NewsTracker Answers for week of Mar. 25, 2013

Q: Wealthy foreign depositors could lose billions of dollars as Cyprus struggles to keep its banks open with a bailout from other European nations. Where is Cyprus on this map?

Circle the area on this map

Q: The Republic of Cyprus built much of its economy on helping foreigners avoid taxes and protect their wealth. Much of the money deposited in Cyprus has come from Russian "oligarchs," but the island nation also attracted big depositors from its former colonial ruler . . .

A. Greece

B. Britain

C. France

D. Italy

B. The United Kingdom gained control of Cyprus in 1878 and ruled it as crown colony from 1925 until the island gained independence in 1960.

Q: Cypriot banks lost billions in loans to Greece under terms of an earlier bailout deal for that nation. Which nation has supplied most of the money and dictated most of the terms for bailing out Europe's troubled economies like Cyprus?

A. Russia

B. Britain

C. Germany

D. United States

C. Germany has the strongest economy in the Eurozone, the 17 European nations that have adopted the euro as a common currency. Wealthier Eurozone members like Germany have been bailing out weaker nations in an effort to save the euro as a currency.

Q: The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 after fighting between ethnic Greeks and ethnic . . .

A. Arabs

B. Britons

C. Italians

D. Turks

D. Mycenaean Greeks began settling on Cyprus more than 3,000 years ago. The island was ruled by many different groups before the Ottoman Turks seized the island in 1570 and ruled it until the British took over. A 1960 census found that 77.1 percent of the island's population was Greek, 18.2 percent Turkish and 4.7 percent other ethnicities.

Q: In the Mediterranean Sea, the island of Cyprus is the . . .

A. Largest

B. Smallest

C. Third largest

D. Third smallest

C. Cyprus is the third most populous and third largest island behind Italy's islands of Sicily and Sardinia.