Jeremy Lin brings Rockets to ancestral homeland

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Houston Rockets guard Jeremy Lin arrived in Taiwan on Friday to play in his parents' homeland.

The Rockets will face the Indiana Pacers in an NBA preseason game Sunday in Taipei — a special occasion for the league's first American-born player of Taiwanese descent.

"I kind of see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Lin told a packed news conference. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to come back and play a NBA preseason game here where my parents were born and raised.

"Definitely, I am looking forward to it. It's a celebration in some sense."

The Rockets and Pacers traveled to Taipei from Manila, where Houston beat Indiana 116-96 on Thursday in the first NBA preseason game in the Philippines.

Taiwan is still in the throes of "Linsanity," with Lin T-shirts and related paraphernalia popular on this self-governing island of 23 million people, 100-miles off the China coast.

Rockets coach Kevin McHale said Lin learned last season about the grind of a full NBA season and praised him for the hard work he put in over the summer to improve his game.

"He worked really, really hard," McHale said. "I think he's going to get better and better."

Home to a professional basketball league of its own, Taiwan fits into the NBA's plans to expand its brand internationally. Retired star Yao Ming of China gave the league a massive lift in the world's largest single market.

The game on Sunday is the second NBA exhibition in Taipei in four years. The Pacers played the Denver Nuggets in October 2009.

"We spent a lot time together off the court," new Rockets center Dwight Howard said. "This trip has really helped us bond. I am very, very excited about our future as a team. I believe that everybody has a confidence that we can win a championship. That's the main thing."

Pacers center Roy Hibbert said this Indiana team is different from the one that played here four years ago.

"We went from a team that was trying to get to the playoffs to being a contender," he said. "We have just gotten stronger. We went from a 3-point shooting team to a team that plays physical. Our whole identity changed.

"So you are definitely going to see a different Pacers than you saw four or five years ago."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jeremy-lin-brings-rockets-ancestral-homeland-150014578--spt.html
Category: 9/11 Pictures   Asap Rocky   bachelorette  

Manzo leaving 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey'

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the original members of "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" has announced she's leaving the show after five seasons.

Caroline Manzo made the announcement Sunday on Twitter and on her blog on Bravo's website after "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" aired the final part of the show's reunion.

She says the reality show — known for its brawls, screaming and family fights — has become something she hopes her future grandchildren will never see.

Manzo wrote that she's filming a pilot spinoff called "Manzo'd With Children" that would give "a very different look" at her family.

An email to Bravo seeking comment wasn't immediately returned Monday.

___

Online:

http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-new-jersey

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/manzo-leaving-real-housewives-jersey-171518005.html
Tags: Baby Hope   iTunes Radio   911   nfl scores   bruno mars  

UK banking reforms leave London exposed - banking commission

By William James

LONDON (Reuters) - Reform of Britain's scandal-hit banking industry is too piecemeal, undermining its ability to boost the economy and leaving it exposed to further crisis, the lawmaker who drafted initial plans for an overhaul told Reuters.

Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of a government-appointed banking commission, said he was concerned that the government was ignoring important elements of his blueprint for reform and sometimes mistakenly favouring non-binding guidelines over statutory legislation.

"The commission is not yet happy," Tyrie said in an interview, referring to his own parliamentary panel. "We're watching and we're not going to go away," he said, sipping black tea in his office overlooking the River Thames.

The government asked his commission to identify the failings that took Britain's banks to the brink of collapse in 2008 and triggered damaging mis-selling and rate-fixing scandals, and to suggest changes to ensure such mistakes were never repeated.

Many of the changes that Tyrie's commission recommended in June were included in the government's Banking Reform Bill, legislation designed to stabilise and protect the financial sector. It is expected to become law early next year.

But Tyrie said the government was being too selective.

"We don't know which tools might become crucial, but what we do know, and what the Banking Commission concluded, is that reforms and improvements are needed on many fronts, and those fronts are interlocking," he said. "Taken together they will give us a much better chance of protecting ourselves."

Tyrie highlighted the government's plan to regulate banks' leverage ratios - the total amount of lending versus capital - which his commission has described as "the single most important tool to deliver a safer and more secure banking system."

The government has said it will grant oversight over leverage to the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee (FPC) in 2018, but has given itself the right to change its mind in 2017.

"In other words, they are not committing to handing powers over to the FPC in five years' time. They're committed to (only) taking a look at whether they will," said Tyrie.

REPUTATION

Tyrie also worries that powers to claw back bankers' bonuses aren't being written into law and that regulators won't get new powers to intervene at banks where leadership may be failing.

In the past, Tyrie has complained that significant changes to the banking reform bill were being rushed through so it could become law in 2014, saying it was crucial to ensure such revisions were in line with his commission's proposals.

Britain's ability to bounce back from three years of economic stagnation also hinges on the reforms because without greater confidence in the strength of the banking system businesses will not borrow, invest and grow, Tyrie said.

"The recovery is not going to be secured by some grand gestures on a few massive projects," he said, outlining the limits of government intervention in the economy.

"It's going to be secured by the business decisions of hundreds of thousands of people, small businessmen and sole traders, underpinned by an improvement in confidence."

He said the Royal Bank of Scotland, which the government bailed out in exchange for an 82 percent stake, should be doing much more to support small businesses.

Tyrie's commission has been pushing the government to consider hiving off the bank's toxic assets into a separate 'bad bank', freeing up the 'good bank' to lend more, but a promised government analysis on the subject has yet to be published.

He said that review, being prepared by investment bank Rothschild and due in the next two months, needed to be arrived at "wholly independently and not on the basis of restrictive guidance by RBS, regulators and particularly government."

(Editing by Andrew Osborn and Ruth Pitchford)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-banking-reforms-leave-london-exposed-banking-commission-060818153--business.html
Similar Articles: foxnews   elizabeth berkley   Kelly LeBrock   Julie Harris   Desiree And Chris  

Edward Norton to Host 'Saturday Night Live'

JohnnyNunez/WireImage/Getty Images

Edward Norton

Edward Norton is headed to Saturday Night Live.

The actor will host the NBC show for the first time Oct. 26 in an episode featuring musical guest Janelle Monae.

Although he has never hosted, Norton has made several cameo appearances over the years. He appeared in a 1999 VH1 parody and during Salma Hayek's 2003 opening monologue.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/live_feed/~3/DuwbjXJAQLY/story01.htm
Similar Articles: miami dolphins   Mayweather vs Canelo results   Conjuring  

Air Force fires general overseeing nuclear missiles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The two-star general overseeing America's arsenal of intercontinental missiles was fired on Friday for personal misbehavior, the Air Force said, saying the matter was not tied to the operational readiness of U.S. nuclear missiles.

The Air Force said the removal of Major General Michael Carey from his job as commander of the 20th Air Force was due to due to a loss of trust and confidence but did not elaborate.

The decision was "based on information from an Inspector General investigation into Carey's behavior during a temporary duty assignment," the Air Force said in a statement.

"20th AF continues to execute its mission of around-the-clock nuclear deterrence in a safe, secure and effective manner," Lieutenant General James Kowalski, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, said in a statement.

"It's unfortunate that I've had to relieve an officer who's had an otherwise distinctive career spanning 35 years of commendable service."

The Air Force said the matter also did not relate to sexual assault.

Headquartered at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, the 20th Air Force is responsible for the nation's three intercontinental ballistic missile wings.

The announcement came just two days after the deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees all of America's nuclear arsenal as well as its space operations, was relieved from his job during an investigation into issues related to gambling.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-major-general-overseeing-nuclear-missiles-fired-official-160212138.html
Similar Articles: broncos   eminem   Alfonso Soriano   Win McMurry   Chris Davis