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) - 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.

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.

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.

PARIS, August 4, 2008 (AFP) - World leaders on Monday hailed the life and work of dissident author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy paying a glowing tribute to Russia's 'conscience.'

Sarkozy said Solzhenitsyn, an ambivalent icon of the Cold War who died late Sunday aged 89, was 'one of the greatest consciences of 20th century Russia.

PARIS, July 31, 2008 (AFP) - Governments and media groups on Thursday stepped up criticism of China and the International Olympic Committee over Internet censorship for foreign reporters during the Beijing Games.

GENEVA, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - The United States is 'very concerned' about the direction taken by certain countries at negotiations here on a global trade deal, warning that it could 'jeopardise' the outcome of the talks.

GENEVA, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - The United States is 'very concerned' about the direction taken by certain countries at negotiations here on a global trade deal, US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Monday.

BRUSSELS, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - The NATO military alliance and leaders in the West and the Middle East Monday condemned the two bombings in Istanbul that killed 17 people as a heinous terrorist attack and pledged support for Turkey.

'I condemn in the strongest terms the bombings that occurred in Istanbul,' NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said.