Month: October 2016

Wasps head coach Dai Young calmed fears of a fresh club versus country row after two players suffered serious injuries at an England training camp.
Young was speaking after meeting England boss Eddie Jones, following concern over Wasps flanker Sam Jones’s broken leg and Bath wing Anthony Watson’s fractured jaw.
Both players will now miss England’s end-of-year internationals. Jones broke his leg while England were practising judo to improve their tackling.
But Young said there would be no repeat of the club versus country row that plagued the early years of professional rugby in England.
“Obviously Eddie’s always going to back his corner and we’re always going to back ours; we have slightly different agendas,” said Young.
“But when it comes to player welfare and looking after players we’ve got the same agenda.
“From our point of view it will be doing nobody any good for us to be falling out with the national set-up. And to be honest I don’t ever really see that happening, not in this day and age.”
Last week’s meeting between Jones and Premiership coaches was scheduled long before the fall-out from the Brighton training camp.
Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall has labelled the timing of the camp as “madness” as Jones came in for his first major criticism as England coach.
“They obviously had a couple of unfortunate incidents where people got injured but people do get injured, as in any training,” said Young.
“From our point of view it’s part and parcel of sport and these things happen.
“Leaving that meeting everyone was totally confident that we don’t see any problems in the relationship moving forward.”
The injured players are now set to miss England’s internationals against South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia at Twickenham, beginning in November.

Slovak star Marian Hossa scored his 500th career goal as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 7-4.
The 37-year-old became the 44th player in National Hockey League history to reach the milestone before leaving the game after being hit by the puck in the third period.
Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov both scored twice as Chicago rallied to clinch victory.
Hossa’s landmark 500th gave his side a 4-0 lead and prompted a standing ovation from the home crowd.
“To tell you the truth, it just felt great,” said Hossa, who had let out a roar of “Yeah baby!” after his score.
“Great reception from the fans. I’m just glad to be part of the company and thank all my teammates who I’ve played with,” local media quoted him as saying.
Hossa has played nearly two decades in the NHL since being drafted 12th overall by the Ottawa Senators in 1997. The right wing has been selected on five All Star Games and played in three consecutive Stanley Cup finals for three different teams before finally winning the title with Chicago in 2010.

All Blacks great Dan Carter insists he has never come across banned substances in rugby, after himself being cleared in a doping probe.
Carter, fellow former All Black Joe Rokococo and Argentinian winger Juan Imhoff, who all play for Racing 92, were the target of an investigation by the medical commission of the French Rugby Federation after testing positive for corticosteroids following last season’s Top 14 final.
But the trio, as well as Racing’s medical staff, were all cleared of any wrongdoing.
Speaking to franceinfo in an interview, Carter said he had never encountered doping in rugby.
“No, never, right throughout my career,” said the fly-half, capped 112 times by New Zealand and a two-time World Cup winner.
“I have huge confidence in the authorities that keep this game clean.
“I hold my integrity and the game’s integrity at the highest level and I have full trust that the authorities are making sure that this game is kept clean under the anti-doping regulations — and they’ve put a lot of procedures in place to make sure that it is.
“I have full confidence our game is played in a clean way and am confident it will continue to be that way for a long time.”
Carter explained that he had a corticosteroid injection after Racing’s Top 14 semi-final victory over Clermont, when he picked up a swollen knee.
“The following two days complete rest and then I was able to play following that,” he said, with him and Rokocoko going on to notch up 20 points between them in Racing’s final win over Toulon.
“I have full trust in the medical team and am extremely confident that we stayed within the anti-doping regulations which has been proven we did.”
When asked whether he thought others abused the use of corticosteroids, Carter said: “I can’t really speak for other people, other athletes, other rugby players.
“For me I had an injury. When you have an injury you want to cure the injury within the anti-doping regulations and that’s exactly what I did.”
Carter, who made his debut for the All Blacks in 2003 admitted, however, the temptation might be there given the seismic changes the ever-increasing rate of professionalism brings although he argued that was countered by the staggering advances in the better nurturing of players.
“The game has definitely changed, it’s a lot more demanding,” said the world record Test points scorer (1,598).
“The players are stronger, the game is faster.
“But there’s all the science and understanding behind the game is just so much more advanced than it was 10 years ago.
“There are things in terms of our recovery that I wasn’t doing at the start of my career, things like cryotherapy, stretching, massage twice a week, hot and cold baths.”
Carter also dismissed talk that players turned out in too many games in France compared to his native New Zealand.
“It’s very similar,” the playmaker said. “There’s a long demanding season here. It probably wasn’t helped it was a World Cup year and the season was extended a little bit further.
“But I’m very lucky to play for a quality side like Racing where we have a lot of depth. I was managed throughout my season, I was rested for certain games and there wasn’t too much emphasis that I was thrown out there every week.”
Carter added: “I’m glad the process has finished and I’m just looking forward to getting back to what I love and that’s playing rugby.
“I’m confident that people will read past the headlines and see that I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Europe will send a tiny lander on a scorching, supersonic tumble to Mars on Wednesday and place a gas-sniffing probe in orbit around the Red Planet in a daring quest with Russia for extraterrestrial life.
High-stakes manoeuvres should see a test lander dubbed Schiaparelli make a dangerous dash for the surface at 1442 GMT, while the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) enters a gravity loop around our planetary neighbour.
The pair have made a 496-million-kilometre (308 million-mile) trek from Earth since their launch in March.
They comprise phase one of the ExoMars mission through which Europe and Russia seek to join the United States in roaming the hostile Martian surface.
Commands for both spacecraft have already been uploaded, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday, and were “ready for execution” on Wednesday.
“All is well for the moment,” Schiaparelli manager Thierry Blancquart told AFP.
Apart from carrying Schiaparelli towards Mars, the TGO’s job will be to test the Red Planet’s atmosphere for gases possibly excreted by living organisms, however small or primitive.
Paddling pool-sized Schiaparelli, in turn, must test entry and landing technology for a subsequent Mars-drilling rover which will mark the second phase and high point of ExoMars.
The first manoeuvre on Wednesday, scheduled for 1304 GMT, will see the TGO execute its most critical command to date — starting a more than two hour-long engine burn to slow down and allow itself to be captured by Mars’ gravity.
Schiaparelli will execute its own daredevil mission shortly thereafter.
The 600-kilogramme (1,300-pound) craft’s hairy ride through Mars’ thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere should last six minutes, with touchdown scheduled for 1448 GMT on a spot near the equator.
A discardable “aeroshell” will protect Schiaparelli against a heat of several thousand degrees Celsius generated by atmospheric drag, while a supersonic parachute and nine thrusters will brake it.
A crushable structure in the lander’s belly is meant to cushion the final impact.
Battery-driven and without solar panels, Schiaparelli should last two or three days, sending messages which will take 10 minutes to reach Earth.
It is meant to convey data on how its body and instruments coped with the harsh entry and landing — crucial information to plan a safe trip for the bigger and more expensive rover to follow.
Since the 1960s, more than half of US, Russian and European attempts to operate craft on the Martian surface have failed.
ExoMars is Europe’s first attempt at a Mars rover since the British-built Beagle 2 disappeared without trace in 2003 after separating from its mothership.
The ExoMars rover is set for launch in 2020 after a two-year funding delay.
It will be equipped with a drill to search for evidence of underground life — present or past.
While life is unlikely to exist on the barren, radiation-blasted surface, scientists say traces of methane in Mars’ atmosphere may indicate something is stirring under the surface — possibly single-celled microbes.
The TGO, with its methane-sniffing equipment, will join the search for life in 2018, once it has reached a circular orbit at an altitude of 400 kilometres.

Dozens of migrants rioted at a detention centre in Madrid, police said Wednesday, climbing onto the roof of the building where they spent the night and unfurling a banner reading “freedom”.
By mid-morning on Wednesday they had voluntarily come down from the top of the centre, police said.
The “mutiny” kicked off late Tuesday at the centre in Madrid’s southern district of Aluche and continued through the night, a police spokesman told AFP.
Some 40 people unfurled the banner and shouted “freedom” from the roof in protest at their detention conditions, an AFP photographer said.
“Following negotiations, they accepted to come down, there was no need for force,” the police spokesman said.
Police said the protesters had broken furniture to make their way to the roof, while Spanish daily El Pais reported that some had obstructed security cameras inside the building.
A spokeswoman for city hall said no one had been injured in the riot.
Charities and academics have often denounced prison-like conditions in Spain’s seven immigration detention centres — some of which have overcrowded rooms, dirty toilets and few amenities or translation services.
The centres are meant for people who have come to Spain without a residence permit and are in the process of being deported.
Madrid councillor Javier Barbero, who is in charge of health and safety, described the centres as an “institutional failure”.
This is not the first time that immigration detention centres have suffered such incidents.
Earlier this month, 67 migrants without residence permits managed to flee a detention centre where they were being held near the southeastern city of Murcia.
One of the migrants first pretended to be ill, before the others fled as an ambulance arrived.

Political stalemate and the conflict rocking Libya are preventing the North African country from taking advantage of its vast oil resources and pushing the economy towards collapse, experts say.
When the 2011 uprising toppled the regime of dictator Moamer Kadhafi, Libyans dreamt of transforming their country into another Dubai.
Today, they have somewhat lower expectations.
“To live in security, have electricity, fuel and a salary, and send our children to school. We’re not asking for anything more than that,” said Mahmoud, a 35-year-old Tripoli resident.
Long queues form every morning at banks, which do not have enough cash to meet customers’ needs, and the people face unprecedented high prices.
The World Bank reports a “substantial loss in real purchasing power of the population”, with basic food prices leaping 31 percent in the first quarter of the year.
Meanwhile, in the absence of police or army, crime is rife in the capital. Car theft, kidnapping for ransom and vendettas between armed groups are common.
After 42 years in power, Kadhafi left behind a dilapidated infrastructure, an economy totally dependent on oil revenues and a poorly skilled workforce.
In the five years since he was killed, most foreign investors have fled.
“The Libyan economy is near collapse as political stalemate and civil conflict prevent it from fully exploiting its sole natural resource: oil,” the World Bank warned.
Libya may have Africa’s largest oil reserves, estimated at 48 billion barrels, but production and exports have slumped dramatically through years of crisis.
Libya pumped around 1.6 million barrels of crude a day before Kadhafi’s overthrow, but the ensuing chaos hit production which fell as low as 290,000 in recent months, according to the National Oil Company (NOC).
Coupled with low global oil prices, this has left the economy “mired in recession since 2013”, with record high deficits, the World Bank said.
Libya has lost more than $100 billion (91 billion euros) in oil revenues since 2013, according to NOC chairman Mustafa Sanalla.
Oil income has fallen to record lows, hitting just $2.25 billion (2.05 billion euros) in the first seven months of 2016, according to the World Bank.
That is far from the $50 billion (45 billion euros) per year oil revenues brought Libya under Kadhafi.
The sector, which used to bring in 95 percent of state revenues, has fallen victim to feuding between militias and rival governments that have torn the country apart.
Oil production fell to near zero during the 2011 uprising. In the following months it came close to pre-revolution levels, but in 2013 tumbled again as protests and violence erupted around key export terminals in eastern Libya’s so-called Oil Crescent.
In September, the four terminals were seized by forces loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who is allied to an authority in the east that opposes the internationally recognised unity government based in Tripoli.
After Haftar’s takeover, exports quickly resumed — a development welcomed by the NOC which has sought to remain neutral despite the two governments’ intense rivalry.
But repairing infrastructure damaged by fighting will take time, and the World Bank does not expect production to return to capacity until 2020.
Even as exports resume, the crisis is likely to continue as revenues struggle to match vast public spending, Karima Munir, an independent Libyan expert, told AFP.
“The country is a massive welfare state and alternative sources of income need to be found,” she said.
“The reliance on oil has had a severe impact on the economy and put pressure on (capital) reserves.”
To bridge the revenue gap, the authorities have drawn on dwindling currency reserves which the World Bank says have fallen from $107.6 billion (97.7 billion euros) in 2013 to $43 billion (39.0 billion euros) in 2016.
Currency exchange restrictions and speculation are pushing the economy into a vicious cycle and boosting a flourishing black market.
Most Libyans no longer trust the banks and almost all transactions happen on the black market.
Supermarket shelves are empty as traders cut imports for fear of losses in a wildly fluctuating market.
One of the few business leaders still in Tripoli warned that things could deteriorate further.
“The situation could get even worse if a quick solution isn’t found to the problem of liquidity,” he said.

Judges will Wednesday deliver their verdict against former Congolese vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba and four close aides accused of bribing witnesses in a bid to derail his landmark war crimes trial.
Prosecutors have alleged that from his prison cell the ex-rebel leader Bemba masterminded a network to bribe and manipulate at least 14 defence witnesses to lie during his trial at the International Criminal Court.
Bemba was sentenced in June to 18 years in jail on five charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his militia in Central African Republic.
Once the powerful leader of the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) and a wealthy businessman from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bemba, 53, remains behind bars in The Netherlands and is appealing the sentence.
But in a separate case after a tip-off to the prosecutor’s office, he was charged along with two of his lawyers, an MP from his party, and a defence witness of presenting fake documents to the trial and dealing out backhanders to secure false testimony.
It was the first such corruption trial in the ICC’s history, and prosecutors said the allegations showed “how far the accused were prepared to go to hide their illegal behaviour”.
Also in the dock are Bemba’s lawyer Aime Kilolo, his legal case manager Jean-Jacques Mangenda, along with Congolese lawmaker Fidele Babala and Narcisse Arido, a defence witness.
All five have pleaded not guilty to more than 100 combined charges.
“Bemba had a lot to lose in his trial: his stature, his standing, his political power, the possibility of a successful presidential election, his freedom,” prosecution lawyer Kweku Vanderpuye said in his closing arguments in May.
Prosecutors had laid out the evidence that Bemba and his cohorts sought to pervert the course of justice, he said, pointing to telephone recordings, records of money transfers, emails and texts which “captured” the men’s words as their plan went into action.
“Mr Bemba was at its core. Mr Bemba directed it. He okayed, he approved, he authorised and he instructed the acts of the other participants,” said Vanderpuye.
Kilolo allegedly “coached” witnesses about what to say on the stand in return for money. Mangenda is believed to have been aware, as Bemba’s legal case manager, that Kilolo was allegedly bribing witnesses, and is accused of relaying messages between Bemba and Kilolo.
Babala, deputy secretary of Bemba’s MLC party, allegedly handled money transfers including payments to Kilolo, Mangenda and Arido.
Arido, who was an expert defence witness on military operations in the Central African Republic, is accused of recruiting witnesses for the defence and helping to coach them.
The defence, however, argued that the telephone recordings had been misinterpreted and insisted there was nothing wrong in paying witnesses as the prosecution did.
Bemba’s lawyer Melinda Taylor added that since he had been in detention he was “not in a position of power and had no effective access to information about what was going on the ground”.
If the five are found guilty, a sentence will be handed out at a later date.

With turquoise columns propping up a pink and yellow portico, Myanmar’s art deco style Thwin cinema is a rare relic from a golden age of movie-making that dazzled audiences more than half a century ago.
Myanmar’s film industry, once the most vibrant and prolific in the region, shrivelled under a military regime that smothered the arts and ravaged the economy during its ruthless 50-year reign.
Now as the fledgling democracy emerges from the doldrums of junta rule, the stage is set for a film industry renaissance.
But the first step is repopulating the poor country with cinemas.
In its heyday Myanmar had nearly 400 theatres spread across its hilly terrain. Today only some 50 remain, mostly in urban Yangon.
“That is not enough for 53 million people,” said Tin Maung Win, a garrulous businessman trying to bring movies back to the masses with a plan to build 100 new cinemas in two years.
The Thwin is the only theatre still selling tickets on what used to be known as Yangon’s “cinema row” — a major city artery that once boasted six movie houses.
The others have been knocked down to make room for more lucrative development, while one stately cinema dating back to the 1920s has been boarded up for years.
The dearth is even more pronounced in the rural and impoverished provinces, where theatres have all but vanished after they were sold off by the former military regime.
Tin Maung Win and his business partners were inspired to take up the “100 cinema project” after hearing about a 2012 film shot near the border with Thailand, where local actors were unable to see their work because there was no screen for miles.
“We got this idea that we needed to create cinemas all over Myanmar,” he told AFP, sitting next to a model of the low-cost, one-screen theatres with 300 seats, where tickets will go for around a dollar each.
While they will not rival the grand movie houses built during the industry’s peak, the hope is that a rapid increase in theatres will inject cash into an industry where the majority of movies now go straight to DVD.
Myanmar’s motion picture industry reached its acme in the 1950s — a time when optimism was flowing after independence from Britain and before the army seized power and clung on for five decades.
Stylish stand-alone cinemas like the Thwin cropped up in towns across the country, with crowds filling their teak wood chairs to watch romances, thrillers and foreign flics.
In the country’s inaugural Academy Awards ceremony in 1952, the first best picture award went to ‘Chit Thet Wai’, a tale of love between a city boy and a country girl who must contend with a jealous sister.
But after its 1962 power grab, the junta increasingly leaned on the industry to crank out socialist propaganda.
Scripts were vetted by censors, who issued stringent and often bizarre bans on everything from ghost stories to blue jeans in a bid to ward off foreign influence.
“The quality kept decreasing,” said Mighty, a director who has been in the business since the 1980s and feels his generation was robbed of the chance to reach their creative potential.
“They intentionally made it so we did not become educated people,” the 51-year-old, who only goes by one name, said of the country?s military oppressors.
“Now there is no one who knows about the art of film perfectly,” he added.
Censorship has eased since the end of junta rule in 2011 and horror flicks are now a box office favourite.
But many say that despite growing freedoms and improved technologies, mainstream production houses have yet to veer off script and grapple with political issues or other sensitive topics.
A class of Burmese students at the Yangon Film School responded with an emphatic “no!” when asked by AFP if they liked contemporary Myanmar movies during a break from analysing scenes of ‘Taxi Driver’, the 1976 American classic starring Robert De Niro.
“They (Myanmar films) are somehow good in technical skills, like colour grading, and sound design,” said student Myat Minn Khant.
“What annoys me are the stories and casting. The keep making the same cheesy stories”.
Myanmar’s leading man Lu Min, who looks to Tom Hanks an idol, concedes that many directors still rely on tired story tropes and cost-cutting shortcuts.
But he says the desire is there to raise the bar.
“Some people are trying hard to improve our industry,” he told AFP during a break from filming his latest action thriller.
He and hundreds of other actors, producers and directors recently gathered to discuss industry reforms at a three-day forum called “Time to Change”.
Many are pushing to see the government’s censorship board revamped as a ratings committee that only warns viewers of racy or violent content.
Lu Min is also hoping that rebuilding the country’s network of cinemas will be the launchpad.
“Our film industry depends on the quantity of theatres,” he added.

A powerful combination of love and guns is helping rebuild an endangered gorilla community in the jungles of war-torn eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
Threatened with extinction, some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas live on either side of the border between Rwanda and DR Congo, as well as in Uganda.
On the Rwandan side, they live in relative security. But over the border in the Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest nature reserve, they face the same threats as their human neighbours: armed violence which has ravaged the province of North Kivu for over two decades.
Armed groups prosper in the park thanks to trade in charcoal, burning swathes of equatorial forest every year in the heart of the mountain gorillas’ natural habitat.
The immense simian primates are also victims of networks of poachers who hunt baby gorillas to sell as pets in Asia, regularly killing the adults who protect them.
Since the defeat of Rwanda-backed M23 Tutsi rebels in late 2013, the region is more peaceful, allowing for a revival of tourism in the park that has seen growing numbers of visitors.
“Every morning we head into the forest with fear in our stomachs, but with courage and passion to protect the gorillas,” says Innocent Mburanumwe, the main gamekeeper in the park’s southern sector who is heading up a patrol armed with Kalashnikovs and a heavy machine gun.
The game wardens have paid a heavy price to protect Virunga park since the start of the conflict in 1996: around 130 of them have died, he says.
Coupled with other official efforts, the sacrifice of these men has helped more than quadruple the number of mountain gorillas: in 10 years their numbers have grown from 200 to 880, according to the last census in July, he says.
In the middle of the jungle, a network of camouflaged cameras allows them to identify illegal poachers — whose photos are posted outside churches in villages on the edge of the park and elsewhere.
Park managers work with traditional chiefs and local religious leaders to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Its gamekeepers also look after the welfare of the gorillas, providing veterinary care when necessary.
In Rumangabo, some 50 km (30 miles) north of Goma, capital of the North Kivu region, four orphan gorillas are looked after in an enclosed 1.5-hectare sanctuary.
Two of them survived a gorilla massacre in 2007 and the other two were brought in by locals after the death of their mothers, says Mburanumwe.
Maisha, Matabishi, Ndakasi and Ndeze answer to their names, and have built up emotional ties with their carers, who feed them three times a day.
Humans and gorillas play together and share frequent cuddles.
The guards communicate with the animals in loud cries, and look after them “as if they were our own children,” says one of them, Andre Muhindo Bauma, with a broad smile.
Back in 2012, when a young gorilla called Kaboko died, the whole team was in mourning.
Fully medically equipped, the sanctuary’s clinic also helps care for lowland gorillas who are looked after through another conservation programme in North Kivu.
Lowland gorillas, a subspecies of the eastern gorilla (gorilla beringei), were recently added to the “critically endangered” list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — as mountain gorillas, the other subspecies, had been for 20 years.
In all, there are fewer than 5,000 eastern gorillas, mostly in South Kivu, and a rapid fall in their numbers — 70 percent in 20 years — is worrying the IUCN.
The biggest threats to the lowland gorillas are two-fold, UNESCO’s DR Congo representative Abdourahamane Diallo told AFP: mining activity often controlled by armed groups and poachers.
Rapid population growth in the region also exerts “a constant pressure” on the gorillas’ natural habitat, says Bruno Perodeau, head of conservation in DR Congo for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
The IUCN sounded the alarm over mountain gorillas in 1996, leading to efforts which appear to have borne fruit.
For Diallo, this year’s IUCN alert for the lowland variety could be an opportunity if it too helps raise awareness of the gorillas’ plight among locals, the government in Kinshasa and foreign partners.

While the All Blacks are reaching new heights, recent off-field scandals have left New Zealand Rugby struggling to maintain the sport’s image, particularly with women.
The NZR admits the game needs to change its macho culture after a series of player incidents involving strippers, street violence and casual sex.
Pundits have dubbed it “the season from hell”, distracting attention from the All Blacks’ bid this weekend to set a new record of 18 consecutive Test victories.
It is an uncomfortable position for rugby administrators, who are used to New Zealanders backing the sport with an almost religious fervour.
New Zealand Herald rugby writer Gregor Paul said the backlash had been exacerbated by NZR’s poor handling of various crises.
“They have been accused of being lenient and guilty of condoning abusive behaviour by doing so little to punish it,” he wrote this week.
“They have had their failings pointed out by just about everyone, but most tellingly by some of the most influential women in the country.”
The problems began in August, when a stripper known as Scarlette said she was abused and demeaned at a Waikato Chiefs end-of-season “Mad Monday” party.
The Chiefs initially suggested her word could not be trusted because of her occupation, then an internal NZR review dismissed her claims and cleared the players.
“A lot of the language immediately after the Chiefs incident was around victim blaming and shaming,” Human Rights Commissioner David Rutherford said at the time.
The NZR soon found itself in the spotlight again over its response to a teenage star’s violent rampage on a Wellington street.
The player, Losi Filipo, savagely attacked four people, including two women, but escaped conviction because a judge said it might harm his rugby career.
Officials at first stood by Filipo, only to perform an embarrassing U-turn and agree to terminate his Wellington Rugby contract as public outrage grew.
There were further blows to the game’s image when one provincial player was jailed for masturbating in public and another was charged with intent to commit rape.
In such a heated atmosphere, the timing of an indiscretion by All Blacks half-back Aaron Smith could not have been worse.
The 54-Test veteran was seen entering a disabled toilet cubicle with a mystery woman at Christchurch Airport while he was travelling with the national team the day after a recent Test against South Africa.
While there was no hint of criminal wrongdoing, Smith’s actions was deemed “serious misconduct” that damaged the reputation of the All Blacks and its sponsors.
He was suspended for one Test and voluntarily stood down from another — this Saturday’s blockbuster match against Australia where his teammates are chasing the record win.
In response to its recent woes, the NZR is setting up an independent panel to review “respect and responsibility” in the game.
Politician Louisa Wall, a former rugby international once named New Zealand women’s player of the year, said cultural change needed to begin at the top.
She said the NZR needed to include women at board level and take their contribution to the game seriously.
“The way that women have traditionally been viewed, they’re in the kitchen preparing the food, they wash the uniforms,” she told Wellington’s Dominion Post newspaper.
“We’re not seen as the administrators, the coaches, the umpires.”

Japanese media outlets reported Tuesday that the IOC was looking at relocating the rowing and kayaking venue to the South Korean city of Chungju in North Chungcheong province to rein in soaring costs.
The report came as IOC chief Thomas Bach and Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike met in Japan’s capital for the first time since Koike warned of drastic cost-slashing measures for the 2020 Games that included downsizing or shifting some venues.
A Seoul sports ministry official who handles international sporting events said there had been no contact from the IOC about using a South Korean venue.
“We were surprised because the reports came out of the blue,” said the official.
The Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) was also unaware of any relocation plan.
“But if the IOC were to make a proposal, they would probably contact the potential venue directly,” a KOC official told AFP.
Both officials declined to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Kim Myung-Gyu, a Chungju City Hall official in charge of water sports, said he had received no communication from the IOC, but stressed that the city was more than ready to take on some Olympic events if called upon.
“We already have the facilities so all we need is a few months for minor adjustments,” Kim told AFP.
Chungju has hosted a handful of major international rowing competitions in recent years, including the 2013 World Rowing Championships and the Asia Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta ahead of the Rio Olympics.
Tokyo’s preparations for the 2020 Games have been plagued by controversy since beating Madrid and Istanbul in the bidding race three years ago.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tore up initial plans for the Olympic stadium amid public anger over its $2.0 billion price tag.
Tokyo organisers then had to scrap the original Games logo after accusations of plagiarism.
Most worryingly, French prosecutors launched an investigation into $2 million in payments they suspect were made to help Tokyo secure the Olympics.
Japanese Olympic officials have strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

Southampton goalkeeper Fraser Forster is looking for the Premier League club to make “a massive statement” by beating Italian giants Inter Milan in the Europa League on Thursday.
The Saints travel to the San Siro — and as many as seven thousand of their fans are expected to follow them — knowing a win at the home of the three-time European champions would be a big step towards progressing to the knockout phase from Group K.
It would also be another memorable result for a club who were in the third tier of English football just five years ago.
“If we go and do that (win) it will be a massive statement. You look where the club was just a few years ago and even in the time since I’ve joined the club ?- you meet the owner and you meet the chairman, and when we came to the club that’s what they said, that they wanted to move the club forward and get into Europe, and every summer they’ve backed us,” goalkeeper Forster told the club’s website.
“They’ve bought players, and step by step we’re achieving those goals and hopefully we can do ourselves proud in the game, and if we can come out of it with three points that will be a massive achievement.”
Southampton, who are fresh from beating Burnley 3-1 in the Premier League at the weekend, have so far beaten Sparta Prague 3-0 and drawn 0-0 away in Israel to Hapoel Beer-Sheva.
In contrast, Inter are struggling.
Frank de Boer was only appointed in the summer but the Dutchman’s side have lost two out of two in the Europa League and are in the bottom half of the Serie A table after a 2-1 home defeat to Cagliari at the weekend.
Meanwhile, star striker and captain Mauro Icardi’s future at the club is in the air after Inter supporters reacted furiously to comments he made about them in a recently-published autobiography.
It is all a far cry from the days under Jose Mourinho when Inter won the Champions League in 2010. Mourinho’s current side Manchester United entertain Fenerbahce in Group A at Old Trafford.
United have four points from two games before a rematch with the Turkish giants, with whom they have a bit of history.
Fenerbahce inflicted a first ever European home defeat on United back in 1996, while eight years later Wayne Rooney hit a hat-trick against the same team on his European debut.
The Istanbul side are not in good form as they travel to England with former United striker Robin van Persie, now 33, in their baggage.
In Dublin, Irish surprise package Dundalk must try to shake off fatigue as they host 2008 UEFA Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg.
After falling just short of reaching the Champions League group stage, Dundalk have drawn away to AZ Alkmaar and beaten Maccabi Tel Aviv in Group D to stay in touch with leaders Zenit.
But as they close in on another Irish league title, boss Stephen Kenny admits the number of games they have faced is beginning to take its toll.
“Hopefully we can be energised by the crowd. I think it will be a full house and we will need that because on Sunday we have an opportunity to win the league against Bohemians,” Kenny told RTE.
“It is great to be involved in these games but the players are on their knees. They are exhausted.”
In other action French league leaders Nice are looking for their first win in Group I when they visit Salzburg but will be missing star striker Mario Balotelli in Austria due to an adductor problem.

Officers with assault rifles, backed by a huge armored grenade launcher, square up to a crowd furiously denouncing the killing of a young black neighbor.
It is a scene which could have been taken from archive footage of Mogadishu in 1990s Somalia or countless other battles, but this conflict is closer to home — the streets of small-town America.
The images, captured in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014, open “Do Not Resist” — a disturbing documentary charting the transformation of police across the US into forces that look like military units.
The explosive film is set to fuel an already bitter debate raging in America over heavy-handed law enforcement, following a litany of police killings of black men that have sparked protests from Ferguson and Charlotte to Chicago.
Director Craig Atkinson, whose movie is opening across the US having won best documentary feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, says the American law enforcement ethos has changed “from a mentality of peacekeepers to that of an occupying army.”
Another eye-opening scene shows officers in black fatigues firing volley after volley of automatic rounds at cardboard targets, as if they were preparing for war rather than to “protect and serve.”
A khaki-clad instructor explains that security forces must prepare for all kinds of attacks, “including the Islamic State.”
MRAPs, the armored trucks that protect troops from roadside bombs planted along the dusty roads of Iraq and Afghanistan, are now ubiquitous across the US.
They are provided by the Pentagon through a program of surplus giveaways that has amounted to $5 billion since former president Bill Clinton signed it off in 1996.
In another shocking scene, a SWAT team arrives in an MRAP at a tree-lined street in Columbia, South Carolina, to execute a search warrant in a drug case.
The officers, whose equipment looks barely distinguishable from that of an infantry division, end up badly damaging a family home in a raid that nets a small amount of loose cannabis.
Atkinson’s father, a retired policeman from Detroit, Michigan, spent over a decade in one such SWAT team, the New York-based filmmaker explains.
“In his time, his team intervened 29 times in 13 years. Now they are taking part in 200 raids a year,” Atkinson tells AFP.
Faced with a growing backlash against police killings, particularly in black communities, Terrence Cunningham, the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), has admitted that law enforcement officers have been “the face of oppression to far too many of our fellow citizens.”
He told a conference in San Diego on Monday that police needed to apologize for “the actions of the past and the role that our profession has played in society’s historical mistreatment of communities of color.”
Campaigners against police militarization accept that SWAT teams and their heavy-duty hardware have a vital role in combatting the rare instances of terrorism in the US.
But they point out that, due to prolonged mission creep, this is no longer how these resources are used.
Peter Kraska, a criminology professor at the University of Eastern Kentucky, says there are now at least 50,000 SWAT raids a year, up from 3,000 in the 1980s.
Most of the activities of these highly specialized units have little to do with the reasons for their inception, such as dealing with hostage situations, terrorist attacks and drug cartels.
According to Atkinson, one of the architects of the “warrior culture” is a hugely successful police trainer named Dave Grossman, head of a consulting firm called the Killology Research Group.
“We are at war and you are the frontline troops in this war. What do you fight violence with? Superior violence,” Grossman hollers at an audience of mesmerized police in one session filmed for the documentary.
The retired army lieutenant colonel has lectured throughout the US, according to his website, and Atkinson believes his influence has spread to every American law enforcement agency.
“There are 63 million police interactions with citizens each year in the United States, and if we take that kind of mentality during a routine traffic stop, that’s how there are people getting killed,” he said.

Mourinho has made an unsteady start to life at Old Trafford, with three successive defeats in mid-September threatening to derail United’s season before it had really begun.
But while they lie seventh in the Premier League table, their display in Monday’s 0-0 draw at Anfield suggested Mourinho’s methods could yet bring about an end to the club’s three-year slump.
“United did exactly what Mourinho would have wanted,” said former United captain turned Sky Sports analyst Gary Neville.
“There’s no reason at this stage to not trust Mourinho, as a Manchester United fan. There’s no point sitting here and saying, ‘Well, can he do it this time?’ He’s done it wherever he’s been.”
United’s stifling display at Anfield brought to mind Chelsea’s 2-0 win there under Mourinho in April 2014, which served to torpedo Liverpool’s hopes of league title glory.
United adopted a six-man defence at times, wingers Marcus Rashford and Ashley Young dropping back to assist the full-backs, while Marouane Fellaini helped shore up the centre of the pitch.
Liverpool have run riot on occasion this season — winning 4-3 at Arsenal, thrashing champions Leicester City 4-1 and crushing Hull City 5-1 — but against United they mustered only three attempts on target.
The Daily Telegraph called it “vintage Mourinho” and the Daily Mirror said he had “out-thought” his opposite number Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson conceded that Mourinho’s men “did a job” on his side.
Mourinho’s reputation was tarnished by Chelsea’s lamentable league title defence last season, but he was up to his old tricks in front of the television cameras after the game at Anfield.
United, he said, had shown Liverpool were “not the last wonder of the world” and he even returned to the press conference room to quibble statistics that showed his side only had 35 percent of possession.
Mourinho was seen as a bad fit for United in some quarters due to the club’s attacking traditions and former midfielder Paul Scholes commented recently that the team did not have an “identity”.
But supporters were broadly supportive of his tactics at Anfield, with 85 percent of respondents to a poll by local newspaper the Manchester Evening News saying he had found the “perfect game plan”.
The steely showing against Liverpool allows United to approach their next three fixtures with a renewed sense of purpose.
They host Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday, needing a victory to avoid falling behind in the contest for a knockout-phase place.
Mourinho returns to Chelsea in the league on Sunday before another meeting with his nemesis Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, in the League Cup next Wednesday.
The dashing football of the Alex Ferguson era remains a distant memory, but for former stalwart Ryan Giggs, Mourinho appears to have at least stopped the rot.
“It’s something we accept at the moment,” said Giggs, who worked as an assistant to Mourinho’s predecessor, Louis van Gaal.
“If you lose (at Liverpool), the pressure is on. Then you’ve got to win against Chelsea, got to win against Fenerbahce.
“It’s about getting back to the top. We had 35 percent possession (against Liverpool). With Louis it was 65 percent, but we weren’t winning.”

Troubled Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios has indicated he will play fewer tournaments in 2017 after his meltdown at the Shanghai Masters saw him slapped with an eight-week ban.
The world number 14, who gave away points and swore and argued with fans before being booed off court after his second-round defeat in China last week, blamed his body giving up physically and mentally.
It led to the ATP ordering a $25,000 (22,700 euros) fine and the ban, which can be reduced to three weeks if the 21-year-old sees a psychologist, which Tennis Australia said he had agreed to do.
In a question-and-answer session on Twitter Wednesday, the suspended star was asked what his goals were for next year. “More time off,” he replied.
He was also questioned on whether he enjoyed playing tennis, to which he answered: “lol”.
The Shanghai outburst was the latest incident involving the Australian. Last year he was given a suspended one-month ban for making comments to Swiss star Stan Wawrinka about his girlfriend.
If he goes through with his commitment to seek help for his temper, he could return to the tour on November 7, after the three-week ban.
But with no more tournaments to play then, his year is effectively over.
Asked on Twitter what his biggest win of the year was, he replied: “Just beat Ajla in a backhand to backhand game,” referring to his girlfriend, fellow tennis player Ajla Tomljanovic, despite claiming titles in Tokyo, Atlanta and Marseille.

The Mexican authorities have seized $450 million worth of debt securities at an airport near the capital that were sent from the United States to a Mexican company, an official said.
The certificates were sent via a parcel service and found at the Toluca airport marked as “business correspondence,” customs agency administrator Ricardo Trevino told local radio.
Trevino said officials know which company sent the securities from the United States and which Mexican firm was the intended recipient.
He declined to identify them but he told Radio Formula that the Mexican company has a “global presence.”
A man involved in the operation has also been identified, but Trevino also refused to name him.
The certificates, which were in an envelope, “can be cashed at any bank,” he said. They were detected in an X-ray machine.
The authorities will determine whether the certificates stem from legal activities, in which case the penalty would be a fine for not declaring their value according to international rules, which require any amount over $10,000 to be declared at customs.
Trevino, however, said it could also be linked to “tax evasion” and that any crime would be investigated.
The certificates were found as part of a global customs operation undertaken between September 19 and October 10 to detect weapons or money shipments.
Mexico seized a total of $452 million, including the major haul in one action in Toluca, earning plaudits from the World Customs Organization.
Agents often seize cash or drugs at airports in Mexico, mostly linked to drug cartels.

Riyad Mahrez’s goal earned Leicester a 1-0 win over FC Copenhagen on Tuesday, extending their 100 percent record in Group G and leaving them one win away from the knockout phase.
But the English champions are toiling domestically, having lost four and won just two of their first eight fixtures, and Ranieri wants Leicester to get rid of their split personality.
“For one side, I’m very proud. For the other side, when I think of the Premier League, I’m very, very angry,” the Italian told reporters at the King Power Stadium.
“But it’s OK, because also in my career this has happened. When for the first time you go and play in a big competition, you lose something when you go back in your league.
“You spend a lot of energy, mental energy, in the Champions League. When you come back a little more down, it’s normal.
“But we want to change this mood now, because the Premier League is now important. The Premier League is our priority.
“But of course also the Champions League because now, in one month, three matches, we’re in or out. We are in a good position. Our destiny is in our hands. We want to continue this way.”
Mahrez struck in the 40th minute, volleying home with the outside of his left foot after Jamie Vardy’s deep cross from the left had been headed back across goal by Islam Slimani.
It was a performance in keeping with Leicester’s 5,000-1 league title success last season, with Copenhagen seeing 54 percent of possession and registering four shots on target to the hosts’ two.
But Leicester’s 100 percent record was only preserved thanks to a last-minute save by their Copenhagen-born goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who batted away a close-range Andreas Cornelius shot.
Leicester are now assured of at least a place in the Europa League and they can seal a place in the Champions League last 16 if they win the return fixture in Copenhagen on November 2.
“It’s good to go in the Europa League. Now we have to go in the Champions League,” Ranieri said. “Little step, step by step.”
Danish champions Copenhagen had previously gone 23 games without defeat, stretching back to last season, but they remain in second place in the group, five points below Leicester.
“I can live with that,” said Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken on the end of his team’s unbeaten run.
“We can start counting again. That doesn’t bother me, really. The important thing for us now is to get back and focus on the league.
“Leicester come on November 2. Hopefully we can do a similar performance. We have our fans behind us and maybe that can be the difference. We very rarely lose in Parken (Stadium).”
He added: “You can always fear the game in Porto (where Copenhagen drew 1-1) was a one-off in a difficult away game.
“But now we’ve met the two favourites in the group away and we could have had three points, we could have had zero. They’ve been very close, both games.
“The players have a good feeling we can beat them in Parken in 14 days. We’re still number two in the group.
“I’m very happy Porto beat (Club) Brugge (in the other group game) because for us it’s easier to win the UEFA Cup (Europa League) than the Champions League!”

Olympic gymnast Louis Smith missed a victory parade in London for Britain’s Rio medallists in London’s Trafalgar Square and a subsequent reception at Buckingham Palace to visit mosques after he appeared to mock Islam.
Online video footage showed Smith, 27, and fellow gymnast Luke Carson laughing whilst pretending to pray and shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).
This year’s Olympic Games in Rio saw Smith win a silver medal on the pommel horse, with British team-mate Max Whitlock taking gold.
Four-time medallist Smith, in a message posted on his Facebook page on Tuesday, said: “I accepted the offer to learn more about the Muslim community and Islam. I honestly can say it was actually a really good day.
“I was a little nervous and anxious before visiting because of the events in the last week. But the people and the community were so understanding and inviting.”
Smith, who is facing disciplinary action by British gymnastics, added: “We discussed my actions and they showed me what they learn and the true meaning behind their religion of peace. The community work they do for various charities is actually crazy and the money raised each year would blow your mind.”

Ecuador said it had cut the internet access of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is holed up at its London embassy, due to leaks by the anti-secrecy website that could impact the US election.
“The government of Ecuador respects the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other states. It does not interfere in external electoral processes, nor does it favor any particular candidate,” the Ecuadoran foreign ministry said in a statement.
In consequence, the ministry said, it decided to “temporarily restrict” communications at the embassy.
WikiLeaks has published a damaging trove of hacked emails from US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign in recent weeks.
On Monday it accused Ecuador of cutting off Assange’s internet communications at the behest of US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The United States denied the allegation.
“Reports that Secretary Kerry had conversations with Ecuadorian officials about this are simply untrue. Period,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.
Ecuador also implicitly denied the claim in its statement.
“Ecuador’s foreign policy responds to sovereign decisions alone and does not yield to pressure from other states,” it said.
Ecuador reaffirmed its decision to grant Assange asylum, and said the restriction on communications at its embassy did not hinder WikiLeaks itself.
“This temporary restriction does not prevent the WikiLeaks organization from carrying out its journalistic activities,” it said.
Assange fled to Ecuador’s London embassy in June 2012.
The 45-year-old Australian is fighting extradition to Sweden to face a rape accusation.
He denies the allegation and says he fears Sweden wants to hand him over to the United States to face trial for the leaking of hundreds of thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents in 2010.

The United Nations is moving hundreds of peacekeepers from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to Kinshasa to help deal with a possible outbreak of violence over the postponement of a presidential election, UN officials said Tuesday.
About 300 soldiers and police from the MONUSCO force will be stationed in Kinshasa, where violent protests killed 49 last month, the officials said.
“We are planning for all eventualities and have taken measures to strengthen our posture in Kinshasa,” UN peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said.
However, the reinforcements would probably not be enough if the capital sees widespread violence, he cautioned.
“It’s important to keep in mind that Kinshasa is a city of almost 11 million people and MONUSCO has neither the manpower nor the mandate to provide security,” he said.
Political tension has been mounting over President Joseph Kabila’s apparent bid to cling to power.
An agreement was reached on Monday to push the presidential election, set for this year, back to April 2018.
But opposition parties boycotted the deal, calling for a major protest on Wednesday.
The UN envoy for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Maman Sambo Sidikou, warned last week that the country had entered a period of “extreme risk to its stability,” saying “large-scale violence is all but inevitable” if nothing is done to address the crisis.
The UN Security Council is considering a trip to the country next month to try to help find a way forward in the political crisis, diplomats said.
One of Africa’s biggest and most resource-rich countries, the DR Congo has been ruled by Kabila since 2001, when his father Laurent was assassinated.
He was elected in 2006 to his first five-year term under a constitution that sets a two-term limit for presidents.

United and England captain Rooney, who made his name as a goal-scoring forward, has been a substitute in five of the last six matches for club and country, including the Red Devils’ goalless draw away to arch-rivals Liverpool on Tuesday where he failed to find the back of the net after coming on for Marcus Rashford.
And Rooney has no time for suggestions that he is now a 25 games a season player, insisting he wants to force his way back into the starting line-ups of both United manager Jose Mourinho and England interim boss Gareth Southgate.
“I’d like to think I can play every game, but obviously it’s the manger’s decision and I respect the decision,” he said. “I’ll be ready when needed.
“Not in my mind (do I think I’ve reached the point when I accept only getting 25 games a season). Maybe in other people’s minds but not mine.
“I’m 31 next week. I’ve got a lot of football left.”
He added: “Obviously I’ve started through all my career, so it is a new period for me and of course I want to play.
“I just have to keep working and trying to get in the team and my chances will come, I know that, and it is up to me to take them.”
Rooney’s next chance to start for United will come in Thursday’s Europa League match against Fenerbahce.

The UN Security Council agreed on Tuesday that a new UN mission for Colombia could continue to monitor a ceasefire despite a referendum vote rejecting the peace deal.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos last week extended a ceasefire with the country’s FARC guerillas until December 31 and said he hoped to have a new agreement for peace before that date.
The council “welcomed the parties continued commitment to uphold the ceasefire,” Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters following a closed-door meeting.
He said the council had received a request from the parties “for the UN mission to monitor and verify the bilateral ceasefire” and that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would present recommendations on that mechanism.
Council members “encourage the parties and all political actors to continue momentum in the peace effort,” said Churkin, who holds this month’s council presidency.
The victory for the “No” vote in the October 2 referendum was a stunning setback to a nearly four-year effort to end Latin Americas last major guerrilla war.
Santos launched negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) after taking office in 2010, with the two sides sealing a deal on August 24 in Havana to end the conflict, which has claimed 260,000 lives.

Venezuela on Tuesday postponed gubernatorial elections due in December until mid-2017 after deeply unpopular President Nicolas Maduro said the country needs to focus on reviving its economy instead of elections.
The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, said governors would now be elected “at the end of the first half of 2017,” in a statement on state TV that gave no reason for the change.
The plunge in global oil prices has sent OPEC member Venezuela’s economy into free-fall, putting Maduro on the defensive.
The announcement comes as the leftist leader’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) takes an increasingly wary approach to popular elections.
The Venezuelan left dominated at the polls for 17 years, starting with the election of Maduro’s late mentor, Hugo Chavez, in 1998.
But that ended last December, when the center-right opposition won a landslide in legislative elections, taking control of the National Assembly for the first time since Chavez came to power.
The opposition is now seeking to call a referendum on removing Maduro from office, but accuses the CNE of stalling.
Two weeks ago, Maduro said elections were not a “priority” in Venezuela.
“The priority in Venezuela is economic recovery, it’s helping the people,” he said.
With severe shortages of food and basic goods a daily reality here, opinion polls show seven in 10 Venezuelans want a change in government.
Thousands of Maduro supporters staged a rally in Caracas Tuesday seeking to show their strength.
Addressing the crowd, the president’s right-hand man, former legislative speaker Diosdado Cabello, vowed the Maduro camp would “make it difficult” for the opposition to force a recall referendum.
“Nicolas Maduro was elected president and he must finish his term,” Cabello said.
The opposition faces a new challenge in the drawn-out recall process next week, when it must gather four million voters’ signatures from Wednesday to Friday.
The CNE has already infuriated the opposition by ruling it is too late to hold a recall vote by January 10 — the deadline to trigger a new presidential election.
If voters remove Maduro from office after that date, his hand-picked vice president will finish his term, which ends in 2019.

US military helicopters sent to provide humanitarian relief in Haiti after Hurricane Matthew have almost completed their mission and should leave in the coming days, a senior official said Tuesday.
The Pentagon had sent a detachment of about 10 Army and Marine Corps choppers to help with aid delivery, but improved conditions mean supplies can again be moved by road.
“As the amount of the materials moving over the road has increased, the number of requests for us to move things has now gradually begun to decrease,” Admiral Kurt Tidd, who heads the US military’s Southern Command, told reporters.
“So it’s appropriate for us to withdraw and to allow the organizations that are in there, and in there for the long haul, to take over the responsibility.”
The US choppers have left the Port-au-Prince airport, where as many as 400 US troops had been deployed.
Additional air operations will be conducted from the USS Iwo Jima amphibious assault ship, which has arrived in the region.
At least 546 people were killed and more than 175,000 people lost their homes when Matthew roared ashore on October 4, packing winds of 145 miles (230 kilometers) per hour.

It’s been two weeks since Hurricane Matthew devastated southern Haiti, but large parts of the impoverished country’s third-largest city of Les Cayes remain a wasteland and many residents have stopped expecting to receive any help.
A coconut tree fell on Yolette Cazenor’s small home in the storm’s aftermath. A similar fate befell her neighbor Michel Donald. So far, a few pieces of sheet metal is all they have to rebuild.
“The sheet metal is to provide shade during the day,” Donald explained.
“Inside, we have a tarp as a ceiling and buckets on the bed” to catch rainwater, the 22-year-old said, adding that sleep has been elusive.
At least 546 people were killed and more than 175,000 people lost their homes when Matthew roared ashore on October 4, packing winds of 145 miles (230 kilometers) per hour.
The UN estimates at least 1.4 million people need urgent assistance.
UN officials have expressed concern about looting attacks on aid trucks, which have been slow to reach the hardest-hit areas.
It’s been two weeks of struggle for the victims in Les Cayes — downpours every evening force them to scramble to protect the few belongings they salvaged, which they dry in the sunshine before the rains come again.
Cazenor’s husband works alone with a machete to cut off the branches of a large toppled mango tree.
Although trucks from neighboring Dominican Republic are removing branches and other rubble piled on the main streets in the city center, none has come to their neighborhood.
On the porch of an undamaged home built of concrete, Ketia Jeannejuste sips a very sweet coffee and wonders why aid has not arrived.
She is now living with her mother in Les Cayes, but was leading a quiet country life in a small town 10 kilometers (six miles) away, where she raised livestock and grew vegetables. Matthew destroyed everything she owned.
“I know a lot of things have been delivered to Les Cayes but we haven’t received anything,” the 25-year-old said. “I want to know why. Are the local authorities just keeping it all for themselves?”
Emeline Damien, 43, crossed the still rain-soaked street to vent her frustrations.
“It’s those who aren’t victims who are getting the help, but the most vulnerable haven’t gotten anything,” she raged.
“And you know, we are having elections soon, everything is politicized right now in the country but politics is always just words — nothing ever happens on the ground.”
Haiti had been due to hold presidential and legislative elections on October 9, but they had to be pushed back to November 20 because of Matthew’s devastation.
“The people of Port-au-Prince should come and see the damage: Haiti it is not just Port-au-Prince,” Damien said.
“They should take this disaster seriously because, in a few days, they will see the importance of the south when they aren’t able to find bananas, mangos or lemons. Then they will understand what a high cost of living means,” she said.
Jeannejuste agreed with her impassioned neighbor but she won’t be able to make her voice heard in the upcoming election: Matthew destroyed her voter card.

Tottenham Hotspur’s coach Mauricio Pochettino hailed goalkeeper Hugo Lloris’ ‘brilliant’ display to rescue a Champions League away point in their goalless draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday.
After a quiet first-half which his side dominated, the Frenchman had a busy second 45 minutes at the BayArena as Leverkusen beefed up their midfield and fired in 16 shots at the Spurs goal.
After Dele Alli, Vincent Janseen and Erik Lamela all went close with first-half chances for Spurs, Pochettino singled out Lloris’ outstanding display to repeatedly deny the Leverkusen attack.
“We were better in the first half, they were better in the second,” said Spurs Argentinian coach.
“Some brilliant saves from our keeper kept us in the game.
“I can only say good things about him, he’s a fantastic goalkeeper, one of the best in the world.
“He showed in every action that he’s one of the best, I think he’s having the best moments of his career.”
Lloris agreed the result was good for Spurs.
“We can be pleased with the point,” said the French goalkeeper.
“The game turned in the second half, Leverkusen pressed high and we struggled a bit.
“I think the draw is a good result for us.
“In two weeks we’re going to face them again and we need to be ready for this other battle.
“I think we all want to come back to Wembley.”
Having now drawn their three group games, Leverkusen are third with three points while Spurs stay second behind leaders AS Monaco who drew 1-1 at bottom side CSKA Moscow.
Pochettino was pleased his side has everything to play for when the sides meet again in London on November 2.
“It was a strong point, an important one for us, so we need to be happy with that,” he said.
“We’re still in the same position we were before the game, we’re still fighting.
“It’s a very competitive group, it was important to get a point from here, especially as CSKA Moscow and Monaco drew.”
Spurs are now unbeaten in their six away games in all competition, but Pochettino says they must be more clinical in front of goal.
He admitted Spurs struggled in midfield when Leverkusen introduced burly Austrian Julian Baumgartlinger after the break.
“It’s one of the most difficult things to be clinical in front of goal, but the team created lots of chance and dominated the first-half,” said Pochettino.
“They changed things around after the break and I think they were better when they strengthened their midfield, so we have to be pleased with the point.
“We need to be more clinical, we have a lot of players who can score, with a bit more luck we would have taken the chances in our last few games.
“It was tough, the priority was to win, but when you analyse Leverkusen they are a good team who played well, so at the end of the day the result is fair.
“We are still fighting for the next round. We have to win our remaining games and believe we can get to the next round.”
Leverkusen were frustrated to finish with another draw, despite an impressive display.
“We had plenty of chances to score and we should have rewarded ourselves with a goal,” said captain Lars Bender.
“There were two very good teams on the pitch tonight, so we need to live with the draw now.”