When you've been strong and fit your whole life, it can be easy to discount your body's first whispers of sickness as merely the side effects of daily living. Looking back over the past three years, my older brother Patrick now understands the meaning of his increasingly frequent bouts of fatigue, his fluctuating appetite and the fact that his blood pressure had crept up to 150/90. But Pat had always put off going to the doctor until he had to. ...

A number of economists predict that the recession could last into 2010 and unemployment will top 10%. If the crisis does not deepen into an even longer downturn, there will have to be early signs that the credit crisis is ending and that consumer and business confidence are coming back. And, there are a few things to watch for. They are the most likely signs that the economy has bottomed and is about to move up. The first thing ...

CNN's Larry King talked with Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal in a prime-time exclusive interview Monday night. Jindal gave the Republican response after President Obama's address to Congress last week. Jindal received negative reviews after the speech, and Larry asked him how he felt about that. They also talked about the war of words in the Republican Party centered around Rush Limbaugh. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity: Larry King: Governor, you took a lot of ...

The United States has offered more than $900 million to help the Palestinian people, particularly those in Gaza, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Monday. "Only by acting now can we turn this crisis into an opportunity that moves us closer to our shared goals," Clinton said at a Gaza donors conference hosted by Egypt in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh. "By providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza, we also aim to foster conditions in which a Palestinian ...

HSBC on Monday announced a 62 percent slide in annual pre-tax profits to $9.3 billion, delivering a further blow for the beleaguered UK banking industry. The bank also confirmed it would seek to raise $17.7 billion through a shares issue to bolster its capital strength -- a record sum for a British company. Highlighting $15.5 billion losses in its U.S. businesses, HSBC also said it would scale back its operations in the U.S., shutting down its Beneficial and HFC brands ...

HSBC on Monday announced a 62 percent slide in annual pre-tax profits to $9.3 billion, delivering a further blow for the beleaguered UK banking industry. The bank also confirmed it would seek to raise $17.7 billion through a shares issue to bolster its capital strength -- a record sum for a British company. Highlighting $15.5 billion losses in its U.S. businesses, HSBC also said it would scale back its operations in the U.S., shutting down its Beneficial and HFC brands ...

European Union leaders were meeting Sunday for an emergency summit in Brussels amid growing fears that national protectionism will sabotage coordinated efforts to reverse the current economic decline. The summit, called by Czech Prime Minister and President of the European Council Mirek Topolánek and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, will address the ways in which the individual member states implement their recovery plan and fight the impact of the financial crisis. The meeting follows French president Nicolas ...

India has called for a "pause" in the fighting between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil rebels to allow the evacuation of thousands of civilians trapped in the nation's northern war zone. In a statement issued Saturday, India's external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee, warned that the humanitarian crisis was "building up with every passing day" in Sri Lanka. Mukherjee referred to the recent rebel offer of a cease-fire as an "opportunity" for the Sri Lankan government to stave off the crisis. ...

There's an odd game going on in Europe. As European governments dip into their coffers and borrow madly in an attempt to repair their economies, the European Union is cheering and jeering at the same time. The cheers are for the economic-stimulus packages; the jeers come because all that spending is blowing budgets by margins that E.U. rules expressly forbid. The simultaneous applause and admonition reflect the paradoxical role of the European Commission. Often described as the engine of ...

The Royal Caribbean cruise line is rolling out the world's largest cruise ship next fall, the Oasis of the Seas. Rock walls are passe; this 5,400-passenger colossus has its own zip line across the back of the boat. But if you fear that a voyage on the state-of-the-art Oasis will sink your wallet, think again: you can book a seven-night Caribbean trip in that brass ring of cruise deals, a cabin with a balcony, for less than $1,000 per person. ...