The CNN Daily Mash-up is a roundup of some of the most interesting, surprising, curious, poignant or significant items to appear on CNN.com in the past 24 hours. We top it with a collection of the day's most striking photographs.
Ahmed Raafat, a CNN iReporter in Cairo, shot photos of voting lines for Wednesday's Egyptian presidential election, the first such election since last year's revolution. 
"There is a general feeling of optimism and that the country is moving to a brighter future," Raafat said. "I saw hope in the eyes of the voters. It's the first time they get to choose among different candidates and it's the first time they don't know the results in advance. "People want to see a president who feels their suffering and can deliver change. People want to see a new country that is built on justice and equality. People are waiting for development plans that can lift the country from its economic malaise."
Nadia Fahmy, a 70-year-old grandmother, was so determined to be the first to vote at her polling station in Egypt that she camped out in a plastic chair for 2½ hours before it opened. She declared:
I am here to vote for the first time in my life. I want to see a new generation for my country. I want everything to change.
Another 70-year-old woman also has had a long wait. She is getting married for the first time - and her father will walk her down the aisle.
To say its been a rough ride for Facebook's IPO would be an understatement.
And as the social media giant edges toward the close of its first week of trading, questions are swirling about the company's valuation, its profitability and now allegations that full details of the stock's likely value were shared with only a select group of people.
Did some people get a heads-up Facebook's IPO wasn't what it seemed?
Regulators are now looking into the possibility that Facebook's Wall Street investment banks may have tipped off some clients that Facebook wasn't necessarily a great buy or worth the hype it was receiving, according to reports Wednesday from Reuters and several other news organizations.
“Facebook changed the numbers – they didn’t forecast their business right and they changed their numbers and told analysts,” a person at one of Facebook’s banks told Reuters.
Overheard on CNN.com 'I saw this one coming from a mile away'
The big question is: Did certain privileged customers receive information about the Facebook offering that you as an individual investor might not have?
Rick Ketchum, head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, an independent regulatory body, acknowledged in an article from Reuters that a Morgan Stanley analyst reduced his revenue projections for Facebook shortly before the offering and shared the information with institutional investors.
And now Facebook shareholders have filed a lawsuit against the social network, CEO Mark Zuckerberg and a number of banks, alleging that crucial information was concealed ahead of Facebook's IPO. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, charges the defendants with failing to disclose in the critical days leading up to Friday's initial public offering "a severe and pronounced reduction."
Facebook defended themselves on Wednesday saying they "believe the lawsuit is without merit and will defend ourselves vigorously."
The report, and now the lawsuit, raises questions about whether Morgan Stanley, one of the underwriter companies that handled Facebook's IPO, or other banks knowingly offered certain investors privileged information that should have been made public. Other underwriters targeted by the lawsuit include Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Merrill Lynch, a unit of Bank of America.
It is possible that Morgan Stanley may have signed off on a price that was too high or agreed to sell too many shares in the deal, CNNMoney.com reports. Then, Morgan Stanley analysts are alleged to have told certain people they had a negative assessment of the social network's offering.
"If true, the allegations are a matter of regulatory concern to FINRA and the [Securities and Exchange Commission]," Ketchum said in a statement via a spokeswoman.
The New York Times reported Morgan Stanley did more than just quietly share a negative outlook; they actually "held conference calls to update their banks' analysts on business."
"Analysts at Morgan Stanley and other firms soon started advising clients to dial back their expectations," the article says. "One prospective buyer was told that second-quarter revenue could be 5 percent lower than the bank’s earlier estimates."
Sallie Krawcheck, Bank of America's former head of wealth management, took to Twitter to share her outrage about the allegations.
The FB IPO selective disclosure stories just keep getting worse. If true, an absolute outrage. Come on, Wall St!!
—
Sallie Krawcheck (@SallieKrawcheck) May 23, 2012A glitch leaves investors not knowing if they have Facebook stock
Facebook's debut on the market was hindered by early confusion when trading was delayed by two hours after what Nasdaq called a "technical error."
"People didn't know where their orders stood, and it became a big guessing game," one trader, who had put in an order to buy Facebook shares ahead of the opening bell, told CNNMoney.com. "Nasdaq couldn't handle it - they blew it."
After two people tried to commit suicide by going over Niagara Falls in two days, local media were asking questions about the falls, including:
What could enable a person to survive a plunge?
Are suicide attempts from the falls on the rise?
Is a coming high-wire stunt walk over the falls encouraging the suicide attempts?
On Monday, a man plunged 180 feet over the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the Niagara River. He's now in a Hamilton, Ontario, hospital recovering from injuries that include several broken ribs, a collapsed lung and gashes to his head and shoulders, according to a report in the Buffalo News.
He was pulled to safety by emergency crews after collapsing in waist-deep water, according to a report from CNN affiliate WGRZ in Buffalo.
He is only the fourth person to survive a plunge over the Horseshoe Falls, historian Paul Gromosiak told the News.
The others include a 30-year-old Canadian man in 2009, a Michigan man in 2003 and a 7-year-old boy in 1960, according to the news reports.
The Toronto Star reports that thousands of people have gone over the falls, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, and asks why the known survivor cases are predominantly recent.
One of the world's oldest civilizations took a major step toward democracy Wednesday, as Egyptians began a historic vote for president.
Grandmother Nadia Fahmy, 70, was so determined to be the first one to vote at her polling station that she camped out in a plastic chair for two and a half hours before it opened.
"I am here to vote for the first time in my life," said Fahmy. "I want to vote for the first time. I want to see a new generation for my country. I want everything to change."
Other people told CNN they had waited up to four hours to vote as an atmosphere of enthusiasm swept polling stations in the capital.
FULL STORY
The incident involving U.S. Secret Service agents and members of the U.S. military allegedly hiring prostitutes before President Barack Obama visited Colombia was "almost certainly" not isolated, according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
Collins' comments come in an opening statement she plans to give Wednesday morning at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. She is the ranking Republican on the panel.
The director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, is set to testify at the hearing. The committee is investigating the use of prostitutes by Secret Service agents in Colombia last month before Obama's visit - one of four congressional committees looking into the incident.
FULL STORYWorld powers holding talks with Iran on its nuclear aspirations are proposing "confidence-building" and "reciprocal" steps allowing the country to prove its program is solely for peaceful use, a Western official told CNN.
The Wednesday meeting, in Baghdad, is a follow-up to last month's talks between Iran and six nations - the United States, France, Russia, China and Britain - the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - plus Germany.
Western powers fear that Iran may be trying to build nuclear weapons, despite its insistence that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. They have been using sanctions and diplomacy to stop Iran from producing nuclear arms.
FULL STORYThe race to the presidency now turns toward the general election in November. CNN.com Live is your home for all the latest news and views from the campaign trail.
Today's programming highlights...
9:00 am ET - Florida real estate developer trial - Testimony continues in the trial of Adam Kaufman, who's charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife.
Actor Michael McKean was hit by a car while walking along a New York City street on Tuesday, suffering a broken leg, the New York Post reports.
Harriet Sternberg, his manager, told the Post McKean was being checked out at St. Luke's Hospital.
“He has sustained multiple injures and we are trying to find out the extent of other injuries,” the Post quoted her as saying.
McKean, 64, played the lead singer for the band Spinal Tap in the movie "This is Spinal Tap" among numerous other roles.
He was to have performed on Broadway in Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man” on Tuesday night, the New York Daily News reported.
“It’s the first time he will have ever missed a curtain in his entire life,” Sternberg told the Daily News. “He’s never missed stage, screens in film or television. His understudy has never gone on in 40-plus years.”
Officials from six world powers are due to hold talks with Iranian representatives in Baghdad on Wednesday about Tehran's controversial nuclear program.
The meeting takes place the day after the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said he would soon sign an agreement with Iran, a sign that Tehran may have agreed to broader inspections of its nuclear facilities.
The Baghdad talks come at a critical time for Iran. The country's economy has been crippled by sanctions imposed by the United Nations, the United States and the European Union. And since 80% of Iran's foreign revenues are derived from oil exports, an embargo by the EU set to go into effect in July will put further pressure on its economy.
Western powers fear Iran may be trying to build nuclear weapons, despite its insistence that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
FULL STORYNorth Korea has said it will press on with its nuclear program as a response to what it described as hostility from the United States after an analysis of satellite images indicated increased activity at its nuclear test site.
"We had access to nuclear deterrence for self-defense because of the hostile policy of the U.S. to stifle the DPRK by force and we will expand and bolster it nonstop as long as this hostile policy goes on," an unidentified spokesman for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a report Tuesday by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
DPRK is short for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
The top U.S. envoy for North Korea, Glyn Davies, warned Pyongyang on Monday that a possible third nuclear test would be "a serious miscalculation and mistake."
FULL STORY
Nancy Reagan is recovering from a number of broken ribs after a fall in March, a representative for the former first lady said Tuesday.
Reagan, 90, was unable to attend a speech given Tuesday evening by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
"Mrs. Reagan has been recovering slowly and has been adding a few appointments back on to her schedule, but was advised by her doctor today not to try and attend large events too far from home just yet," said Joanne Drake, a spokeswoman for Reagan. "She personally invited Congressman Ryan and really wanted to be here, but sent her apologies to him earlier today."
FULL STORY
FBI agents are trying to determine who stole 19 pieces of high-priced art, including an Andy Warhol silkscreen, from a Detroit business.
The art – worth millions of dollars, according to CNN affiliate WDIV – was taken between April 27 and April 29 from a business owned by an art collector in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood, the FBI said Tuesday. The agency didn't name the business or the owner.
The collection includes a 1960s silkscreen that Warhol used to make “Flowers” prints, according to the FBI. The other pieces of art, including paintings and drawings, were done by Larry Rivers, Francesco Clemente, Philip Taaffe, Joseph Beuys and Peter Schuyff.
Investigators suspect that the thief or thieves “may have already crossed state lines, if not left the country, in an effort to sell them,” FBI spokesman Simon Shaykhet said.
“We’re putting a message out to art dealers, pawn shop owners, and anyone dealing in art to be aware of it,” Shaykhet said.
The art was neither locked up nor on display, the FBI said.
A $5,000 reward is being offered for the pieces’ recovery. They have been entered into the FBI’s national stolen art database.
Up to $6 billion worth of art is stolen each year, according to the FBI.
Saying "I do" under unusual circumstances – Most wedding ceremonies are predictable and filled with special traditions and customs. However, we've found a few unconventional weddings off the beaten path, and they are worth a look!
See how a tornado, mermaids and one man's surprise plot played a role in these weddings.
Caleb and Candra Pence exchanged vows as a tornado touched down near their outdoor wedding ceremony in Harper, Kansas.
Two couples in China held their wedding ceremonies underwater in an aquarium.
One woman was shocked when her boyfriend surprised her with a proposal, immediately followed by their wedding.
It’s officially a stellar week for Elon Musk, the billionaire engineer behind SpaceX, the company that made history Tuesday launching the first private spacecraft bound for the International Space Station.
The rocket, originally set to hit the stratosphere Saturday, might have taken to the sky a few days late, but the excitement Musk expressed on Twitter about the launch extends a victory streak that also includes more earthly passions.
On Monday, Musk tweeted that Tesla – the luxury electric car company he co-founded in Silicon Valley – had reached a “major milestone” by completing crash testing and gaining approval for sale to the public.
The CNN Daily Mash-up is a roundup of some of the most interesting, surprising, curious, poignant or significant items to appear on CNN.com in the past 24 hours. We top it with a collection of the day's most striking photographs.
We know you can't get enough of Sunday's annular solar eclipse. CNN iReporter Angela J. Wright was shooting photos of the eclipse in Yucca Valley, California, about 10 miles from Joshua Tree National Park, when it took on this eerie configuration. "I was so excited I had to keep my self calm," she said. "I'd never seen anything like it before!"
Marine life experts from Sea World in Orlando, Florida, rescued a 5-day-old bottlenose dolphin that was stranded in a mangrove on Three Sisters Island, reports CNN affiliate Central Florida News 13, which has pictures and video of the cute little guy.
[Updated at 4:52 p.m. ET] The Florida woman who killed her four children before committing suicide last week used jacketed hollow-point bullets fired at very close range, no more than 2 feet away, according to the Brevard County District Medical Examiner.
Medical Examiner Sajid Qaiser said Tonya Thomas, 33, fired a Taurus .38-caliber gun, hitting her children 18 times before taking her own life. Most of the wounds on Pebbles Johnson, 17; Jaxs Johnson, 15; Jazzlyn Johnson, 13; and Joel Johnson, 12, were on the fronts of their bodies, indicating they were shot as their mother faced them, Qaiser said.
Qaiser said none of the children or their mother had major defensive wounds, indicating that there was no significant struggle before or during the shootings. Thomas then placed the gun in her mouth and pulled the trigger, killing herself.
Qaiser said he noticed changes in Thomas' liver and ordered toxicology screens on Thomas and all of her children. The full autopsy will not be released until those results come back, which could take several weeks, Qaiser said.
"I know everyone thirsty to know why (the children) were not able to escape out of the house, how come one person shot their children so many times," he said. "But we don't have all of the information yet."
Jazzlyn was shot the most, seven times. The gunshots perforated her lung three times as well as her spleen, pancreas, stomach and spine, Qaiser said.
Joel was shot five times. Jaxs took three bullets in his chest.
“Many of the shots were taken at contact range," Qaiser said. "You can tell from the wounds and the clothing that the muzzle of the gun was pressed against the clothing, the body."
Pebbles was also shot three times.
What is being called a "deadly traffic jam" of climbers ascending Mount Everest might be a factor in the death of four people descending the world's tallest mountain.
The news came amidst the celebration of a landmark climb for Tamae Watanabe of Japan, who, at 73 years old, became the oldest woman to climb Mount Everest on Saturday morning. She broke her own 10-year-old record.
Bad weather has also been blamed. Sandra Leduc, a Canadian woman who is climbing Mount Everest, has been tweeting about the storms. She saw lightning in the distance and tweeted that the peak winds were roaring at 100 kph.
She also tweeted that two or three hours from the summit, her sherpa wanted the team to descend immediately, because it was the worst weather he had ever seen. The very low temperatures appear to have affected a regulator she was using, which also has an effect on her oxygen supply.
But her most chilling tweet referred to those who did not survive their trek.
Lots of dead or dying bodies. Thought I was in a morgue.
—
Sandra Leduc (@sandraclimbing) May 22, 2012Michael Harley also made an observation that many are considering, perhaps for the first time.
It kind of blows my mind that so many bodies are on Everest... they're kind of like landmarks.
—
Michael Harley (@obsolete29) May 22, 2012Six people have died on Mount Everest this year, but it's not the disaster faced by climbers in 1996, the deadliest year to date for the mountain, with 16 deaths. On May 10, 1996, 10 teams were stranded by a storm and white-out conditions, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees below zero.
Adventurer Bear Grylls, who was one of the youngest climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, shared his perspective on the tragedy.
More die on Everest. So sad. Poignant time every year as climbers near the top. (I am always grateful to have survived) cnn.com/2012/05/21/wor…
—
Bear Grylls (@BearGrylls) May 22, 2012Readers had much to say about the dangers of the climb versus the rewards. We received more than 1,500 comments on CNN.com.
Madhu: "Everest: Earth's highest graveyard."
daddy2010: "At least they died doing what they enjoy. Better than dying in a cubicle on Friday and having no one find the body till Monday."
darcechoke: "This is why I don't climb Mt. Everest. Well, this and the fact that I get winded climbing a flight of stairs."
Isocyanide: "Everest is the Disneyland of mountain climbing. Standing in line for hours and hours for the ride a million other people have taken."
Some talked not only about the dangers but about the bodies, the expenses involved and the waste left behind. The following commenter suggested a deposit to cover recovery expenses.
Unit34AHunt: "Everest has in excess of 200 known corpsicles, and massive heaps of discarded trash. Seems properly respectful of this earth to clear out all that detritus rather than allowing it to accumulate. 'They died doing what they love?' Tell it to the corpses of the ones who begged not to be left behind as they froze to death."
djfl00d: "Going up after dead bodies or trash means you bring less with you, which means you won't be carrying what you need to survive, and there's another dead body to go after."
For many, the sherpas who accompany climbers on some treks are indispensable.
MrsColumbo: "I hiked to Everest Base Camp in 95. The Sherpa's are unbelievable. They leave after you with your heavy pack, run by you get there ahead of you and have camp set up. It is not them who get paid the big bucks to take you to the top, it is the companies that sponsor them. You will not meet a nicer group of people than the Nepalese Sherpas."
Others were quite saddened by the news.
smc77: "I feel for these people and their families. I hike mountains, nowhere near this challenging, and have turned back when I thought the risk was too great. I can only imagine the draw to complete this goal, the costs (planning, physical, financial) involved, and the disappointment one must ponder when making the go / turn-back decision. I hope that all can take solace in knowing they died doing something they enjoyed and was important in their lives."
Would you climb Mt. Everest? What do these attempts say about humanity? Comment below and tell us what you think.
You can also sound off on video via CNN iReport.
The African National Congress wanted to go to court to force a South African gallery to remove a painting depicting President Jacob Zuma with his genitals exposed.
The ANC got its wish, but it was two vandals, not a judge, who granted it.
Local station eNews Channel was at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg with cameras rolling when one man calmly approached the portrait, called "The Spear," and painted red crosses over the face and genitals.
Next came another man who smeared black paint over most of the image.
Watch the video above to see the vandals attack, see the violent arrest and hear the stunned reaction of the reporter as it all unfolds.
Opinions on "The Spear" are divided. CNN's "Open Mic" gave some South Africans a chance to vent. Watch below to hear what they're saying. Which side do you support?
When ReShonda Tate Billingsley let her daughter open an Instagram account, the Houston novelist made clear to her what would be appropriate to post to the picture-sharing site.
So the mother wasn’t impressed when she saw a couple of weeks ago that the 12-year-old took a picture of herself with unopened alcohol bottle from her father’s bar and posted it with the caption, “Wish I could drink this vodka.”
Billingsley decided the online faux pas should also be punished online.
She not only temporarily banned her daughter from Instagram, the mom took a picture of her daughter holding a sign announcing her punishment (but not showing most of her face). She posted it to her daughter’s Instagram account to chastise her and to the mother’s own public Facebook page, hoping to persuade other parents to monitor their kids’ online activity.
“Since I want to post photos of me holding liquor, I am obviously not ready for social media and will be taking a hiatus until I learn what I should and should not post. Bye-bye,” the sign read.
Within hours, more than 10,000 people shared Billingsley’s Facebook post, and hundreds of others shared it on Twitter. She says she didn’t expect so much attention, but she thinks it’s made the lesson more effective.
“She saw how this picture has gone viral, but … now she sees that if it had been the picture of vodka that went viral, it could have ruined her life,” Billingsley said Tuesday. “It’s vodka today, but it could be underwear five years from now if this isn’t nipped in the bud (and she doesn’t learn) the consequences of posting on social media.”
Tens of thousands of visitors flocked to the Tokyo Skytree on Tuesday, trying to be among the first people to get a view of the Japanese capital from the world's tallest tower.
The Skytree rises 634 meters (2,080 feet) above Tokyo. It was certified as the world's tallest tower by Guinness World Records on November 17, according to the Skytree's website.
Guinness lists the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, at 828 meters (2,716 feet 6 inches), as the world's tallest building.
The distinction is that Burj Khalifa is an occupied building. The Skytree is a broadcast structure, with digital transmissions for Tokyo media beamed from it. Its towering height doubles the coverage that was previously available, as it enables signals to get past the countless other skyscrapers in the Japanese capital, according to the Skytree website.
People showing up for trips up the Skytree were beaming with pride and excitement Tuesday, according to local news reports.
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