She had been due for a refit, and they for R&R, when a crisis in a habitually troubled sector of space required her presence as backup for ships already in the area.

The problems of a troubled $17 billion sector of the Eurobond market deepened today as prices dropped by record amounts on perpetual floating-rate notes.

Thailand has set up a 100-billion-baht fund ($2.4 billion) to invest in troubled sectors of the economy.

David Healy, an analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert, said the dispute here could affect tens of thousands of workers in other troubled sectors of the economy.

Foreign investors are watching Gitic's bankruptcy proceedings as a test case of how China will deal with its financially troubled corporate sector.

Mr. Kajiyama made similar promises and said he would try to streamline the bureaucracy and push for a thorough overhaul of the troubled financial sector, a pet subject.

STEVE: When SpinRite hits a troubled sector, as I mentioned in last week's podcast, it will sit there and do everything it possibly can to recover the sector.

Christopher Mahoney, chairman of the credit policy committee at Moody's Investors Service, defends his agency's actions, saying that most ratings downgrades have been limited to two troubled sectors - telecommunications and merchant energy.

In April, the computer industry - hardly anyone's candidate as a troubled sector - announced the most job cuts that month, more than 10,000.

Though the troubled sector rebounded a bit yesterday, it has a ways to go to recoup Monday's losses.