Egypt heads to vote

Egypt heads to vote

cairo

Egyptians prepared to vote today in the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, a milestone many hoped would usher in a democratic age after decades of dictatorship. Instead, the polling already is marred by turmoil in the streets and the population is sharply polarized and confused over the nation’s direction.

Nine months after the popular uprising that pushed Mubarak out, protesters are back in the streets. This time, they are demanding that military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and his council of generals step down immediately.

Nine days of clashes that have left more than 40 dead have heightened fears of violence at polling stations.

Iraq signs gas deal

baghdad

Iraq on Sunday signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. to tap natural gas in the south, one of the biggest agreements by the OPEC member to develop an energy sector battered by years of neglect and war.

The $17 billion deal forms a joint venture to gather, process and market gas from three oil fields in the oil-rich province of Basra. That gas, pumped in conjunction with crude oil, is burned off due to lack of infrastructure.

The 25-year joint venture is called Basra Gas Company. Iraq will have a 51 percent stake, to Royal Dutch Shell’s 44 percent and Mitsubishi’s 5 percent shares.

New Mass translation launches in the US

clayton, n.c.

English-speaking Roman Catholics who have regularly attended Mass for years found themselves in an unfamiliar position Sunday, needing printed cards or sheets of paper to follow along with a ritual many have known since childhood.

The Mass itself — the central ritual of the Catholic faith — hasn’t changed, but the English translation has, in the largest shakeup to the everyday faith of believers since the upheavals that followed the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. A years-long process of revision and negotiation led to an updated version of the Roman Missal, the text of prayers and instructions for celebrating Mass, which originally was written in Latin. The new translation was rolled out across the English-speaking Catholic world Sunday.

Syria sanctioned

beirut

In an unprecedented move against an Arab nation, the Arab League on Sunday approved economic sanctions on Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly suppression of an 8-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.

But even as world leaders abandon Assad, the regime has refused to ease a military assault on dissent that already has killed more than 3,500 people. On Sunday, Damascus slammed the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity and insisted a foreign conspiracy was behind the revolt, all but assuring more bloodshed will follow.

Anti-slavery hub restored, to reopen

boston

Step into the sanctuary of the African Meeting House and you will walk on the same ancient floorboards where Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and other prominent abolitionists railed against slavery in the 19th century, and where free black men gathered to shape the famed 54th Massachusetts Civil War regiment.

After a $9 million restoration, the nation’s oldest black church building is set to reopen to the public early next month.

Associated Press