FOTOGRAFIA: Cry for Cyprus

These are tough times for Cyprus, with the government seizing nearly half the money in bank accounts of more than 100,000 euros ($137,000) to pay for mistakes the banks made that pushed the economy toward ruination. Many blame Cyprus joining the Eurozone for the problem and switching to the euro ? as did many Greeks when their country hit the financial skids too. Now both need big international bailouts that have come with crippling austerity measures as people in both countries blame their governments for gross mismanagement even as they keep electing them. Here a spray-painted tear appears on the cheek of a boy holding on to an antique Cypriot coin as passers-by walk past the poster advertising an exhibition of Cyprus? currency history in Nicosia, Cyprus earlier this fall. Cyprus' finance minister says the budget deficit next year is forecast to beat the target outlined in the terms of the country's bailout but capital controls remain in place and people are crying in their beer ? if they can afford to buy one.

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