France in firing line

France found itself at the center of the European debt crisis Tuesday, a day after Moody’s Investors Service fired a warning shot over the durability of the nation’s Aaa credit rating due to worries about the cost of bailing out fellow euro-zone members or French banks.

France, the euro zone’s second-largest economy after Germany and the fifth-largest in the world, is also the second-largest contributor to the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone’s 440 billion euro ($602 billion) bailout fund.