall Street reform, we could have found ourselves with the taxpayers once again on the hook for Wall Street’s mistakes.”

“That’s why it’s so important that Members of Congress stand on the side of reform, not against it; because we can’t afford to go back to an era of weak regulation and little oversight; where excessive risk-taking on Wall Street and a lack of basic oversight in Washington nearly destroyed our economy,” Obama said.

“We’ve got to finish the job of implementing this reform and putting these rules in place,” the U.S. president added.

Obama said that the new rules require that a big bank or financial institution should hold more cash on hand, so that it can pay for the loss, not the taxpayer, if it makes a bad decision.

The new rules discourage big banks and financial institutions from making risky bets with taxpayer-insured money, and encourage them to do things that actually help the economy, including extending loans to entrepreneurs with good ideas, to middle-class families who want to buy a home, and to students who want to pursue higher education, Obama said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 14.90 km, was initially determined to be at 39.7496 degrees north latitude and 143.2021 degrees east longitude, or 175 km east of Morioka.

When the blast occurred, a total of 24 people were working at the Bamianshan tunnel, which is being built for the Yanling-Rucheng expressway, in Yanling county of Zhuzhou city, Hunan Province.

Four of them were pulled out, including one in critical conditions and another slightly injured, the Hunan provincial transport department said in a statement.

The two injured have been hospitalized.

Rescuers have conducted life detections for six times at the site, with no sign of life detected, Yang Jun with the fire brigade of Yanling county told Xinhua.

The explosion happened at about 8:30 a.m. when a vehicle carrying explosives was unloading in the tunnel that involves a designed length of 2,355 meters. The explosives were contained in 12 cases each with a weight of 24 kilograms, according to the contractor of the tunnel project.

An investigation into the cause of the explosion is under way, and rescue and clear-up work is continuing

Tens of thousands of Timorese flocked to Tasi Tolu, a beachside square in the capital city of Dili where the first president and incumbent prime minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao declared Timor- Leste’s independence on May 20, 2002, after over 400 years of Portuguese colonization and more than two decades of Indonesian occupation.

In the inauguration ceremony shortly after midnight, Taur Matan Ruak took over the presidency from the Nobel peace prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta.

The ceremony was witnessed by several foreign leaders, including Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In his inauguration address, Ruak called for unity of 1.1 million Timor-Leste people in order to maintain peace and stability, as well as achieve prosperity of the nation.

He said Timor-Leste should exploit its abundant natural resources for development by drawing foreign investment.

“In the past, we need your blood to fight for the independence of our country, but now we need your sweat to develop it,” he told his fellow countrymen.

President generally plays a ceremonial role in Timor-Leste’s parliamentary system. However, many expect Ruak, former chief of general staff of the armed forces, to help maintain stability so that the government can shift the focus from security to economic development.

Ruak, 55, won over 60 percent of the votes in last month’s presidential election run-off, defeating Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres, leader of the opposition Fretilin party, after securing support from the ruling coalition led by Gusmao.
Ruak’s predecessor, Jose Ramos-Horta, lost his reelection bid in the first round of presidential election.

Wang Zhizhen, vice chairwoman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and special representative of President Hu Jintao also attended the ceremony.

With a Contract for Difference (CFD), you do not own the underlying instrument; therefore, you are not required to pay Stamp Duty in the UK*.

With multiple benefits available to you for only a small initial deposit, you can find out more about the key features of trading CFDs [http://www.cityindex.co.uk/cfd-trading/what-is-cfd-trading.aspx ] with City Index on their website.

Below, we offer you top five tips for trading CFDs on Facebook shares as of this afternoon when its shares become available to CFD trade.

Top 5 Tips for Trading Facebook Shares

Trading Tip 1. What is Facebook’s Share Price?

First, let’s look at the IPO to get a clearer idea of Facebook’s value and share price.

As it stands at 15:00 BST on Thursday 17 May; Facebook’s IPO could set to value the social network at over $100 billion with its current price range at $34-$38 is met.

By nature, IPOs are however unpredictable and with the added celebrity factor that Facebook brings -the share price could become highly volatile following its initial flotation in the market, as many previous IPO’s has shown.

Trading Tip 2. Research Previous IPO Examples

The key to any successful CFD trading strategy [http://www.cityindex.co.uk/cfd-trading/how-to-trade-cfds.aspx ] is to research.

Before you trade, it is important to know what you’re dealing with – which is why you researched the Facebook IPO above – and now you need to research what could happen.

One way to gain an insight into how Facebook shares could perform on Friday is to research how previous IPO’s of a similar company or popularity fared.

You could focus on those within the same social sector, such as LinkedIn and Google.

LinkedIn’s shares more than doubled on the first day of its IPO. However, a lot of this was trading based on hype; this is why after the hysteria had died down, the firm’s share price subsequently lost a third of its value in the next month.

On the other hand, when Google went public in 2004, its own share price also doubled but over a longer period of two months – and has never looked back.

What could be taken from this by some investors is, one, IPO’s can be somewhat unpredictable, and two, to be mindful of additional volatility which could see wide and dramatic price swings.

Trading Tip 3. Analyse Investor Demand

In the same way Facebook marketers consider ‘social proofing’ a key benefit for promoting their brand through the social network – whereby users are more likely to be drawn to a business page with more likes than one with none – the same can be said for investor demand.

As the saying goes – you’re only as good as your last review – and this could easily be adapted to the demand for Facebook shares.

The investor demand is high – extremely high – so much so that the company increased the size of its IPO by almost 25% (GBP84 million) due to the sheer size of demand.

This translates to: the higher the investor demand, the higher the share price.

How to Trade CFDs with City Index

You can take a position on over 12,000 global instruments – such as shares – with CFD trading provider City Index [http://www.cityindex.co.uk ].

You can open a CFD trading account online and trade across their suite of trading platforms [http://www.cityindex.co.uk/trading-platform/forex-android-mobile.aspx ]; including downloadable, online, mobile and tablet based platforms.

With their City Trading(TM) App, you can trade Facebook shares from wherever you are and whenever you want, as of this afternoon when they launch [Friday 18 May].

About City Index:

Today more and more individual traders are discovering the benefits of derivatives, and many of them are discovering them through a City Index trading platform.

As a group, we transact in excess of 1.5 million trades every month in over 50 countries. We provide access to a wide range of instruments including margined foreign exchange, CFDs and, in the UK, financial spread betting with City Index [http://www.cityindex.co.uk/spread-betting ].

We constantly look to improve the performance of our platforms and expand our range of services. The result is our customers benefit from innovative trading tools with transparent pricing, competitive spreads, and a high standard of customer support. Visit http://www.cityindex.co.uk/ for details.

*CFD trading is exempt from UK stamp duty. However, tax laws are subject to change and depend on individual circumstances. Please seek independent advice if necessary.

Consider Groupon, Netflix, MySpace and Beware, says CEO

ATLANTA- Crown Financial Ministries CEO Chuck Bentleyoutlined reasons that should concern investors who plan on “liking” Facebook for their portfolios. He discussed his hesitance in a national e-blast to supporters of the 35-year non-profit that helps people and businesses who are struggling after making bad financial decisions and working to build a strong foundation to “do well.”

“The buzz on Wall Street this week surrounds the long-anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of the wildly popular social media giant, Facebook. It’s being hyped as one of the biggest initial public offerings in history for an Internet company, and investors are lining up to own a share. I’m not one of them,” Bentley told supporters.

“There are plenty of reasons not to ‘like’ Facebook’s initial public offering—despite the hype that it’s the hottest investment opportunity going. One is the past performance of two other technology darlings—Groupon and Netflix. When Groupon “went public” last November, its stock opened at $28 a share. I just checked the ticker—it’s now trading at around $14 a share.

“Last summer, Netflix was trading at nearly $300 a share, but for a variety of reasons, including a substantial price hike for its service, revenues have dropped and so has the price of Netflix stock—now trading at around $78.50 a share … If Groupon and Netflix weren’t reason enough to avoid the Facebook IPO, don’t forget the epic fall of MySpace, once a contender as the leading social hub on the web. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. purchased it for a whopping $580 million in 2004 and was happy to find a buyer for it last year at $35 million.

“A closer look at the numbers reveals that Facebook will likely follow a similar pattern of over-subscription based upon opening day hype, only to be followed by a struggle to maintain original market valuation … Facebook intends to offer 337.4 million shares at a price of $28 to $35 on NASDAQ under the symbol, FB.

Although advertising revenues are estimated to reach $6.1 billion in 2012, the valuation would price Facebook stock at 24 times revenue, compared to 5 times revenue for Google.

“Further, the company is still led by Mark Zuckerberg, who turned 28 this week. He’s the unquestioned genius who founded Facebook in 2004 from his Harvard dorm room and promptly dropped out of school to build the business. If the reports of Mr. Zuckerberg that I’ve read are at all accurate, I would be leery about placing confidence in his leadership,” wrote Bentley. “There are always more geeky college freshmen with highly marketable ideas. New and disruptive technology can surface overnight, and there is little to keep users loyal to one over the other.”

To read Chuck’s full remarks, click here or go to www.crown.org

Crown Financial Ministries, a non-profit, helps people and businesses integrate their values into business practices, debt reduction, and financial decision-making. For more than 35 years, Crown has been offering economic analysis and advice based on timeless truths. Theirs is a strong, international grassroots organization with offices in the U.S. and overseas. Crown experts work one on one with individuals and business leaders, as well as through workshops and seminars, teaching people how to build on a strong foundation that includes the business principles and practices found in the Bible. It is well known for its cutting edge materials first developed by its founder, the late Larry Burkett.  For more information, go to www.crown.org or call 800-722-1976

The plaintiffs assert claims under the federal Wiretap Act, which provides statutory damages per user of US$100 per day per violation, up to a maximum per user of US$10,000. Even if Facebook’s alleged actions constitute a single violation of the Wiretap Act per class member, that implies more than US$15 billion in damages across the class. The complaint also asserts claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, various California Statutes and California common law.

The class action is being led by court-appointed co-lead counsel Stewarts Law US LLP and Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Gorny, P.C. David Straite, Partner at Stewarts Law, stated: “This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications.”

In addition to co-lead counsel, the court has appointed a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee which includes Keefe Bartels in New Jersey; Mandell, Schwartz & Boisclair in Rhode Island; Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy in New Jersey; Bergmanis Law Firm in Missouri; Burns, Cunningham & Mackey in Alabama; and Murphy, Falcon & Murphy in Baltimore. The court has also appointed a committee of former State Attorneys General to advise the class, including former Mississippi AG Mike Moore, former Arizona AG Grant Woods, former Hawaii AG Margery Bronster, and former Louisiana AG Richard Ieyoub.