Dr Martin Hall has had to get used to dealing with horrific sights and smells as part of his job.

"It opened up a completely new world which I had never experienced before," said Dr Hall, 57, who lives in Haywards Heath, West Sussex.

"The first time you do see a dead body is a bit disquieting but I'm relatively comfortable in doing it now," Dr Hall said.

"Sometimes bodies in houses can be more difficult than dealing with a body in a field.

"When a body is in a field you can turn off your emotions to some extent and view the whole scenario in a perfectly detached way.

"In a house, there are more artefacts and signs of their life around – more clues that this person was a living being not so long ago."

The 57-year-old can spend anything from hours to a few days at a crime scene.

"You only get one chance to gather the evidence and it's vital nothing is missed," he said.

"You have to think like a maggot. Where would I go if I was a maggot? What would I do?"

Working within the legal system is a process far detached from science.

But Dr Hall, who is now head of research at the museum's department of entomology, said he had found it "extremely fulfilling".

"Many people may be beavering away all their lives with research and not see anything productive come from it," he said.

"For me, it's great to see an outcome every few months at the end of the criminal case."

Det Ch Insp Jes Fry, of Norfolk police, said the techniques had helped several inquiries in Norfolk, including the Sandringham murder probe.

"Forensic entomology can give a pretty good estimate of how long a body may have been in situ. Obviously that helps us focus inquiries around last sightings," he said.

"It can knit it all together. It's something that has become much more helpful in the past 10 years as it has advanced."

Dubai: Police have arrested a gang of four who robbed bank clients with a clever ruse, the Criminal Investigation Department said.

A gang member would pretend to be sick and fall down in front of the potential victim, who would be leaving the bank with a substantial amount of cash, Brigadier Khalil Ebrahim Al Mansouri, director of Dubai Police’s Criminal Investigation Department, said yesterday. The person emerging from the bank would feel obliged to help the person in distress, at which time the other gang members would grab the money and run away.

Brig Al Mansouri said the gang of four Ethiopian men monitored banks in crowded areas, such as Naif and Rifa’a, where six complaints had been registered against them.

Six complaints

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A Greek exit from the euro would be "very negative" for the rest of Europe, the EU's Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia has warned.

"I'm sure we'll all suffer negative consequences if we're unable to keep the Greeks in," he said in London, during a debate on Europe.

He also said the Franco-German "duopoly" in eurozone policy had undermined the EU's role in the crisis.

Greece's credit lifeline is now at risk, after voters rejected austerity.

Fringe parties – most notably left-wing groups and ultra-nationalists – scored well, plunging Greece into a fresh political crisis. They reject the tough conditions of Greece's EU/IMF bailout.

France's outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy forged a tight political alliance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and their meetings were key to shaping the EU's response to the eurozone debt crisis.

France's new Socialist President Francois Hollande will hold his first post-election meeting with Mrs Merkel on Tuesday. He wants to rebalance the Franco-German relationship by persuading Germany to embrace measures to stimulate growth.

Mr Almunia said the European Parliament had been to some extent marginalised by France and Germany. "I don't like this situation – it cannot continue," he said in the debate organised by the Centre for European Reform think-tank.

He said the Maastricht Treaty which launched the single currency had made most of the rules for monetary union inter-governmental, allowing France and Germany to "deepen their duopoly".

"We need to come back to the [European] community method and reinforce the European Parliament's role – that will also strengthen the role of the [EU] Commission," he said.

The former UK commissioner in Brussels, Lord Mandelson, said the crisis showed the need for much wider public engagement in Europe.

Lord Mandelson, who also served in the Labour cabinet, said "the eurozone needs more solidarity" in the current crisis. He called for a "eurozone Mark Two".

"Above all, the eurozone needs institutional arrangements that project confidence in its own future, it needs an end to improvisation.

"The era of a European project driven by an elite is over – and I'm rather pleased it is," he said.

UK Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls opposed the idea of Britain joining the euro when he was in the Labour government – a stance that at the time put him at odds with Lord Mandelson.

In Monday's debate he said the EU had "underestimated the radical nature of the euro endeavour". He highlighted the imbalance in competitiveness among the 17 eurozone countries.

But he echoed Lord Mandelson in suggesting that Britain's relationship with Europe might have to be put to a referendum in future. "It might be an issue whose time comes, but it's not sensible now," he said.

There have been repeated calls by Conservatives in Britain's ruling coalition for a referendum on the UK's relationship with the EU – including some who want a straight "in" or "out" question for voters.

Editor’s note: Don McPherson is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, a feminist and social justice educator. Follow him on Twitter, @donmcpherson.

Junior, like my former teammate Andre Waters and friend Dave Duerson, both of whom also committed suicide, played the game as they were taught, with reckless abandon. These guys didn’t just tackle opponents; they ran through them, never applying the brakes before collision. And they did what all great athletes do: They learned to play with pain.

ESPN analyst Marcellus Wiley, a former teammate of Seau with the San Diego Chargers, said of Junior that “he never let you see his pain.” He also said that Junior would not get treatment with his teammates but would do so privately, so he was seen only at full strength.

The recent spate of suicides committed by former players has the NFL and the entire sports world examining the cumulative impact of concussions over the span of a career and a lifetime. The emerging research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has helped identify at least one culprit in the uncharacteristically fatal behavior of men who lived by the creed, “never give up.”

But inherent in that creed is a zero sum mentality that teaches us all to “play with pain.” This also means that we learned to live with pain. Together with CTE, this is a lethal combination that can be very difficult to see, unless we change our lens.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter and Facebook.com/cnnopinion

When I received the news about Junior, I had just walked out of my daughter’s second-grade classroom.

A few dads were helping with a craft for Mother’s Day. While in class, I complained to another dad about the painful decision of saving my back or my knees while assisting children with their cutting and gluing. I knew the source of my physical pain, and it is a constant reminder of a proud football career.

I accept that I gave my body to the game I love and every day I experience the consequences. That has long been the lament of former athletes: bad knees, bad back and nagging body aches are the battle scars of weekend warriors.

During the drive home from school, I thought of the scars that riddle my body and mind. And, for the first time in the discussion of the life expectancy of NFL players, I saw myself. Junior is the 19th player that I played with or knew personally from college and professional football who is dead, all before 50. He is the fifth to commit suicide.

Then I thought of Cover 8.

In 1986, when I was a quarterback at Syracuse University, we installed a defensive formation called Cover 8. It moved the free safety, a position usually 18 yards away from the line of scrimmage, to just half that distance. The purpose was to stop the quarterback (me).

Our free safety was Marcus Paul, now assistant strength coach for Super Bowl champs the New York Giants. For 20 days, we purposely and violently ran through each other several times a day. Each collision brought admiration, respect and a hardening of our resolve. We knew we were making each other better. If we survived each other, no opponent could pose a greater challenge.

We played for another 10 years, but we still laugh about the ringing in the ears and the workman-like way we went at each other that spring, conditioning ourselves to raise our threshold for pain.

We were young men demonstrating the rules of masculinity and sports. Ignore pain, leave it on the field and never back down. As a businessman, I know the merits of those qualities that transferred from my athletic career. But I wonder (and fear) as a man and as a person about what other physical and emotional qualities transferred? At what costs? And when will I find out?

Women are twice as likely to attempt suicide but men are four times more successful. We both suffer from mental illness and seemingly insurmountable stress. But men are also less likely to show signs or ask for help. This leads to the “if you can’t fix it, force it” approach that is evident in most violent acts committed by men.

Sadly, there were signs with Junior, Andre, Dave and all the other players who have committed suicide. And, they knew it. What they didn’t know was how to tell us. And, we didn’t know how to see it in them.

We assumed that they were like most players who find it hard to adjust to life outside the locker room, without the game. It’s easy to see them as warriors without a war.

It’s harder to see them as men without capacity to say, “I hurt and I need help.”

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Don McPherson.

Colombia's Farc rebels have set out terms for the release of French journalist Romeo Langlois, the International Red Cross (ICRC) says.

The rebels said they were prepared to free the reporter to a group including ICRC officials and an envoy of French President-elect, Francois Hollande.

Mr Langlois, 35, was captured on 28 April as he filmed soldiers destroying cocaine laboratories.

The Farc have previously described him as a "prisoner of war".

"We have received the statement directly from the group," the head of the ICRC in Colombia, Jordi Raich, told French news agency AFP.

"We are pleased with the announcement of the release and we are ready to help organise the operation anywhere and as soon as possible," he added.

The Farc statement was also released to the Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina.

The rebels also asked for the involvement of Colombian mediator Piedad Cordoba.

Ms Cordoba and the ICRC have previously facilitated the release of numerous hostages held by the Farc.

In February the left-wing group promised to stop kidnapping civilians for ransom, and last month released its last remaining military and police captives.

However, anti-kidnap groups estimate that it is still holding hundreds of civilian hostages.

The rebels say they consider Mr Langlois a prisoner of war because he was accompanying an army unit and wearing a military helmet and body armour.

His kidnapping has provoked condemnation in Colombia and across the world.

Controlling access to the Red Sea, Djibouti is of major strategic importance, a fact that has ensured a steady flow of foreign assistance.

During the Gulf War it was the base of operations for the French military, who continue to maintain a significant presence.

France has thousands of troops as well as warships, aircraft and armoured vehicles in Djibouti, contributing directly and indirectly to the country's income. The US has stationed hundreds of troops in Djibouti, its only African base, in an effort to counter terrorism in the region.

Djibouti's location is the main economic asset of a country that is mostly barren. The capital, Djibouti city, handles Ethiopian imports and exports. Its transport facilities are used by several landlocked African countries to fly in their goods for re-export. This earns Djibouti much-needed transit taxes and harbour fees.

After independence from France in 1977, Djibouti was left with a government which enjoyed a balance between the two main ethnic groups, the Issa of Somali origin and the Afar of Ethiopian origin.

But the country's first president, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, installed an authoritarian one-party state dominated by his own Issa community. Afar resentment erupted into a civil war in the early 1990s, and though Mr Gouled, under French pressure, introduced a limited multi-party system in 1992, the rebels from the Afar party, the Front for the Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Frud), were excluded.

Thus, Mr Gouled's Popular Rally for Progress party won every seat and the war went on. It ended in 1994 with a power-sharing deal which brought the main faction of Frud into government. A splinter, radical faction continued to fight until 2000, when it too signed a peace deal with the government of Gouled's successor, Ismael Omar Guelleh.