Chatter: Cyprus banks are back

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NEED TO KNOW

Ready, set, withdraw. Banks reopened in Cyprus today for the first time since the government agreed to a punishing EU bailout. Armed guards manned the doors as account holders were allowed into their banks for the first time in 12 days. They're forbidden to withdraw more than 300 euros per day, to prevent money flooding out of the island's tottering banking system.

You'd be forgiven for asking whether Cyprus' rescue looks very much different from the "unruly bankruptcy" that the EU insisted its terms would avoid. As the Cypriot economy faces up to a 20-percent contraction, GlobalPost asks whether the EU's botched bailout has left another fine mess.

WANT TO KNOW

Get well soon, Nelson Mandela. South Africa's 94-year-old national hero was readmitted to hospital last night with a recurrence of the lung infection that kept him there for 18 days last December.

President Jacob Zuma asked "the people of South Africa and the world to pray for our beloved Madiba and his family and to keep them in their thoughts." You've got it.

Biggest cyber attack ever? Net watchers say that the internet has been under unprecedented virtual fire for more than a week. The apparent target is spam blocker Spamhaus, which has made some powerful enemies by blacklisting suspected spammers. Those enemies have mounted a furious distributed-denial-of-service attack bigger than ever any seen before – and millions of ordinary netizens have been caught in the crossfire.

Thankfully that crossfire has so far been limited to making the internet "a bit more sluggish." Experts warn, however, that an attack of this scale could set a dangerous precedent.

Malala's story. The 15-year-old Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to say girls should go to school, Malala Yousafzai, has signed a book deal for a rumored $3 million. Her autobiography will be published next year under the title 'I Am Malala.'

Now attending school in the UK, she says she wants to tell not just her own story, but also "the story of 61 million children who can't get education."

STRANGE BUT TRUE

Here's something that will put you off your breakfast burger. Tests on processed meat in South Africa revealed a queasy-making quantity of unwelcome species' DNA, including donkey, water buffalo and even – shudder – human. (Though it behooves us to stress there's no suggestion that people are being ground up to make sausages.)

On the upside, however, testers said they found not a trace of horse. Buffalo bobotie all round!

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