5. Iceland Melts Down
Iceland was once aptly known as a Cold War rendezvous point, first for the 1972 championship chess match between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky and then the Reykjavik Summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. But in 2009, it symbolized the global financial crisis as even this far flung corner of the earth was touched by it, devastatingly. Saddled by bad debts originating from the United States and Britain, all three of Iceland's major banks failed and the incumbent government was booted by the voters in January. (Photo by Andreas Tille)
