Spain’s austerity crisis

The number of people officially registered as unemployed in Spain has edged up toward 5 million as the country's recession shows few signs of abating and its struggling banks await crucial bailout cash.

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Dec. 3, 2012

Jenifer Martinez of Madrid, right, speaks to a member of the Mortgage Victims' Platform before learning that her family's eviction has been suspended. Martinez, along with her boyfriend, Jorge Sanchez of Colombia, and their three children, were to have lost their home, a step that has been postponed to January 2013, due to their landlord's failure to pay the mortgages to a local bank. Their landlord has since run away to Ecuador.

Juan Medina / Reuters

Dec. 3, 2012

Jenifer Martinez of Madrid looks out a window beside a member of the Mortgage Victims' Platform before learning that her family's eviction has been suspended.

Juan Medina / Reuters

Dec. 3, 2012

Jorge Sanchez of Colombia kisses his girlfriend, Jenifer Martinez of Spain, after learning that their family's eviction has been suspended.

Juan Medina / Reuters

Dec. 4, 2012

People utilize a charity food bank in Pamplona, in northern Spain. The number of people officially registered as unemployed in Spain has edged up toward 5 million as the country's recession shows few signs of abating and its struggling banks await crucial bailout cash, Spain's Labor Ministry said.

Alvaro Barrientos / AP

Dec. 1, 2012

Volunteers collect nonperishable food during a charity campaign in Barcelona.

Lluis Gene / AFP/Getty Images

Nov. 30, 2012

Caritas volunteers look at a homeless woman sleeping at the entrance of a bank office before asking her to join them at the Caritas charity shelter in Burgos, in northern Spain.

Cesar Manso / AFP/Getty Images

Dec. 4, 2012

A shoe shiner reads a newspaper as he waits for customers in Madrid.

Emilio Morenatti / AP

Dec. 4, 2012

People line up to enter a government job center in Madrid. The number of people officially registered as unemployed in Spain has edged up toward 5 million.

Daniel Ochoa De Olza / AP

Dec. 1, 2012

An elderly man crosses in front of a banner promoting ''Pensions Plans for Your Retirement'' in Pamplona, in northern Spain.

Alvaro Barrientos / AP

Dec. 3, 2012

People with disabilities hold signs as they take part in a rally against government cutbacks during the International Day of Persons with Disabilities in the Andalusian capital of Seville.

Marcelo del Pozo / Reuters

Dec. 1, 2012

A holder of junior debt shouts slogans during a protest against enforced losses in Madrid. Enforced losses on junior bondholders will form part of recapitalization plans put forward by the rescued banks — Bankia, NovaCaixaGalicia, Catalunya Banc and Banco de Valencia — as a condition of receiving European Union aid, alongside job cuts. Many junior debt holders, who rank behind other creditors in Spain's state-rescued lenders, are retail clients who entrusted their life savings to the banks, making any loss they suffer as part of the bailout a hot political issue.

Andrea Comas / Reuters

Dec. 4, 2012

A woman asks a protester if he feels the cold during a demonstration against social services cuts in front of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Vincent West / Reuters

Dec. 4, 2012

Sheep graze next to a billboard of Spain's Bankia bank outside Seville. Four Spanish lenders will need no more than 1.5 billion euros (about $2 billion) of European funds to be recapitalized in the second phase of the euro-zone plan to clean up Spain's banking sector, Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said.

Marcelo del Pozo / Reuters

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HACIPASA, TURKEY - MAY 5: Syrian refugee Hala ponders her life on the run on Sunday, May 5, 2013, in Hacipasa, Turkey. Three times this morning, the sounds of aircrafts were followed by explosions that shook the ground. Hacipasa, which sits just across the river border from Syria, is home of several hundred Syrian refugees who have been displaced by their home country's conflict. For a year, Hala and her family have been displaced from their home village in Syria because of violent conflict. After bouncing from village to village, fleeing bombings that seemed to follow them, the family crossed into Turkey six weeks ago. Initially, the family was deported back into Syria, where they lived in camps for internally displaced Syrians. But when the camps were bombed, the family was allowed to cross into Turkey. Hala said, 'The blood of the people who died in Syria, the martyrs, is our sad song, but nobody is listening.' (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

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