10 things you need to know today: May 23, 2012

A woman shows her ink-stained finger after casting her vote in Cairo: A run-off election will likely be held in June since none of the 12 presidential candidates is expected to win a majority

(Image credit: Ammar Awad/Reuters)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. EGYPT HOLDS FIRST FREE ELECTION

Fifteen months after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in the Arab Spring, Egyptians are voting in their country's first-ever democratic presidential election Wednesday. The 12 candidates include revolutionaries, ministers from the Mubarak government, Islamists, and secularists; it's unlikely a single candidate will get more than half of the vote, so a run-off between the top two, to be held in June, will likely be necessary. The military council took control of the country in early 2011 and has pledged that the elections will be fair and orderly, but there is concern about the transition of power from the generals to the election winner. [BBC]

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In Baghdad, representatives from six world powers — the U.S., China, Russia, Germany, France, and Britain — began a new round of nuclear talks with Iran on Wednesday. The six-nation bloc aims to draft a detailed proposal outlining how Iran will demonstrate that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes. Iran is expected to face heavy pressure to accept the proposal to avoid a military confrontation. The talks come one day after the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said the organization was close to making a deal with Tehran to allow U.N. inspectors to visit Iran's most secretive nuclear sites. [Washington Post]

Facebook's Wall Street debut was supposed to be a "crowning achievement" for Morgan Stanley, but, as shares of the social network continue to slide, the financial giant is being blamed and investigated. Big investors and rival banks says Morgan Stanley set the Facebook stock price too high and sold too many shares. The financial giant has also been subpoenaed by the Massachusetts secretary of state over concerns that information about Facebook's offering was only shared with select clients instead of broadly among potential investors. [New York Times]

A US Airways flight from Paris to Charlotte, N.C., was diverted to Maine on Tuesday after a female passenger began acting strangely and claimed to have a device implanted in her body. Doctors aboard the flight found no signs of a recent surgery on the women, and she made no mention of a bomb. A federal law enforcement source says she posed "basically no threat," and will likely now be psychologically evaluated. [CNN]

After getting approval from the U.S., E.U., and China, Google has finally closed the deal and acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. The deal gives Google a number of useful patents and its own hardware company. It's being called the "most expensive and riskiest acquisition in [the company's] 14-year history." Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha has been replaced by Dennis Woodside, a top Google exec. [Associated Press]

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