PARIS, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - The following are comments made to AFP by economists on the origin and nature of global financial turmoil.

-- Elie Cohen, research director at France's CNRS

It's an American crisis and a European crisis. But I am sure it will soon be an Asian crisis in the sense that there will also be an economic slowdown in Asia.

PARIS, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - The collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the United States and the subsequent global financial crisis has provoked the sharpest fall on world stock markets since the end of the Internet bubble in 2001-2002.

In the last year, leading indices have lost between 12 and 25 percent of their value.

PARIS, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - A year ago, on August 9, 2007, a fund run by French bank BNP Paribas sent distress signals.

The European Central Bank, already alarmed by signs of strain on interest rate markets, intervened by providing emergency funding to eurozone banks.

FRANKFURT, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - The ECB and its head Jean-Claude Trichet stand high for deft handling of a 12-month financial drama verging on disaster but still face a nightmare in guiding the eurozone through a long winter.

PARIS, August 6, 2008 (AFP) - A year-long crisis is shaking the foundations of some of the world's mightiest financial bodies and economies, confounding policymakers who now confront an increasingly fragile and uncertain future.

BRUSSELS, July 17, 2008 (AFP) - Belgium's King Albert II on Thursday refused to accept his Prime Minister Yves Leterme's resignation after consulting ministers on the best way to end the political crisis, a palace spokesman said.

BRUSSELS, July 17, 2008 (AFP) - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme was still at the helm Thursday as the king consulted ministers and unionists on the best way to end a crisis caused by the premier's decision to resign.

BRUSSELS, July 16, 2008 (AFP) - Belgium's King Albert II continued talks Wednesday with the country's main political parties in a bid to resolve the crisis triggered by his prime minister's resignation, palace officials said.

BRUSSELS, July 15, 2008 (AFP) - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme's shock decision to hand in his resignation overnight Monday is a new twist in a political crisis that has simmered for more than a year.

At the heart of the crisis is a dispute over power-sharing between the kingdom's Flemish community and French-speakers in Wallonia.

BEIRUT, May 21, 2008 (AFP) - Key events in Lebanon since 2005, when the assassination of former billionaire prime minister Rafiq Hariri sparked a new crisis in the small Middle Eastern nation:

- February 14, 2005: Hariri is killed in a massive bomb blast in Beirut. Pro-Western leaders blame neighbouring Syria, which had troops in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.