| Zimbabweans shun banks after cash shortages
Kennedy Tsambo's faith in Zimbabwe's banking system finally hit breaking point over Christmas when he spent an ultimately fruitless three days queuing to withdraw cash in order to buy a bus fare home. "This was not a donation that I was queuing for, it's my own money which I should be able to withdraw as and when I like," said the 37-year-old, who works as a mechanic in Harare but whose family lives in eastern Nyanyadzi district. "Now I am thinking of taking out all my money. I won't deposit any more in the bank until this chaos is over." Tsambo is among tens of thousands of casualties of a cash crisis in inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe which has seen banks regularly run out of notes since mid-October. Central back chief Gideon Gono blames the crisis on cash barons he says have been hoarding Zimbabwe dollars and exchanging them for scarce foreign currency.
MasterCard scandal: More details emerge
More details emerged on Monday about the cyber break-in at a payment processing company that exposed more than 40 million credit card accounts to fraud. The data security breach, possibly the largest to date, happened because intruders were able to exploit software security vulnerabilities to install a rogue program on the network of CardSystems Solutions, a MasterCard International spokeswoman said. The program captured credit card data, she said. The malicious code was discovered after a probe into the security of CardSystems' network. That investigation, by security experts from Cybertrust, was triggered by a MasterCard inquiry into atypical reports of fraud by several banks. The trail led to CardSystems, said the spokeswoman. The probe also found that the Atlanta-based payment processor did not meet MasterCard's security regulations.
Construction Threatens Danube's Natural Paradise
But excavation work, industry and ambitious transportation plans threaten the idyllic setting. Money from the European Union is accelerating the construction as part of the bloc's so-called Trans-European Networks initiative. The transformation of the Danube into a shipping waterway with a consistent depth of 2.5 meters is on the EU's economic development wish list. .
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