This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
这里是美国之音慢速英语新闻报道节目。
On Sunday, the people of southern Sudan begin deciding whether or not to become the world's newest nation. A week of voting is expected to split Africa's largest country in two.
本周日，南部苏丹人民将开始决定是否要成为世界上最新的一个国家。为期一周的投票预计将把这个非洲最大的国家一分为二。
Friday was the final day of campaigning. Southern Sudanese paraded through Juba, their possible future capital.
周五是竞选活动的最后一天，南部苏丹人列队通过可能是未来首都的朱巴。
The vote comes from a peace agreement six years ago. Almost four million people have registered to vote. David Gressly, the top United Nations official in the south, says voting centers are ready.
这次投票是根据6年前的一项和平协议。近400万人已做好投票登记。联合国驻苏丹南部最高官员大卫·格莱斯利（David Gressly）表示，投票中心已准备就绪。
DAVID GRESSLY: "[The] security situation is calm. It's been calm for a number of weeks. So we think this is going to start on time. It will go very peacefully."
格莱斯利：“当前安全局势稳定并已持续数周。所以我们认为投票将按时开始，且投票过程将平静地进行。”
Observers from around the world have gathered in Sudan for the voting. Final results are not expected for several weeks.
来自世界各地的观察员们因为投票而聚集苏丹。投票的最终结果有望在数周后公布。
Many southerners have been returning from the north. They fear the unknown. Yet so do many northern Sudanese. They have urged southerners to vote for unity.
许多南部苏丹人已经从北部返回故乡。他们对不确定的未来充满畏惧。这也包括许多北部苏丹人，他们督促南部苏丹人投票统一。
But many southerners feel their part of the country has been treated unfairly by the central government in Khartoum.
但许多南部苏丹人认为南部遭受了喀土穆中央政府的不公平对待。
The peace agreement was signed in January of two thousand five. It ended more than twenty years of civil war between the north and the south.
和平协议签订与2005年1月，结束了南部和北部之间长达20多年的内战。
The conflict cost an estimated two million lives. It also prevented most economic development in the south -- one of the poorest areas in the world.
冲突造成了约200万人丧生，也妨碍了苏丹南部的经济发展，苏丹南部是全球最贫穷的地区之一。
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited Juba on Tuesday. He says his government will respect the results of the vote. The southern leader, Salva Kiir, has promised the same.
苏丹总统奥马尔·阿尔·巴希尔（Omar Al-Bashir） 周二访问了朱巴，他表示当前苏丹政府将尊重选举结果。南部领导人萨尔瓦·基尔（Salva Kiir）也做出了同样的承诺。
Historically, southern Sudan has had greater cultural and economic ties to East Africa than to the Arab-led government in Khartoum. The north is majority Muslim. The south is mainly Christians and animists who follow traditional African religions.
从历史上看，苏丹南部与东非的经济、文化联系要远远大于与阿拉伯人领导的苏丹喀土穆政府的联系。苏丹北部主要是穆斯林。南部主要是基督徒和遵循非洲传统宗教的万物有灵论者。
44 million people live in Sudan. Estimates of how many of them live in the south are between about 7.5 million and nearly 10 million.
苏丹共有4400万人口，估计居住在南部的人口界于750万到1000万之间。
Most of the oil in Sudan is in the south. But the oil is processed and exported -- at least for now -- from Port Sudan in the north. Rosie Sharpe from the environmental rights group Global Witness say that means the north and south will have to cooperate. The two sides will have to settle other issues of borders, citizenship rights and water. But the biggest issue is oil.
苏丹的大部分石油资源位于南部。但是，石油的加工出口主要通过北部的苏丹港，至少目前是这样。来自环境权益组织的全球见证人罗丝·夏普(Rosie Sharpe)称，这意味着南北苏丹需要合作。双方需要解决边界、公民权和水资源争端，但最大的争端还是石油。
The peace agreement divided oil earnings. The south gets almost all of its money from oil. But that wealth-sharing deal ends when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement expires this July.
和平协议对石油收入做出了分配，南部得到了几乎所有的石油收入。但那份财富分享协议在今年7月全面和平协议到期时也将终止。
Ms. Sharpe says any future deal needs to be more in the open. She says no one is even sure exactly how much oil Sudan produces. China has the largest oil pumping operation there.
夏普女士称，未来的任何协议都需要更加开放。她说，无人能确定苏丹到底生产了多少石油。中国在苏丹拥有最大的采油作业。
Justin Willis, an East Africa researcher at Britain's Durham University, says Sudan's oil industry is deep in mystery.
英国英国达勒姆大学的东非研究员贾斯汀·威利斯（Justin Willis）称，苏丹的石油工业深处谜团之中。
JUSTIN WILLIS: "There are complicated special deals involving the output from each of the fields. Unsurprisingly there has been a lot of suspicion in Juba that they are not getting what they are supposed to get, and this really is a very major issue for the future."
威利斯：“各个油田包括产量都存在复杂的、特别的密约。朱巴怀疑他们没有得到应该得到的毫不意外，这将是未来最大的争端。”