Luis Suarez bite: Uruguay striker banned for four months

Uruguay striker Luis Suarez has been suspended from all football-related activity for four months for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

In addition, the Liverpool player, 27, has been banned for nine international matches, ruling him out of the rest of the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

He will also miss the first nine games of the Premier League season.

“Liverpool will wait until we have seen the Fifa report before making any further comment”

Ian AyreReds chief executive

Uruguay say they will appeal, calling it an "excessive decision" for which "there was not enough evidence".

Uruguay Football Association president Wilmar Valdez added: "I have seen more aggressive incidents recently.

"It is a severe punishment. I don't know exactly which arguments they used but it is a tough punishment for Suarez."

The player has also been fined 100,000 Swiss francs (£65,680) for the incident, which occurred on Tuesday asUruguay beat Italy 1-0 to finish second in group D and qualify for the last 16 in Brazil.

The ban is the biggest in World Cup history, beating the eight games given to Italy's Mauro Tassotti for elbowing Spain's Luis Enrique in 1994.

"Such behaviour cannot be tolerated on any football pitch and, in particular, not at a Fifa World Cup when the eyes of millions of people are on the stars on the field," Claudio Sulser, chairman of the Fifa disciplinary committee, said in a statement.

Suarez has now been found guilty of biting three opponents in his career and former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson felt the suspension should have been longer.

"Say my boy was about 11 or 12, how do you explain to your lad who's a football fan exactly what Luis Suarez keeps doing," he told BBC Sport.

"He is now a persistent offender and I thought actually the ban would have been much harsher."

“He is now a persistent offender and I thought actually the ban would have been much harsher”

Mark LawrensonFormer Liverpool defender

Suarez was banned for 10 games for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic during a Premier League match in 2013 and was also suspended for seven games for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal in 2010.

Mexican referee Marco Rodriquez did not see Suarez bite Chiellini on the left shoulder, but Fifa ordered an inquiry after the match following protests by the Italian.

Suarez had tried to dismiss the incident, telling Uruguayan television: "These are just things that happen out on the pitch. It was just the two of us inside the area and he bumped into me with his shoulder."

Suarez's first match back for Liverpool could be in round four of the Capital One Cup, should the Reds win their first game after entering the tournament in the third round, with matches due to take place in the week commencing 27 October.

Reds chief executive Ian Ayre said: "Liverpool Football Club will wait until we have seen and had time to review the Fifa disciplinary committee report before making any further comment."

Under the terms of the ban, Suarez cannot train with Liverpool and is prohibited from entering the confines of any stadium during the period of his suspension.

But Liverpool would not be prevented from selling the former Ajax player this summer should they decide to offload him to another club.

He has already been linked with moves to Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Liverpool matches Suarez will miss
(Premier League unless stated)
Assumed four-month period runs 26 Jun-26 Oct
16 August	Liverpool v Southampton
23 August	Man City v Liverpool
30 August	Tottenham v Liverpool
13 September	Liverpool v Aston Villa
16/17 September	Champions League group match
20 September	West Ham v Liverpool
23/24 September	Capital One Cup third round match
27 September	Liverpool v Everton
30 September/1 October	Champions League group match
4 October	Liverpool v West Brom
18 October	QPR v Liverpool
21/22 October	Champions League group match
25 October	Liverpool v Hull

Sponsor Adidas said it "fully supports Fifa's decision" and will not use Suarez for any more marketing purposes during the World Cup.

"We will again be reminding him of the high standards we expect from our players," added the company. "We will discuss all aspects of our future partnership directly with Suarez and his team."

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New UN Report Puts Staggering Dollar Figures on Environmental Crime Revenues

Crimes from illegal fishing to ivory dealing yield tens of billions of dollars annually.

Between 20,000 and 25,000 African elephants, like this one in Tsavo East National Park in Kenya, are killed every year by poachers.

PHOTOGRAPH BY IVAN LIEMAN, AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Carmen Russell in Nairobi

for National Geographic

PUBLISHED JUNE 24, 2014

A global industry in so-called environmental crime—which includes everything from selling elephant ivory to illegal fishing to illicit logging and more—is worth between $70 billion and $213 billion a year and largely finances criminal, militia, and terrorist groups, according to a report released Tuesday by the United Nations and INTERPOL.

"There has been a substantial upgrade in the scale from past reports," said Christian Nellemann, head of the Rapid Response Unit at the United Nations Environment Assembly. "One of the primary reasons, particularly with regard to timber and loss of wildlife habitats, is that the methods used by organized crime were not so well known just a few years ago."

The new report, called "The Environmental Crime Crisis," says that between 20,000 and 25,000 African elephants are killed every year, with an estimated $165 million to $188 million in ivory going to Asia. (Related: "Beloved African Elephant Killed for Ivory—'Monumental' Loss.")

The trade in rhinoceros horn, meanwhile, has an estimated value of between $63.8 million and $192 million. Although fewer than 50 rhinos were poached in 2007, that number rose to over 1,000 in 2013.

But Nellemann, who served as editor in chief of the report, says illegal timber trading is likely growing even more rapidly, with "forest crime" estimated to be worth between $30 billion and $100 billion annually and representing as much as 30 percent of the global timber trade.

NG STAFF. SOURCE: UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME

Researchers used different sources to calculate the worth of various types of crime, including trials, statistics from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, INTERPOL arrests and seizures, and information provided to the UN Security Council about revenue from terror groups that used the profit.

Investigators also physically counted trucks carrying timber.

"The official export for one country in Africa is maybe one or two loads per year," Nellemann said in an interview. Yet "we have photos of hundreds of trucks passing borders."

Approximately 90 percent of wood consumed in Africa is used for fuel and charcoal. Illegal charcoal is also being exported to several Middle Eastern nations like Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Oman.

Exports from Somalia alone are estimated at $360 million to $384 million per year, with up to $56 million supporting al Shabaab (the group responsible for the Westgate Shopping Mall attack in Kenya last year), according to the new report.

Most member state delegates to the United Nations Environment Assembly hadn't reviewed the data, but some expressed surprise at the new numbers, given the recent efforts to curb environmental crime in recent years.

Members of a bush patrol find the remains of an elephant killed by poachers in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park.

PHOTOGRAPH BY CARMEN RUSSELL

Sri Parwati Murwani Budi Susanti, Indonesia's assistant deputy minister of environment, was adamant that her government—along with those of other member nations—was working hard to combat illegal trade in plants and animals, but said the report showed that "we still have so much more to do."

Budi Susanti said the international community needs to focus on certification programs.

"We have regulations, but we need to inform the consumers," she said. "If buyers won't buy the products that aren't sustainable, there won't be demand."

But Nellemann said that consumer awareness "is not enough."

"It might be the long-term solution," he said. "But in the shorter [term], you need to allocate resources to provide protection on the front line and stop criminal networks from increasing."

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Lionfish Flare Their Fins to Hunt Together

A common lionfish swims along a reef at Jardines de la Reina National Park in Cuba. Photograph by Pete Oxford, Minden Pictures/Corbis

For the first time, scientists have documented how lionfish use their pointed, venomous fins to hunt prey together.

“Cooperation requires high cognition, but fish have traditionally been perceived as being at the bottom” of the cognition scale, said the study‘s lead author, Oona Lonnstedt, a graduate student in marine biology at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. “But when you look at their social behaviors, you can see that these fish are way more advanced than we thought.”

Lionfish are actually a group of several related species that were historically found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. With striped bodies and an array of venomous fins, they’ve become prized in the aquarium trade. (See “Top 5 Myths About Lionfish.”)

They’re also known as consummate predators, with few natural enemies. To make up for their lack of speed, lionfish use specialized swim bladders to move about the water column and catch their prey.

These hunts were thought to be solo endeavors. But Lonnstedt spent thousands of hours watching lionfish, both in the lab and in the wild. And she noticed that some of them appeared to be working together to catch other fish.

“The lionfish were in large groups, and they were moving their fins around like fishermen with nets,” she said. “It made me really curious about this behavior.”

If You’re Hunting and You Know It, Wave Your Fins

One thing soon became clear: In each case the fin fanning directly preceded several lionfish hunting for prey. Lonnstedt hypothesized that it was an example of cooperative behavior that allowed the fish to hunt more successfully.

To test her theory, Lonnstedt and colleagues at James Cook University built a special tank that held prey fish at one end. They placed a Dendrochirus zebra lionfish in the middle of the tank, letting it explore the area and discover the prey fish. Then they placed a different species of lionfish (Pterois antennata) at the opposite end of the tank from the prey fish.

Sure enough, Lonnstedt saw the same behavior in the tank as she had in the wild: D. zebraapproached the other lionfish and waved one fin after another, then swam back over toward the prey. If the other fish failed to follow, D. zebra returned to it and repeated its fin display.

The approach paid off. Hunting together, the two species of lionfish were 50 percent more successful at catching prey than fish that hunted on their own.

Serena Hackerott, a marine biology graduate student at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, says these studies could potentially help conservationists develop strategies against another species of lionfish—Pterois volitans—that’s been causing tremendous damage to native reefs in the Caribbean and the Atlantic seaboard.

“It’s a really interesting study that could help us learn how lionfish hunt,” Hackerott said. “Determining whether the invasive lionfish hunt like this will be an important next step.” (Related:“Pictures: Sharks Taught to Hunt Alien Lionfish.”)

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A New Kind of Explorer: The Photography Fellows

On day two of the National Geographic Explorers Symposium—an annual gathering of scientists, innovators, and change agents from all corners of the world—a surprise announcement was made amid the lineup of inspiring presentations. Joining this cadre of explorers will be a group of A-1 visual storytellers—the newly-named National Geographic Photography Fellows.

2014 Explorers Symposium
From left: chief content officer Chris Johns, Brian Skerry, Lynn Johnson, Cory Richards, David Guttenfelder, and chief science and exploration officer Terry Garcia
PHOTOGRAPH BY BECKY HALE

Launch Gallery

David Guttenfelder, Lynn Johnson, Cory Richards, and Brian Skerry—each with an equally strong passion for the different subjects they cover—have been named as the members of this inaugural group. Over the next two years, they will be sharing their visual expertise with diverse areas of the National Geographic Society and with the public, producing stories, sharing their storytelling knowledge with other explorers, and bringing the Society’s mission to illuminate, teach, and inspire the world at large.

“The Photography Fellows program acknowledges that there are photographers out there whose work deeply aligns with our nonprofit research and exploration goals,” says Alex Moen, who oversees the Explorers programs for National Geographic Society. “By embracing these individuals, the Society is positioning them to support our broader mission from a unique and fresh perspective.”

“We’ve chosen people who are not only strong photographers but wonderful leaders—spokespeople for the Society on photographic storytelling,” says director of photography Sarah Leen.

“It’s a start,” Leen continues, embracing the fluidity that accompanies any new endeavor, and one that will be evolving over the course of the coming months. “We have high hopes for this program—it’s the beginning of something that will evolve and be a beautiful opportunity for photography.”

Behind netting hung for shade along the Mekong River bank, a woman prepares lunch in the small restaurant on the island village of Donsom, or Ban Donsom. The Laos government has announced plans to go ahead with the controversial Don Sahong Mekong River hydroelectric dam. Residents on the islands and environmental groups fear the construction of the dam may block fish migration, and threaten the ecology of the river and the well-being of those who live in the 4,000 islands area. Photograph by David Guttenfelder for an upcoming story about dams along the Mekong River

Launch Gallery

There are explorers, scientists, writers, photographers who go out furthest, and alone, to the very edges of the world. And the National Geographic Society is where they come, when they come in from the cold, to put their heads together to do and share the most amazing things. I’m inspired by every person around me here. It feels like home. —David Guttenfelder

Oceanic whitetip sharks swim in the waters off Cat Island in the Bahamas. Considered the fourth most dangerous species of shark, oceanic whitetips have been seriously overfished and their stocks have been dramatically reduced worldwide. They are a pelagic animal, living in the open ocean. Photograph by Brian Skerry for an upcoming series on sharks

Launch Gallery

I will be focused primarily on a series of shark stories, hoping to use the latest science and photo techniques to produce stories that will shine a bright light on these animals. There is a tremendous value to predators in any ecosystem and especially in the ocean. I want to take readers into the world of sharks and create a new ethic, a new appreciation that will result in greater conservation. With the support of NGM and the broader National Geographic Society and its many storytelling platforms, we have an unprecedented opportunity to do something substantial with this effort. —Brian Skerry

Polar bears eat mainly ringed seals and bearded seals, captured on sea ice. On land they scrounge seabirds, eggs, even grass. This animal grazed for days below Rubini Rock—then chewed up the remote camera. The picture was made on a expedition for Pristine Seas, a National Geographic project to help protect the last wild places in our oceans. Photograph by Cory Richards for an upcoming story on Russia’s Franz Joseph Land archipelago

Launch Gallery

What I find so exciting is the potential to create a platform that can always be pushing the bar further with Missions, Expeditions, and the Magazine to tell stories on a larger scale and with more impact, and to have access to the different places in the Society where stories need to be told. —Cory Richards

The Mooney family adopted Lena when she was five. She had spent most of her life in a crib in a Ukrainian orphanage.
The majority of her cognitive and physical disabilities were due to neglect. With intense physical therapy and lots of love, the Mooneys are turning Lena’s life around. Photograph by Lynn Johnson for an upcoming story on infant brain development

Launch Gallery

I feel like even after all these years as a photographer I’m starting all over again but with the added responsibility to help build something to pass on to my colleagues. The normal way of working is a bit singular but this added dimension of “belonging” changes the landscape. —Lynn Johnson

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Vampire Bats Gain the Taste of Blood, Lose Their Taste of Bitter

A common vampire bat poses for the camera. Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Creative

In gaining their taste for blood, vampire bats may have nearly lost their ability to taste bitter.

A new study in Proceedings of the Royal Academy B reveals that vampire bats, unlike nearly all other mammals, have a significantly reduced ability to taste bitter compounds.

Bitter tastes can be unpleasant, but—because many toxic compounds taste bitter—they can also be lifesaving. So animals lacking bitter taste receptors would seemingly be at a significant disadvantage.

“We thought they were essential to [every] animal species,” said Huabin Zhao, a biologist at Wuhan University in China and one of the authors of the genetic study, conducted over the past year in Zhao’s lab.

But vampire bats have a very specialized diet. The three species that comprise this group—thecommon vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus; the white-winged vampire bat, Diaemus youngi; and the hairy-legged vampire bat, Diphylla ecaudata—are the only mammals that subsist entirely on blood. They find their prey both by detecting its odor and by using special infrared sensors that tell them where the warm, blood-rich patches of skin are. This means that vampire bats are very good at feeding only on blood; they tend not to accidentally consume other items that could be toxic. (Watch a video of vampire bats feeding.)

Bitter taste receptors seem to have a function opposite that of the taste receptors for sweet, salty, sour, and umami. While studying taste receptors in vampire bats, Zhao found that as the species evolved to feed only on blood, they lost the ability to taste sweet and umami. Zhao wondered whether the same evolutionary pressures might have also reduced their sensitivity to bitter.

He searched through the three vampire bat genomes for signs of bitter taste receptors, then compared these receptors to those found in 11 non–vampire bat species. Each of the vampire bats had nine bitter taste receptors, but many of them were nonfunctional. In contrast, most bitter taste receptors worked fine in other bat species.

Zhao sees the specialized diet of the vampire bats as the culprit. ”In evolution,” he said, “it’s use it or lose it.”

That means that vampire bats have probably been slowly losing their bitter taste perception since they first started diverging from other bats about 65 million years ago. In time, Zhao says, all of their bitter receptors may eventually be rendered nonfunctional. Or, he adds, their bitter taste receptors may have another important, as-yet-undiscovered, non-oral function.

“The most exciting functions of bitter receptors probably remain to be discovered,” said Danielle Reed, a scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, who was not involved with the study. “We know that bitter receptors are used in nasal tissue to sense the presence of bacteria and help sense chemicals in sperm, and are essential for male reproductive health and [the ability to] sense plant toxins in the gut and digestion. Cells need to know about chemicals in their local environment, and bitter receptors help cells surveil their surroundings.” 

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Google making low-cost smartphone for emerging markets

Google announced Wednesday it was working on a low-cost smartphone aimed at emerging markets as part of an initiative called Android One.

The Android-powered handset will be built with a basic set of features including FM radio, have a screen slightly smaller than five inches (12.7 centimeters) and be priced at less than $100, Google senior vice president Sundar Pichai said at the start of the technology giant's annual developers conference.

"We are going to be launching it around the world, but will launch in India first in the fall of this year," Pichai said.

He added that Google was working with carriers in India to provide affordable telecom service packages to go with the smartphones, which could in many cases provide Internet access for the first time.

The Android One initiative sets out to work with smartphone makers and others in the "ecosystem" to pool resources and standardize hardware platforms to provide "turnkey solutions" for making handsets, according to Pichai.

"There are many people -- billions of people, in fact -- who still don't have access to a smartphone," he said.

"We want to change that."

Low-cost phones powered by Android have proven popular in developing markets, but have been vexed by "fragmentation" because handset makers customize the software to suit different hardware or set themselves apart from rivals.

The variations result in popular third-party applications typically not working across the array of Android devices, frustrating users who want the latest fun, hip or helpful mobile mini-program.

Android One software for low-priced smartphones in emerging countries could bring some consistency across devices, according to Gartner consumer technology research director Brian Blau.

"Google really needs to have a solution for emerging markets with low-cost devices," Blau told AFP.

"It is going to be a long, tough road to have an impact there; it is going to take years to bring the next two to three billion people onto the Internet."

- Internet everywhere -

Google is collaborating with handset makers and others in the industry to field affordable smartphones that are high quality and come with reasonably priced data plans.

Handsets will be made by Google partners and launch with an initial range of "sub-$100" smartphones.

"We've long wondered what potential could be unleashed if people everywhere had access to the latest technology and the world's information," Pichai said. "It's time to find out."

Google and Silicon Valley rival Facebook have made priorities out of connecting with people in parts of the world where Internet connectivity is scan, unreliable or just non-existent.

Having more people tune into websites or services mean expanded opportunities to make money from online advertising or providing tools that connect shops with customers.

Google does not make

money from hardware, with its own branded gadgets meant to set standards and show off software capabilities with an eye toward inspiring electronics manufacturers to raise their games when it comes to Android or Chrome devices.

Developing countries have become prime targets for smartphone makers, and Android software made available free to handset makers has proven to be popular with budget-conscious buyers.

The news came a day after Microsoft said it would sell an Android-powered Nokia smartphone at a price of $135, a device also apparently aimed at emerging markets customers.

In April, Google acquired Titan Aerospace, a maker of solar-powered drones that could be used to boost Internet access to remote areas.

Google also is developing Project Loon, which uses large balloons for transmitting Internet signals to regions that are not currently connected.

"They are to some degree becoming an ISP (Internet service provider) because they have to," Blau said of Google's efforts to provide online connectivity through projects such as Loon and even Fiber high-speed broadband lines in the United States.

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Pancreatic cancer risks lowered with regular low-dose aspirin use

Under direction from their doctors, many patients take daily aspirin to lower risks for heart attacks. But a new study, conducted by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, CT, suggests the longer a person takes low-dose aspirin, the lower his or her risk for pancreatic cancer.

The research, led by Dr. Harvey A. Risch, professor of epidemiology at Yale, is published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2014, there will be an estimated 46,420 new cases of pancreatic cancer in the US and an estimated 39,590 deaths from the disease.

The pancreas is an organ located in the abdomen that helps the body digest food and use its energy. When cells in the pancreas grow out of control, they can turn into cancerous tumors.

Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect and diagnose early because there are not any noticeable signs or symptoms during early stages of the disease. Furthermore, when symptoms are present, they are similar to the signs of many other conditions.

"Because about 1 in 60 adults will get pancreatic cancer and the 5-year survival rate is less than 5%," says Dr. Risch, "it is crucial to find ways to prevent this disease."

He explains that older studies involving aspirin "have been clouded by the use of [regular- or high-dose] aspirin for pain relief from conditions that themselves might be related to the risk for pancreatic cancer."

But recently, individuals have been using low-dose aspirin for long periods of time to prevent cardiovascular disease, so Dr. Risch and his team wanted to assess how such use could impact on risk of pancreatic cancer.

Greater risk reduction the longer a person has taken low-dose aspirin

To further investigate, the research team recruited study subjects from the 30 general hospitals in Connecticut between 2005 and 2009. In total, there were 362 pancreatic cancer cases and 690 controls.

Researchers found that the earlier a person started taking low-dose aspirin regularly, the greater their risk for pancreatic cancer reduced.

The researchers interviewed study subjects in person to determine when they started taking aspirin, the total number of years they used it, dosage used and when they stopped taking it.

Additionally, the team took into account certain confounding factors, such as body mass index, smoking history and history of diabetes.

The study subjects consisted of 57% men, 92% non-Hispanic white people, 49% former or current smokers and 19% had been diagnosed with diabetes within 3 years before the start of the study.

Of all participants, 96% were low-dose aspirin users, which was defined as a dose of 75-325 mg of aspirin per day. This is the amount usually taken for heart disease prevention. Any dose higher than that was considered as regular-dose aspirin.

Of the regular-dose aspirin users, 92% reported daily use.

Results showed that the earlier a person started taking low-dose aspirin regularly, the greater their risk for pancreatic cancer reduced. In detail, those who started 3 years before the study had a 48% risk reduction, and those who started taking it 20 years before the study experienced a 60% risk reduction.

Additionally, those who discontinued use of aspirin with 2 years of the start of the study experienced a threefold increased risk for pancreatic cancer, compared with continuing use.

Commenting on their findings, Dr. Risch says:

"There seems to be enough evidence that people who are considering aspirin use to reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease can feel positive that their use might also lower their risk for pancreatic cancer, and quite certainly wouldn't raise it."

'Larger studies needed'

Though their findings are significant, Dr. Risch notes that people who are developing cancer of the pancreas often have physiologic changes - which can include taste disorders - and this means such individuals are more likely to quit taking aspirin.

"So it may be tricky to separate the various aspects of patterns of aspirin use and risk of pancreatic cancer," he adds.

Speaking with Medical News Today, Dr. Risch further explained:

"Some individuals taking aspirin stop doing so because of these kind of subliminal disagreements, just as some smokers quit smoking during the 2-3 years before diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, because of some increasing discomfort with the smoking. So we have to be able to distinguish between currently using aspirin vs. quitting, vs. longer times of using aspirin."

He added that he and his team made sure to make this distinction in their study by looking at people who quit using aspirin compared with people still using aspirin.

Regarding further research, Dr. Risch told us they need to conduct larger studies "to be able to make more precise conclusions."

They also have a pancreas cancer research consortium - called PanC4, the Pancreatic Cancer Case-Control Consortium - that is pooling studies to address aspirin use. He said that work will be completed in about a year.

Despite their promising findings, Dr. Risch cautions that "aspirin use has potential risks of its own, and thus the risks and benefits for each person have to be evaluated based on personal characteristics and considerations."

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