Polian rules out Manning's return
The Colts will have to win their last two games the same way they tried to win their first 14 -- without Peyton Manning.
Minutes after the previously winless Colts got their first win, 27-13 over Tennessee, team vice chairman Bill Polian said the four-time league MVP will not play this season though he has begun throwing to teammates at the team complex.
The comments came in a rare, five-paragraph postgame statement Polian made from the podium. He did not take questions.
"It was determined by the doctors that there was no chance he (Manning) would play this year," Polian said, referring to a Thursday meeting. "His rehabilitation has not come far enough to make it prudent for him to step on the field in game action. He may practice in some very scripted and circumscribed circumstances if he wishes. That's entirely up to him."
Apparently, Manning is already doing that.
Polian confirmed that the four-time league MVP threw in pads and a helmet after Wednesday's full practice ended. The session included running back Joseph Addai, center Jeff Saturday, receiver Anthony Gonzalez and a receiver from the practice squad.
There were rumors all week that Manning had started throwing with teammates, but players and coaches repeatedly said there was nothing new in Manning's workout regimen. On Sunday's pregame show, Fox Sports reported that Manning had thrown to receivers and running backs this week and that Manning still hoped to play this season.
He has practiced sparingly since having neck surgery in May. The Colts thought Manning would be ready to play when training camp opened and again when the regular-season started, but the recovery took far longer than expected. He was activated before the regular-season opener, but with the compressed nerve still causing weakness in Manning's throwing arm, he opted for a more invasive fusion. That surgery took place Sept. 8.
On Dec. 1, doctors announced the fusion had healed firmly and that Manning could increase the intensity and length of his workouts.
He is.
"Wednesday, after we finished our full team practice, Peyton went through a prescribed rehabilitation session, which consisted of about 30 throws and seven or eight handoffs," Polian said. "His throws were scripted at his request, meaning that he made specific throws with respect to the kinds of plays he would run in a ballgame. The reason for that is because the strength and conditioning folks and the therapy folks felt that was the best way to ramp up the muscle use."
Polian denied breaking any league rules by not disclosing Manning's workouts on the weekly practice reports, which require teams to provide information about each player's participation.
Because the workouts occurred after practice, Polian said the team did not violate the league rules and that the team taped that workout, which was attended by Polian and coach Jim Caldwell.
Team officials have kept Manning on the active roster in hopes that he could practice in December.
Polian said he does not expect Manning to throw again before Thursday's home finale against Houston.
AP
Lebron Heats this up & the Thunders shock Dallas
LeBron James scored 19 points and the Miami Heat got their preseason off to an easy start, running away to beat the Orlando Magic 118-85 on Sunday night.
Terrel Harris scored 16, while Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh each had 14 for Miami. The Heat led 53-46 at halftime before turning it into a rout.
Ryan Anderson and J.J. Redick each scored 22 for Orlando, which lost for the first time in 22 preseason games dating to October 2008. The subject of trade talk throughout training camp, Dwight Howard finished with only five points on 2-for-9 shooting.
Magic point guard Jameer Nelson missed all 10 of his shots and forward Hedo Turkoglu left late in the first half with a bruised left hip.
The teams play again in Orlando on Wednesday.
Kevin Durant scored 21 points and reserve James Harden added 16 to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 106-92 victory over the defending champion Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night in the preseason opener for both teams.
Durant, the NBA scoring leader last season at 27.7 points a game, went 13 for 14 from the free throw line.
Lamar Odom, acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers in a trade on Dec. 11, had 14 points and seven rebounds in his Mavericks debut.
Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, leaders of the Mavericks title run, were in uniform and are healthy but were rested.
Delonte West and Odom started in their place.
Former first-class umpire Harrison dies at 77
Nigel Harrison, the former Barbadian first-class umpire, has died after a brief illness. He was 77. Harrison stood in several matches in the 1980s in the Shell Shield and Red Stripe Cup championships, as well as regional one-day matches. He was also a former president and treasurer of the Barbados Cricket Umpires Association (BCUA).
Harrison played cricket for one of Barbados’ most celebrated clubs, Spartan, in the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) First and Intermediate division competitions, switching from a wicket-keeper/batsman to an off-spinning all-rounder after he also represented Harrison College. He was good enough to be invited to national trials.
Quiet and unassuming, Harrison was also a former managing director of Corbin Compton, a leading Barbados advertising company. Former international umpire and long-time close friend Lloyd Barker, described Harrison as a “good umpire” who was “approachable and very knowledgeable”. “As umpires, we started our first-class careers the same year in 1981 and would travel to different locations. We were both on the Board of the BCUA during the time I was president and when I gave up that post for two years he took over before I returned,” Barker told the BCA website.
“Nigel was always my personal friend and we discussed intimate details of cricket. He was approachable and very knowledgeable on matters surrounding the game. He seemed to have solutions for what appeared to be big problems. “He was a good umpire. I don’t think he ever had a bad report.”
Harrison leaves to mourn his wife Marjorie and sons David and Adrian. David was a hockey player for Spartan while Adrian played cricket for Wanderers. The funeral will be held today. (CMC)
‘Wonder Boy’ Steve Bennett is dead
Racing was dealt a severe blow yesterday when 89-year-old racing legend, Dr Steve Bennett passed away at his home on Gordon Street, St Augustine. Dr Bennett was the son of Oliver “Penlyn” Bennett, another racing legend and May Bennett (both deceased). His wife Clarie Bennett passed on some years ago. Dr Bennett was the youngest jockey ever to win the T&T Derby when he won aboard Danny Boy in 1937, at ten years of age. He later retired at 15.
The T&T Racing Authority established a “Racing Hall of Fame” in March 1998, which recognised the achievements of outstanding horses, owners, trainers, jockeys, grooms, institutions and other contributors and Dr Bennett was duly inducted in 1998. Apart from his professional responsibilities as a vet, Dr Bennett was an advocate of the buffalypso industry. He was born in Hardbargain, Princes Town in 1922. As a young boy, his interest in animals focussed mainly on horses, a passion he inherited from his father, who was a successful jockey. At the age of ten, he became a professional jockey, riding and winning until he was a teenager. He was also keen on other sports and at school he took part in athletics, boxing, cricket and football.
His love for animals influenced his choice of study. After attending Presentation College, San Fernando, he studied animal husbandry and the breeding and caring for farm animals in Canada and later in the US. Bennett worked as a veterinarian for a number of organisations in Trinidad. It was at his job at the agricultural company, Caroni Limited that he did his pioneering work on the buffalypso.
He was of the view that the buffalo produced high quality meat and milk and could become a major product in T&T. At his private veterinary practice, one of the largest in the Caribbean, he provided medical care for his beloved thoroughbred racehorses, dairy cattle, water buffaloes, mules and small animals. He has earned praise and awards for his work from countries across the globe—Jamaica, Brazil, Bulgaria and Egypt. At home, he received a national award, the Chaconia Medal Silver, for his contribution to agriculture and veterinary medicine.
Bennett will be remembered for his famous words of “One does best in what one likes doing best...” Bennett leaves to mourn Robyn Rostant, Patricia Rostant-Kerren, Sie Costello, Charlene Costelloe and Douglas Bennett. He was the brother of Joy Lucie Smith (deceased), Pat (deceased), Barbara Ross, and Joan Mahon. He was the grandfather of 16 and great grandfather of seven. Funeral arrangement to be announced.
British govt backs plan to restructure banks
The British government will restructure the country's banks by separating their retail activities from riskier investment banking operations, Business Secretary Vince Cable said Sunday. Cable said the government will comply with the recommendations of an independent commission set up after the 2008 banking crisis and "proceed with the separation of the banks." "It's absolutely right that we make the British economy safe," Cable told the BBC. "We just cannot risk having a repetition of that financial catastrophe that we had three years ago."
Treasury chief George Osborne is due to lay out the government's plans in Parliament on Monday. Cable told the BBC that the necessary legislation would be passed before the government's term ends in 2015. The British government bought up large chunks of the country's banking system after it ran into major financial difficulties during the 2008 credit crunch. The British taxpayer now fully owns mortgage lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, along with 83 per cent of Royal Bank of Scotland and 41 per cent of Lloyd's Banking Group.
AP
Bahamas to get US$50m to improve air transportation
The Bahamas is to receive a US$50 million loan to improve its air transportation system in a programme expected to increase flights within the island chain and modernise its airports. The Inter-American Development Bank says its loan also will be used to create an independent body to investigate aviation incidents and accidents. Nearly US$48 million will be used for aviation reforms, while the remainder will be used for technical support and analysis of transportation issues between the smaller islands. Five domestic airlines and 17 international ones currently serve the Bahamas. The loan was announced this week.
IDB team leader Esteban Diez Roux said: “The Bahamian economy is based on two pillars: tourism and international financial services, both of which are aviation intensive. “The programme will promote the development of safe and efficient air transport in the country following international standards. The air transport is crucial to ensure mobility and transport of goods, services and people in the country, as well as to integrate The Bahamas within the Caribbean region and also internationally.” The IDB said that a fundamental condition for approving special financing of this nature was confirmation of macro-economic stability and sound management by the Government. The Ministry of Tourism and Aviation will be in charge of the project. The IDB loan is for a 20-year term, with a five-year grace period, at a variable interest rate based on LIBOR.
Air transport in The Bahamas is provided by 17 international airlines and five domestic ones. There are a total of 53 licensed airports in the country. A modern air transport sector needs to provide the greatest connectivity to global markets and invest in its facilities. A comprehensive reform of the existing institutional and regulatory structure will require the implementation of a new legal framework and arrangements for financing and infrastructure management. Transport reform will introduce a modern civil aviation regulatory regime, create an independent entity to investigate aviation incidents and accidents, and modernise the existing air traffic control infrastructure.
Measures will be taken to promote competition and to introduce a booking system to expand local air carrier services, fostering a commercial and entrepreneurial attitude towards ensuring economic and financial sustainability of the sector. This loan consists of two components: (1) US$47.5 million in budget support on the basis of agreed advances in the reform of the sector, as well as (2) US$2.5 million in technical support which will help implement the reform, assess the Family Islands transport, carry out the airport optimisation, and monitor and evaluate programme results.
China's house prices fall amid curbs
House prices in most Chinese cities have fallen as government policies aimed at cooling the property market start to take effect.
New home prices in 49 out of 70 Chinese cities dropped in November from the previous month, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday.
In October 33 cities saw price falls.
Analysts say it is also further evidence that the Chinese economy is slowing and could encourage Beijing to focus policy more on growth.
Major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou saw prices fall marginally lower compared with October, the statement said
Chinese data does not give exact percentages, but according to calculations by Reuters average new home prices rose 2.2% in November, compared to a year earlier. That was the weakest rise in 2011 to date.
China's high property prices are a result of a stimulus package in late 2008 which was introduced to counter the effects of the global economic crisis.
It led to high housing inflation in 2009 and 2010.
Last year authorities starting implementing a slew of measures aimed at calming property markets, including higher deposits, limits on the number of houses people can own and in some cities, a property tax.
Last week China's leaders vowed to continue to curb house prices.
"China will stick to property tightening policies, push home prices back to reasonable levels and speed up construction of ordinary commercial homes to increase effective supply," said a statement made after the Annual Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing, which set out China's economic aims for 2012.
Vickers report on banks to be accepted in full - Cable
The government will accept the Vickers report into banking "in full", Business Secretary Vince Cable has told the BBC.
The report, launched in the wake of the financial crisis, recommended separating banks' retail business from their investment business.
Mr Cable said the government would proceed with separating the banks.
But the recommendation about the amount of capital banks should hold has been diluted, the BBC has learned. The chancellor will address MPs on Monday.
George Osborne will give a statement to Parliament after the government publishes its response to the report.
The BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston has learned that reform may not be the 100% as originally billed.
In one key area the banking industry has succeeded in getting the Treasury to water down one of Vickers' recommendations, he said.
This is the proposal that the biggest UK banks should have enough capital plus loans that could be converted into cash to cope with losses equal to one fifth of the size of their total balance sheet.
As Robert Peston understands it, HSBC has successfully argued that it would be disproportionately expensive for it to do this. In HSBC's case they are much bigger outside the UK than inside.
If they had to raise up to 20% of their global balance sheet they would have to raise huge amounts of expensive new capital or loans. The Treasury is to soften the blow. It will do this by requiring the big banks to raise capital and loans equivalent to 20% of that part of their balance sheet, which British tax payers would have to support in a crisis.
However, our correspondent said Sir John Vickers and his commissioners had been successful in achieving most of their aims, and the UK's financial system will be overhauled.
"Our banks will in the coming five years be forced to undergo significant financial, cultural and managerial reconstruction."
In the UK, the financial crisis started with Northern Rock being bailed out by the taxpayer, but went on to include both Lloyds and RBS receiving substantial sums of public money.
Chaired by Sir John Vickers, the Independent Commission on Banking was set up by the coalition Government last year to review the financial sector after the crisis.
It published its report in September and looked into ways of avoiding such bank failures in the future.
The report said it would "make it easier and less costly to resolve banks that get into trouble".
It recommended that a bank's retail business should be ring-fenced from its investment business, with this and other recommendations being implemented by 2019.
Mr Cable seems to be sticking to this timetable, promising that "primary legislation will be done in this parliament".
He told the The Andrew Marr Show: "Our big banks were at the very centre of the financial crisis, what the Europeans call Anglo-Saxon financial capitalism. It needs reform."
Separate entities
The report recommends that ring-fenced banks should be the only operations granted permission by the UK regulator to provide "mandated services", which include taking deposits from and making loans to individuals and small businesses.
It says that the different arms of banks should be separate legal entities with independent boards.
Another of its recommendations is that banks must have a buffer to absorb the impact of potential losses or future financial crises - of at least 10% of domestic retail assets in top-quality form, such as shares or retained earnings.
That is a stiffer target than the 7% recommended by the international Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
It also says the biggest banks should go further than this and have a safety cushion of between 17% and 20% of assets, made up of highest-quality assets topped up with bonds that can be easily converted to equity.
The commission also recommends that steps should be taken to make it simpler to switch bank accounts.
The Vickers report wants a free current account redirection service to be formed by September 2013, with an improved system to catch all credits and debits going to a customer's old, closed account, including automated payments on debit cards and direct debits.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Il Dead at 69
North Korean state television reports that Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il has died at the age of 69.
An announcer said he died Saturday of physical and mental over-work. Some reports say he died from a heart attack, and was traveling on a train at the time.
Kim Jong Il came to power after his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. Reliable biographical information about Mr. Kim is scarce. He rarely appeared in public and his voice was seldom broadcast.
He may be best remembered for boosting North Korea's nuclear program, while millions of his countrymen and women were starving.
Late last year, Mr. Kim promoted his youngest son Kim Jong Un to the rank of four-star general, in what was seen as a bid to extend the world's only communist family dynasty to a third generation.
Analysts say it remains to be seen whether there will be a power struggle for leadership among the top generals or whether there will be another smooth generational transfer of power.
Death Toll from Philippines Storm Exceeds 650
The death toll from tropical storm Washi in the Philippines reached 652 people Sunday, as rescuers continued to search for more than 900 others still missing.
Washi struck the southern island of Mindanao Friday night, blanketing the area with heavy rain and high winds. Flash floods and landslides washed away entire houses with families inside in dozens of coastal villages in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.
The Philippine Red Cross said most of the victims were women and children. Tens of thousands of people are homeless.
Local authorities suggested a mass burial for the victims because of health concerns. Apart from decomposing bodies, dead livestock lie scattered in the mud.
Much of the rescue effort has been focused on land, but authorities said rescuers in small boats have been able to pluck several survivors out of the waters along the coast.
Thousands of soldiers and police have joined in the rescue efforts, hampered by blocked roads and a lack of electricity.
Although the Philippines is hit by about 20 typhoons each year, the Mindanao region rarely gets severe storms.
Leaders around the world, including the United States, offered help Sunday. Pope Benedict said he would pray “for the victims, in large part children, the homeless and the many missing.”