Here is a news article: Ready for your first look at David Letterman’s new talk show?

 Above is the first teaser trailer for the series, titled My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman.

 That title suggests a show that’s setting a high bar for booking celebrities with name recognization and Letterman’s first guest certainly qualifies: The show will launch with the first post-presidency TV talk show interview with Barack Obama.

 So the hour-long premiere will have two firsts: The former CBS Late Show host emerging from retirement and the former president giving his first on-camera talk-show chat of the Trump era.

 The show will launch Friday, Jan. 12 and a new episode will be stream each subsequent month in 2018 — so the Letterman series is rather unique in the Netflix universe as it has a rather anti-binge roll-out.

 Letterman’s lineup of influential guests includes George Clooney, Malala Yousafzai, JAY-Z, Tina Fey, and Howard Stern.

 According to Netflix, the “interviews will take place both inside and outside a studio setting. The conversations are intimate, in-depth and far-reaching, with the levity and humor Dave’s fans know and love. Field segments will bring Letterman to locations far and wide, expressing his curiosity and desire to dig deeper on a specific topic related to the iconic guest featured in the episode.” ||||| David Letterman has amassed an all-star roster of guests for his upcoming Netflix talk show series, which is titled My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman.

 The 60-minute show will stream monthly with the first episode launching on Friday, Jan. 12, and the additional five episodes streaming, one a month, after that.

 Letterman will kick off the series with a chat with Barack Obama, with the interview serving as the former president's first talk-show appearance since leaving office.

 Other guests set for Letterman's series include George Clooney, Malala Yousafzai, Jay-Z, Tina Fey and Howard Stern.

 The project, produced by RadicalMedia and Letterman's Worldwide Pants, marks the longtime Late Show host's first regular return to the small screen since leaving the CBS show in May 2015. He previously made a one-episode appearance on National Geographic's Years of Living Dangerously documentary series.

 Each episode will be centered around one person Letterman finds fascinating, with the two engaging in in-depth conversations both inside and outside a studio setting. The show will also feature field segments with Letterman embarking on trips related to the guest featured on each episode.

 Letterman previously told The Hollywood Reporter that he wanted to interview North Korea leader Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump on his Netflix series.

 The former CBS host has made no secret of his desire to interview Trump and call the former Apprentice host out on some of his more radical statements and actions since he entered politics. But the president has kept a low-profile on the talk-show circuit, not sitting down for any of the high-profile late-night shows, all of which have taken aim at him, since taking office.

 "I think I have insight now that heretofore I did not have," Letterman told THR of why he wants to talk to Trump. "I'm tired of people saying, 'Can you believe he…' and 'Oh, my God, what has he done… .' I want to put an end to that. ... What we need now is somebody like myself to sit down with him and calmly get him to sign some papers and then have him leave the White House."

 With respect to Kim Jong-un, Letterman said he wonders, "What does he want? They have a missile they think can hit Chicago — what's he pissed off at Chicago about? Are we at war with this guy? We put sanctions on him, he gets more pissed off. If Dennis Rodman goes over there, I ought to be over there. … I wouldn’t want to make it worse, but on the other hand, I don't know that you can make it worse. OK, you're building rockets, you've got nuclear capabilities, OK, great. What, really, does that help?!"

 He added, "I don't know that he'd be the prototypical guest but, by God, wouldn't you like an hour to just look at this guy and talk to him and listen to him? Does he have kids? Does he have pets? Why does he want to behave like this? If he wants to be a hero, why not start trying to reunite the peninsula? Why not do something that has some humanity to it? I don't get this."

 As for the tone of the show, Letterman predicted that "there will be some silliness regardless" of who he's interviewing or the topic of a field piece.

 "I'm of the opinion that irrespective of the topic and regardless of who you're talking with — I just think if you go to dinner with Person A or Person B, sooner or later there's going to be something funny that happens or is said that is either in context of a greater topic or adjunct to a greater topic," he said. "I don't have a news background or a journalism background, but I have to believe there will be some silliness regardless. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's the nice thing — we'll find out."

 Netflix also released the below trailer for Letterman's series. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Handsome Santa Claus and one-time Late Show host David Letterman has a new talk show on Netflix, and his first guest truly needs no introduction. The Hollywood Reporter reveals the first guest on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman will be none other than Barack Obama. The episode, which hits Netflix Jan. 12, is notable for two reasons: It will be Obama's first talk show appearance since becoming a former president, and it marks Letterman's first return to a regular TV gig since leaving The Late Show in 2015. EW.com quotes Netflix on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction: "The conversations are intimate, in-depth, and far-reaching, with the levity and humor Dave’s fans know and love." A new episode will be available every month. Other confirmed guests include Malala Yousafzai, George Clooney, and Jay-Z—but not President Trump, who Letterman had said he hoped would be his first guest.


Here is a news article: FAIRFIELD, Texas (AP) — A man suspected of killing a Texas state trooper during a traffic stop was taken into custody more than 100 miles away, authorities said Thursday night.

 The Harris County Sheriff's Office announced on Twitter that the suspect was apprehended in neighboring Waller County. The Texas Department of Public Safety and other law enforcement agencies had identified the suspect as Dabrett Black, 32, of Linsdale, Texas.

 DPS said the trooper was shot and killed before 4 p.m. Thursday during a traffic stop on Interstate 45 near Fairfield, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Dallas. The trooper was shot with a rifle and died at the scene, the agency said. The suspect then fled.

 The trooper has not been identified.

 Hours after the shooting, the Waller County Sheriff's Office said the suspect's vehicle was spotted in Hempstead, about 110 miles (177 kilometers) south of Fairfield. The sheriff's office said on its Facebook page that shots were fired, but did not indicate who opened fire.

 The suspect was apprehended a short time later.

 KYTX-TV reported in July that Black was charged with evading arrest, reckless driving and aggravated assault against a public servant following a police chase in Smith County.

 Several Texas officials reacted to the trooper's death. In a tweet, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz offered "prayers for the family and loved ones" of the trooper.

 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the trooper's killing a "heinous crime" in a statement Thursday. Abbott also expressed his "most sincere condolences" to the trooper's family. ||||| Tweet with a location

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 Yes ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more |||||
A summary of this is?

– A man suspected of killing a Texas state trooper during a traffic stop was taken into custody more than 100 miles away, authorities said Thursday night. The Harris County Sheriff's Office announced on Twitter that the suspect was apprehended in neighboring Waller County. The Texas Department of Public Safety and other law enforcement agencies identified the suspect as Dabrett Black, 32, of Lindale, Texas, the AP reports. DPS said the trooper was shot and killed before 4pm Thursday during a traffic stop on Interstate 45 near Fairfield, about 90 miles south of Dallas. The trooper, who has not been publicly identified, was shot with a rifle and died at the scene, the agency said. The suspect then fled. Hours after the shooting, the Waller County Sheriff's Office said the suspect's vehicle was spotted in Hempstead. The sheriff's office said shots were fired but didn't indicate who opened fire. The suspect was apprehended a short time later. Several Texas officials reacted to the trooper's death. In a tweet, Sen. Ted Cruz offered "prayers for the family and loved ones" of the trooper. Gov. Greg Abbott called the trooper's killing a "heinous crime." "Sad on Thanksgiving to lose one of our state troopers in the line of duty," he tweeted. "Prayers for his family. Swift justice for his killer."


Article:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - When the Islamic State made another dramatic push through northern Iraq, many Iraqis fled their towns and villages before the Sunni militants notorious for beheadings arrived.

 But the Yazidis of the town of Sinjar were especially terrified. The Islamic State, whose methods seem excessive even to al Qaeda, regards the minority ethnic group as "devil worshippers", making them prime candidates for the sword.

 Tens of thousands fled the weekend assault on Sinjar and are now surrounded, according to witnesses and the United Nations, after the Sunni militants inflicted a humiliating defeat on Kurdish forces who had held towns in the area for years.

 The Islamic State captured three towns and a fifth oil field and reached Iraq's biggest dam, consolidating gains made after a lightning sweep through the north in June which poses the biggest threat to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

 Residents said about 50 people were killed after the Sunni militants, who have declared parts of Iraq and Syria they control a caliphate, arrived in Sinjar late on Saturday. While 20 were killed trying to defend that town, it's not clear how the others died.

 Many panicked Yazidis scrambled to find water and food for their children before climbing into their vehicles and rushing to surrounding mountains.

 Some did not manage to escape.

 "The innocent people of Sinjar were slaughtered. Men were killed and women have been taken as slaves by Islamic State fighters," said Vian Dakheel, a member of parliament from the Yazidi community, bursting into tears.

 The Yazidis, followers of an ancient religion derived from Zoroastrianism, are spread over northern Iraq and are part of the country's Kurdish minority.

 Many of their villages were destroyed when Saddam Hussein's troops tried to crush the Kurds. Some were taken away by the executed former dictator's intelligence agents.

 Now they are on the defensive again years after the fall of Saddam raised hopes of a brighter future for all.

 WHITE FLAGS

 Some of the most vulnerable could not withstand the weekend offensive. Almost 70 children between the ages of one month and four died of thirst or hunger, said Dakheel.

 The U.N. children's agency said families who fled the area are in immediate need of urgent assistance, including up to 25,000 children stranded in mountains.

 "The reported deaths of 40 children from minority groups who were displaced from Sinjar city and district by armed violence are of extreme concern," UNICEF said in a statement.

 "According to official reports received by UNICEF, these children from the Yazidi minority died as a direct consequence of violence, displacement and dehydration over the past two days."

 Sinjar district's estimated population of 308,000 includes about 150,000 children, said UNICEF.

 When the Islamic State swept into northern Iraq, the U.S.-trained army virtually crumbled. Thousands of soldiers fled.

 Hoping to fill a security vacuum, Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga who often boast of their bravery in battles with Saddam Hussein's troops, stepped in, as did Shi'ite militias.

 But the Islamic State routed the Kurds in the weekend surge, using artillery, mortars and machineguns seized from Iraqi soldiers compared to the Kurds' mostly AK-47 assault rifles.

 "We are feeling so frustrated to see the peshmerga fleeing the town and leaving us alone face to face with Islamic State fighters," said farmer Haji Beso, 47, a resident of Sinjar who also operates a small pickup truck that transports goods.

 "It was their duty to protect innocent people and die if they had to but they chose to flee without shooting a bullet."

 Sinjar, the ancestral home to the Yazidi religious sect, felt helpless. Then the exodus began.

 "After the peshmerga let us down and fled without fighting we couldn’t stay because we know that we would need a miracle to avoid the Islamic State's brutality," said Alyas Khudhir, a 33-year-old government employee with three children.

 "I’m sleeping with my kids on rocks and food is scarce. I have collected some tree leafs to feed my kids if food runs out. We are slowly dying and nobody cares about us."

 The refugees spoke to Reuters in telephone interviews.

 While the Islamist State sets its sights on new territory, there is no sign Iraq's bickering politicians will be able to form a power-sharing government soon to counter the insurgency.

 Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is defying calls by Sunnis, Kurds, some fellow Shi'ites and power broker Iran to step aside and make room for a less polarizing figure who could ease sectarian tensions causing the worst bloodshed since the height of a civil war in 2006-2007.

 Maliki has ordered his air force to help the Kurds, who have vowed to launch a counter-offensive against the Islamic State. But there is little sign of relief on the ground.

 Kareem Sido, 60, who grows tomatoes and cucumbers on his farm, decided to return to Sinjar when conditions on the mountain became too desperate.

 Like many he was scared that snakes and scorpions could hurt his loved ones. After watching two babies die from the heat, he decided to return home.

 On arrival, he was stopped at an Islamic State checkpoint. A fighter asked him why he had left and said there was no reason to fear the Islamic State, as long as he played by its rules.

 "All you have to do is put a white flag on the roof of your house and declare you will obey us," Sido quoted the militant as saying.

 When he climbed up to his roof he looked across Sinjar and saw a sea of white flags.

 (Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Paul Taylor) ||||| Yazidi women who fled the violence in the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar sit Tuesday at a school where they are taking shelter, in the city of Dohuk in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. (Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images)

 Stranded on a barren mountaintop, thousands of minority Iraqis are faced with a bleak choice: descend and risk slaughter at the hands of the encircled Sunni extremists or sit tight and risk dying of thirst.

 Humanitarian agencies said Tuesday that between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians remain trapped on Mount Sinjar since being driven out of surrounding villages and the town of Sinjar two days earlier. But the mountain that had looked like a refuge is becoming a graveyard for their children.

 Unable to dig deep into the rocky mountainside, displaced families said they have buried young and elderly victims of the harsh conditions in shallow graves, their bodies covered with stones. Iraqi government planes attempted to airdrop bottled water to the mountain on Monday night but reached few of those marooned.

 “There are children dying on the mountain, on the roads,” said Marzio Babille, the Iraq representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “There is no water, there is no vegetation, they are completely cut off and surrounded by Islamic State. It’s a disaster, a total disaster.”

 Most of those who fled Sinjar are from the minority Yazidi sect, which melds parts of ancient Zoroastrianism with Christianity and Islam. They are considered by the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State to be devil worshippers and apostates.

 Iraqi politician Vian Dakhil makes a raw, emotional plea for the protection of the Yazidi people before Iraqi parliament. (YouTube/Al Sumaria TV)

 The dramatic advance of the extremist Sunni fighters has torn the ethnic and religious fabric of the country, with Christians and Shiites also uprooted from cities and towns.

 The Islamic State’s takeover of Sinjar, the first major setback for Kurdish forces protecting the country’s north, sent about 200,000 people fleeing, according to the United Nations. Some 147,000 have arrived in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, flooding refugee camps.

 Most of those stranded on Mount Sinjar had run out of battery life on their cellphones by Tuesday, but the few that still could communicate gave grim updates.

 On Tuesday, 10 children and one elderly woman died, while on Monday, seven children had perished, said 23-year-old Shihab Balki, who was trapped with his mother, sister and four brothers. “I saw their bodies with my own eyes.”

 He later texted the news of another casualty: a young man who had died of thirst, leaving his wife and five children behind. UNICEF said that 40 children had died after being displaced from their homes in the area in the 48 hours ending Monday night, including an unknown number on the mountain. The agency did not have figures for Tuesday.

 In Baghdad, parliamentarians complained bitterly about the plight of the displaced, their discussions temporarily overshadowing wrangling over the nomination of a prime minister.

 “Children have died because of dehydration and lack of food,” Vian Dakheel, a Yazidi parliamentarian from Sinjar, said through tears. “My people are being slaughtered,” she continued, referring to reports of mass killings of those who had stayed behind.

 The ancient and secretive Yazidi sect, whose members number no more than 600,000 across Iraq, has suffered persecution for centuries.

 Islamic State posted the first pictures of its capture of Sinjar on social networking sites on Tuesday. One showed six men lying face-down in a field, a pistol pointed at the backs of their heads. “Kill them wherever you find them,” read the caption.

 Salem al-Sinjari, a 45-year-old teacher, said he’d seen around 25 bodies piled in the streets as he fled Sunday, leaving early enough to catch a ride to the Kurdish region. His mother, five brothers and two sisters wound up besieged on the mountain. He said he last spoke to them Monday before their last cellphone battery died.

 Iraqi Kurdish security forces known as pesh merga are attempting to secure a road from the mountain to the nearby city of Rabia, but the process involves clearing villages where locals are sympathetic to the militants, said Majid Shingali, another local parliamentarian, who left Sinjar on Saturday.

 Kurdish factions in neighboring Syria say they are entering Iraq to assist this country’s Kurds as they face Islamic State along a 650-mile front.

 The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organization by the United States for its armed struggle against the Turkish state, also called for all Kurdish factions to unite against the Sunni extremists.

 Babille, UNICEF’s Iraq representative, said that U.N. agencies have offered the Iraqi government technical assistance with airdrops but have yet to be asked for help. At least 15 to 20 flights would be needed just to provide those stranded with enough water and supplies to survive for a week, he said.

 “We need to get them out,” he said. “If we don’t, it would be catastrophic.”

 Mustafa Salim contributed to this report. |||||
What is a summary?

– The Islamic State regards Iraq's Yazidi minority as devil worshippers, so when militants captured the village of Sinjar this weekend, 60-year-old Yazidi farmer Kareem Sido fled to the mountains with thousands of others. What he found there were people dying of thirst in conditions so dire that he risked the trip home, Reuters reports. Up to 40,000 refugees remain on Mount Sinjar, however, surrounded by the extremists who attacked their village and who have a penchant for beheading dissenters. There is little food or water, and though the UN has offered to drop supplies, it hasn't been asked to do so by the Iraqi government. One witness tells the Washington Post that 10 children and one elderly woman died yesterday and seven children Monday; UNICEF believes 40 children have died since fleeing their village Monday night. "We need to get them out. If we don’t, it would be catastrophic," a UNICEF rep tells the Post. Going home would also spell death: "We would need a miracle to avoid the Islamic State's brutality," says one resident. There are about 308,000 Yazidi in Sinjar’s district; a minority sect of the Kurds, their religion is a combo of ancient Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam. When the Islamic State came to Sinjar on Saturday, 20 Yazidi were killed in a failed defense and 30 more died of unknown causes. Many more fled—the US-trained army fell apart and the Kurdish pershmerga, mobilized to take their place, ran away "without shooting a bullet," one Sinjar resident tells Reuters. The Christian Science Monitor has this primer on the Yazidi people.


News article:

Hard-line Iranian students stormed the British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the anger against Western powers after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

 Iranian cleric lawmakers talk in an open session of the parliament in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011. Iran's parliament has approved a bill to reduce Tehran's diplomatic relations with London and... (Associated Press)

 The mob surged past riot police into the British Embassy compound _ which they pelted with petrol bombs and stones _ two days after Iran's parliament approved a bill that reduces diplomatic relations with Britain following London's support of recently upgraded Western sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.

 Less than two hours later, police appeared to regain control of the site. But the official IRNA news agency said about 300 protesters entered the British ambassador's residence in another part of the city and replaced British flags with Iranian ones. The British Foreign Office harshly denounced the melee and said Iran has a "clear duty" under international law to protect diplomats and offices.

 "We are outraged by this," said the statement. "It is utterly unacceptable and we condemn it."

 It said a "significant number" of protesters entered the compound and caused vandalism, but gave no other details on damage or whether diplomatic staff was inside the embassy, although the storming occurred after business hours.

 The semiofficial Mehr news agency said embassy staff had left the compound before the mobs entered, but it also said those who occupied the area had taken six staff as hostages. It did not give their nationalities and the report could not immediately be confirmed.

 The protesters broke through after clashing with anti-riot police and chanting for its takeover. "Death to England," some cried in the first significant assault of a foreign diplomatic area in Iran in years. More protesters poured into the compound as police tried to clear the site.

 Smoke rose from some areas of the embassy grounds and the British flag was replaced with a banner in the name of 7th century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein. Occupiers also tore down picture of Queen Elizabeth II.

 The occupier called for the closure of the embassy calling it a "spy den" _ the same phrase used after militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 hostages for 444 days. In the early moments of the siege, protesters tossed out papers from the compound and hauled down the U.S. flag. Washington and Tehran have no diplomatic relations since then.

 The rally outside the British Embassy _ on a main street in Tehran downtown _ included protesters carrying photographs of nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari, who was killed last year in an attack that Iran blamed on Israeli and British spy services.

 Outside the embassy, students from some universities and seminaries burned British flags on fire as clashing with police.

 State TV reported that another group of hard-line students gathered at the gate of British ambassador's residence in northern Tehran, at the same time.

 Britain's Foreign Office said it was in contact with embassy officials. Officials were still checking on the well-being of workers and diplomats, a spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity in line with standing policy.

 Tensions with Britain date back to the 19th century when the Persian monarchy gave huge industrial concessions to London, which later included significant control over Iran's oil industry.

 But they have become increasingly strained as the West accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons _ a charge Tehran denies.

 In recent years, Iran was angered by Britain's decision in 2007 honor author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood.

 Rushdie went into hiding after Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, ordering Muslims to kill the author because his novel "The Satanic Verses" allegedly insulted Islam.

 The decision shortly after Iran detained 15 British sailors and marines in March 2007 for allegedly entering the country's territorial waters in the Gulf _ a claim Britain denies. The 15 were released after nearly two weeks in captivity.

 In 2006, angry mobs burned the Danish flag and attacked Danish and other Western embassies in Tehran in protest to the reprinting of a cartoon deemed insulting of the Prophet Muhammad in the Nordic country's newspapers.

 ___

 Associated Press writer David Stringer in London contributed to this report. ||||| TEHRAN Iranian protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on Tuesday, smashing windows, torching a car and burning the British flag in protest against new sanctions imposed by London.

 Britain said it was outraged and warned of "serious consequences." The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks "in the strongest terms." U.S. President Barack Obama said he was disturbed by the incident and called on Iran to hold those responsible to account.

 The attacks come at a time of rising diplomatic tension between Iran and Western nations who last week imposed fresh sanctions over Tehran's nuclear program, which they believe is aimed at achieving the capability of making an atomic bomb.

 Iran, the world's fifth biggest oil exporter, says it only wants nuclear plants to generate electricity.

 The embassy storming is also a sign of deepening political infighting within Iran's ruling hardline elites, with the conservative-led parliament attempting to force the hand of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and expel the British ambassador.

 "Radicals in Iran and in the West are always in favor of crisis ... Such radical hardliners in Iran will use the crisis to unite people and also to blame the crisis for the fading economy," said political analyst Hasan Sedghi.

 Several dozen protesters broke away from a crowd of a few hundred outside the main British embassy compound in downtown Tehran, scaled the gates, broke the locks and went inside.

 Protesters pulled down the British flag, burned it, and put up the Iranian flag, Iranian news agencies and news pictures showed. Inside, the demonstrators smashed windows of office and residential quarters and set a car ablaze, news pictures showed.

 One took a framed picture of Queen Elizabeth, state TV showed. Others carried the royal crest out through the embassy gate as police stood by, pictures carried by the semi-official Fars news agency showed.

 All embassy personnel were accounted for, a British diplomat told Reuters in Washington, saying Britain did not believe that any sensitive materials had been seized.

 Demonstrators waved flags symbolizing martyrdom and held aloft portraits of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on matters of state in Iran.

 Another group of protesters broke into a second British compound at Qolhak in north Tehran, the IRNA state news agency said. Once the embassy's summer quarters, the sprawling, tree-lined compound is now used to house diplomatic staff.

 An Iranian report said six British embassy staff had been briefly held by the protesters. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the situation had been "confusing" and that he would not have called them "hostages."

 "Police freed the six people working for the British embassy in Qolhak garden," Iran's Fars news agency said.

 A German school next to the Qolhak compound was also damaged, the German government said.

 BRITAIN OUTRAGED

 Police appeared to have cleared the demonstrators in front of the main downtown embassy compound, but later clashed with protesters and fired tear gas to try to disperse them, Fars said. Protesters nevertheless entered the compound a second time, before once again leaving, it said.

 British Prime Minister David Cameron chaired a meeting of the government crisis committee to discuss the attacks which he said were "outrageous and indefensible."

 "The failure of the Iranian government to defend British staff and property was a disgrace," he said in a statement.

 "The Iranian government must recognize that there will be serious consequences for failing to protect our staff. We will consider what these measures should be in the coming days."

 The United States, alongside the European Union and many of its member states also strongly condemned the attacks.

 There have been regular protests outside the British embassy over the years since the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed shah, but never have any been so violent.

 The attacks and hostage-taking were a reminder of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran carried out by radical students who held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran after the hostage-taking.

 All British embassy personnel were accounted for and safe, a British diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters in Washington.

 The diplomat said the attack likely flowed from Britain's November 21 decision to impose new sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program, including a ban on British financial institutions dealing with their Iranian counterparts.

 "It's impossible, really, not to reach that conclusion," the diplomat said, suggesting that the protests may have been sparked by the Iranian authorities.

 "In the past we have certainly had demonstrations that have ... been sanctioned, if not encouraged, by the government. I don't know about this one. I don't think we'd put it past them," said the diplomat.

 "It's hard to imagine, in a place like Iran, that these were some kind of spontaneous (event)," said a State Department official who declined to be identified.

 INFIGHTING

 The demonstrations appeared to be a bid by conservatives who control parliament to press home their demand, passed in parliament last week and quickly endorsed by the Guardian Council on Tuesday, for the government to expel the British ambassador in retaliation for the sanctions.

 A lawmaker had warned on Sunday that angry Iranians could storm the British embassy.

 "Parliament officially notified the president over a bill regarding degrading the ties with Britain, obliging the government to implement it within five days," Fars news agency quoted speaker Ali Larijani as saying.

 Ahmadinejad's government has shown no willingness to compromise on its refusal to halt its nuclear work, but has sought to keep channels of negotiation open in an effort to limit the worst effects of sanctions.

 An Iranian official told Reuters the storming of the British compounds was not planned by the government.

 "It was not an organized measure. The establishment had no role in it. It was not planned," said the official, who declined to be identified. Iran's Foreign Ministry said it regretted the attacks and was committed to ensuring the safety of diplomats.

 Police arrested 12 people who had entered the north Tehran compound, Fars said, quoting a police chief as saying they would be handed over to the judiciary.

 Protesters said they planned to stage a sit-in at the gates of the north Tehran compound and would not move until they were told to do so by Iran's religious leaders.

 Britain, along with the United States and Canada, imposed new unilateral sanctions on Iran last week, while the EU, France and Italy have all said financial measures against Tehran should be strengthened.

 (Additional reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Hashem Kalantari in Tehran, Parisa Hafezi in Istanbul, William Maclean and Adrian Croft in London and Arshad Mohammed in Washington. Writing by Jon Hemming, editing by Andrew Roche and Christopher Wilson) |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Hard-line Iranian students stormed the British embassy in Tehran today, surging past riot police, scaling the compound’s walls, and pelting the buildings inside with rocks and petrol bombs. They then pulled down the British flag, burned it, and replaced it with an Iranian one, the semi-official Mehr News Agency reported. Security forces “appeared to do little to stop them,” according to Reuters, though within less than two hours they had restored order. It’s unclear what happened to the embassy staff—Mehr said they’d fled “by the back door,” but it also at one point said students had taken six staffers hostage, according to the AP. The state-run IRNA news agency also reported roughly 300 protesters breaking into the British ambassador’s residence elsewhere in the city, and again bringing down the Union Jack flying there. The episode comes two days after Iran downgraded diplomatic relations with Britain over its endorsement of tougher Western sanctions.


Write an article based on this summary:

– The chemical spill that has left more than 300,000 people in West Virginia without water appears to be the product of lax regulation in a state where coal and chemical firms have long operated with little oversight, the New York Times finds. A document released over the weekend reveals state authorities were aware that the company responsible was storing up to a million pounds of the coal-cleaning chemical Crude MCHM at a riverside facility near a water treatment plant, but it's not clear whether the treatment plant knew about the risk, reports the Wall Street Journal. "We can’t just point a single finger at this company," says the director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, noting that the site of the spill hadn't been inspected since 1991. "We need to look at our entire system and give some serious thought to making some serious reform and valuing our natural resources over industry interests." A tap water ban is still in place in the Charleston region, where many schools and businesses remain closed, but authorities say they can "see the light at the end of the tunnel" and they expect the ban to be lifted within days, starting in downtown Charleston and other priority zones, NBC reports.

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 Last week’s major chemical spill into West Virginia’s Elk River, which cut off water to more than 300,000 people, came in a state with a long and troubled history of regulating the coal and chemical companies that form the heart of its economy.

 “We can’t just point a single finger at this company,” said Angela Rosser, the executive director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “We need to look at our entire system and give some serious thought to making some serious reform and valuing our natural resources over industry interests.”

 She said lawmakers have yet to explain why the storage facility was allowed to sit on the river and so close to a water treatment plant that is the largest in the state.

 Ms. Rosser and others noted that the site of the spill has not been subject to a state or federal inspection since 1991. West Virginia law does not require inspections for chemical storage facilities — only for production facilities.

 Some other states do require inspections of chemical storage facilities. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he was working with Randy Huffman, the secretary of the State Department of Environmental Protection, to come up with recommendations aimed at avoiding future leaks.

 The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported Sunday that a team of experts from the United States Chemical Safety Board asked the state three years ago to create a new program to prevent accidents and releases in the Kanawha Valley, known as Chemical Valley.

 That came after investigation of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, W.Va. No program was produced, and another team from the same board is expected to arrive Monday to investigate this accident.

 Critics say the problems are widespread in a state where the coal and chemical industries, which drive much of West Virginia’s economy and are powerful forces in the state’s politics, have long pushed back against tight federal health, safety and environmental controls.

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 “West Virginia has a pattern of resisting federal oversight and what they consider E.P.A. interference, and that really puts workers and the population at risk,” said Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a lecturer in environmental health at George Washington University.

 But Mr. Huffman disputed that accusation, noting that West Virginia’s economy is more heavily dependent than other states on the coal and chemical industries. “Based upon the types of industrial activity, how does it compare to the rest of the country? It’s not in context.” Although he added, “That’s no excuse for any incident where someone gets hurt.”

 Efforts to clean up the spill showed signs of improvement on Sunday.

 “The numbers look good, and like last night, they are very encouraging,” Governor Tomblin said in a news conference on Sunday. “I believe we’re at a point where we can say we’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel.”

 Officials said tests conducted at a water treatment plant downstream from the site of the leak showed little to no traces of contamination on Sunday morning, allowing testing to move to the next phase.

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 Once the testing is complete, the water company plans to begin lifting the do-not-use ban by zones. The work will start in downtown Charleston and three other “priority zones” that include the city’s four major hospitals and 25,000 customers who use more than half of the company’s water, said Jeff McIntyre, the president of West Virginia American Water.

 “I don’t believe we’re several days from starting the lift, but I’m saying not today,” Mr. McIntyre said.

 Government offices and many businesses planned to reopen on Monday, while many schools in the affected areas would remain closed, officials said.

 “Stores are open,” said Jimmy Gianato, the state director of homeland security. “We’re starting to get back to normal.”

 Emergency rooms have treated about 169 patients for symptoms related to chemical exposure, said Karen Bowling, the state health secretary. Ten people were admitted to three hospitals with symptoms that were not life threatening, she said.

 The chemical in last Thursday’s spill was 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, known as MCHM. The leak at the Elk River storage facility came from a ruptured tank storing this chemical, which is used to wash coal.

 No charges have been filed against Freedom Industries, the company that owns the plant, but the United States attorney’s office has already begun an investigation into the spill.

 “Whenever you have a discharge of a pollutant or a hazardous substance you have potential violation of the environmental laws,” said Booth Goodwin, the United States attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, according to a news report on WVVA.com.

 This is not the first chemical accident to hit West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley.

 After an explosion at a West Virginia chemical plant owned by Bayer CropScience killed two employees in 2008, a 2010 congressional investigation found that managers refused for several hours to tell emergency responders the nature of the blast or the toxic chemical it released. It also found that they later misused a law intended to keep information from terrorists to try to stop federal investigators from learning what had happened. The plant manufactured the same chemical that was being processed at the time of a gas release in 1984 that killed 10,000 in Bhopal, India.

 West Virginia is also no stranger to accidents in the coal industry.

 In 2012, federal prosecutors charged David C. Hughart, a top executive at Massey Energy, a West Virginia coal operator, with a felony count and a second misdemeanor conspiracy count related to the deaths of 29 coal miners in a 2009 explosion at West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine. Prosecutors said that Mr. Hughart and others knowingly conspired to violate safety laws at Massey’s mines and worked to hide those violations by giving advance warnings of surprise inspections by the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

 In 2009, an investigation by The New York Times found that hundreds of workplaces in West Virginia had violated pollution laws without paying fines. In interviews at the time, current and former West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection employees said their enforcement efforts had been undermined by bureaucratic disorganization; a departmental preference to let polluters escape punishment if they promised to try harder; and a revolving door of regulators who left for higher-paying jobs at the companies they once policed.

 In June 2009, four environmental groups petitioned the E.P.A. to take over much of West Virginia’s handling of the Clean Water Act, citing a “nearly complete breakdown” in the state.

 “Historically, there had been a questionable enforcement ethic,” said Matthew Crum, a former state mining director at the state’s Department of Environmental Protection.

 Cindy Rank, chairwoman of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy’s mining committee, said that the coal lobby has wielded great influence in crafting state environmental regulations. “Accidents are always preventable. For the most part I think that’s true in these disasters that keep happening,” she said. She recalled negotiations over a groundwater protection bill from the early 1990s. “We swallowed hard and allowed the coal industry to get away with a lot in that bill,” she said. ||||| Hundreds of thousands of West Virginia residents have gone more than four days without clean tap water after a chemical spill, though officials say that chemical readouts are returning to safe levels. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

 The latest tests of poisoned water in West Virginia have shown that the quality is improving “in the right direction,” the state’s governor said Sunday — a hopeful sign for the 300,000 residents currently under a strict tap water ban following a chemical spill four days ago.

 "We are at a point where we can see a light at the end of the tunnel," Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said at a news conference.

 But officials stopped short of saying when the do-not-use order would be lifted.

 "I can tell you we’re not several days from starting to lift, but I’m not saying today," said Jeff McIntyre, president of West Virginia American Water, which runs the water treatment plant.

 The chemical spill first noticed Thursday on the Elk River has contaminated the water supply in the heart of the state, shutting down schools and businesses across nine counties, and forcing emergency agencies to truck in clean water to the Charleston region.

 Lt. Col. Greg Grant of the West Virginia National Guard said two tests Sunday morning at the treatment facility show the chemical’s concentration at 0 parts-per-million for water going in and out of the plant.

 Before the all clear can be given once and for all, water sample test results must consistently show that the chemical’s presence in the public water system is at or below 1 parts-per-million, the level recommended by federal agencies.

 "That is a very encouraging and allows us to move forward" with the next phase of sampling and testing, Grant said.

 Sixteen teams were collecting samples from affected areas in the region, and officials cautioned that the ban won’t be lifted until results were in and the state health department signs off. Communities will be given the OK on a zone-by-zone basis.

 Marcus Constantino / The Daily Mail via AP Members of the West Virginia Army National Guard, along with a member of the Belle Police Department and a volunteer, offload emergency water from a military truck to a forklift as citizens line up Saturday for water at the Belle Fire Department in Belle, W.Va.

 West Virginia American Water is launching an online map to show which communities can begin using their tap water. The company will also autodial customers when the ban in their zone has been lifted. A hotline is also being made available to them.

 Schools will also be closed or partially closed in six counties Monday, although officials expect most students to be back in classrooms by Tuesday.

 The reliance on bottled water is taking its toll on frustrated residents who’ve stripped stores and spent hours in long lines to collect water from tankers set up by the National Guard. Until the water is deemed safe, residents have been asked not to drink, bathe and cook with the tainted tap.

 The environmental emergency began Thursday morning, when the state Department of Environmental Protection began receiving complaints around 8:15 a.m. of a licorice-type odor in the tap water. It took three hours before officials found the source of the spill.

 The source turned out to be the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, which had leaked out of a 40,000-gallon tank at a Freedom Industries facility along the Elk River.

 Freedom Industries didn’t report the leak to a spill hotline until 12:05 p.m. ET Thursday.

 State officials said Saturday they believe about 7,500 gallons leaked. Some of the chemical was contained before flowing into the river; it’s not clear exactly how much entered the water supply.

 All told, 169 people have sought treatment at hospitals for symptoms such as nausea. Of those, 10 were admitted to three different hospitals, but their conditions weren’t serious.

 Federal authorities, including the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, have opened an investigation into Thursday’s spill.

 According to the state DEP, Freedom Industries is exempt from DEP inspections and permitting since it stores chemicals, and doesn’t produce them.

 But the DEP ordered Freedom Industries to move its coal processing chemicals to a safer site and said it has 24 hours to start writing a plan on how it will clean up the spill and any soil contamination.

 The company did not take part in Sunday’s news conference, and Gov. Tomblin said the state hasn’t had much guidance from the company about the chemical in question.

 "Perhaps they could have been a little bit more forthcoming to offer their assistance about what problems this particular chemical could cause," Tomblin said.

 Tomblin said he will work with his environmental agency chief on tightening regulation of chemical storage facilities in the current legislative session.

 Most visitors have cleared out of Charleston while locals are either staying home or driving out of the area to find a hot meal or a shower elsewhere. Orders not to use tap water for much other than flushing toilets mean that the spill is an emergency not just for the environment but for local businesses.

 Lisa Hechesky / Reuters Boats sit in the Elk River in front of the Freedom Industries plant in Charleston, W. Va., on Saturday.

 In downtown Charleston, the store Taylor Books usually fills the 40 seats in its cafe. But the cafe was shut down by the state Department of Health on Friday because it said employees had no way to safely wash their hands before serving customers. On Saturday only three people sat in the bookstore using the wireless Internet.

 Taylor Books' manager Dan Carlisle said he canceled a musician scheduled to play that night and the store was going to close five hours early.

 “It’s pretty annoying,” Carlisle said about Freedom Industries’ response to the spill. “I feel like you should just be honest with people immediately.”

 In a statement issued Friday, Freedom Industries said that it was working with government agencies to contain the leak, and “the first priority was safety, containment and cleanup.”

 The chemical spill has forced West Virginia's residents to examine the state's reliance on the coal and chemical industries.

 Coal is critical to the economy. Strong coal prices and demand proved vital to the state budget during and after the national recession, from 2009 through 2011.

 In Gov. Tomblin's recent State-of-the-State speech, he touted the chemical industry, saying it was among those that grew substantially over the last year.

 The spill that tainted the water supply involved a chemical used in coal processing. But it didn't involve a coal mine — and that's a point state officials are trying to convey to the public.

 When asked if the emergency is one of the risks of being a state that relies heavily on the coal industry, Tomblin quickly responded: "This was not a coal company incident, this was a chemical company incident."

 "It's used in processing coal, as I understand it, but obviously it was not a coal company, it was a chemical company that left the breach and the tanks that's holding this particular chemical," he said.

 The coal industry, too, was saying they should not bear the blame in this case.

 "This is a chemical spill accident. It just so happens that the chemical has some applications to the coal industry, just that fact alone shouldn't cause people to point fingers at the coal industry," said Jason Bostic, vice president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report. |||||


Write an article based on this summary:

– Thanks to a team of researchers from Belgium, we may be close to synthesizing and, yes, possibly even bottling and selling the smell of human death, Discovery reports. Eva Cuypers and her team at the University of Leuven separated the tissues and organs of six humans and 26 different animals, placing them in jars to decompose over the next six months. By collecting the gases building up in the jars, researchers identified 452 organic compounds, according to Science. Eight of those compounds were found only in decomposing humans and surprisingly human-like pigs, and five of them were unique to humans. These five compounds—called esters—were created by decomposing muscles, carbohydrates, and fat, Discovery reports. The esters create a "singular chemical cocktail" in decomposing humans and could explain why so-called cadaver dogs are able to sniff out dead people amid any number of competing smells, including other dead animals, Science reports. Cuypers and her team published their findings last week. They believe the results could be used to better train cadaver dogs or even create a machine that could do the same job. And Discovery points out the synthetic smell of decomposing human bodies could prove popular at Halloween parties. Experts have questioned components of the research—including the separation of tissue and organs—and Cuypers plans a follow-up study using full bodies buried in a field, Science reports. (The smell of corpses can also reveal when a person died.)

William Hanlon's patented Beheading Block and Ax is not nearly as deadly as it sounds. In fact, it's a turn-of-the-century magic trick. Hanlon writes: "The object of this invention is to produce upon the stage in the presence of an audience and under full light an illusive beheading so nearly realistic that as the victim's head lies upon the block the descending ax and block give forth the natural thud of a blow, and the blade appears to actually sever the neck of the victim, and after the seeming separation of the head from the body both simultaneously fall, the body to the floor and the head apparently through the block to an opening at the base thereof at a point removed from its natural position, both in distance and angle, and all this without the employment of reflectors, such as are commonly used for illusive acts of this general character."

 Being buried alive might be less of a concern today, but it was a real possibility in the 19th century, as evidenced by various patents from the era. Many of these elaborate contraptions include all bells and whistles -- sometimes literally -- to prevent such mistakes. One even includes an air shaft to ensure proper breathing while the living soul awaits retrieval. Another is designed so that the mistakenly deceased must hit his or her head on the coffin to call for help.

 Improvement in Combined Grave, Coffin and Monument: Leland M. Speers and Abraham Clark; July 6, 1875 Three for the price of one! Leland M. Speers and Abraham Clark sought to bring simplicity to the 19th-century burial -- and an added safety feature in case someone was buried alive. In the gentlemen's own words: "(T)he features of the dead can be viewed at any time without removing the cover. This enables friends of the deceased who may have been absent at the time of the death and funeral to view the said deceased at any time they may wish. This construction also enables the body to be watched for any desired length of time, in cases where there may be doubt as to whether the body may be dead or in a trance state, until it revives or all doubt is removed."

 It turns out that "effectually adjusting and closing the eyelids of corpses in such manner as to impart thereto an undisturbed or natural appearance," was a difficult feat to perform in 1891 when J.M. Spear applied for a patent for his "Corpse Eye Closer." Spear's contraption, a rounded piece of metal with sharp, angled teeth, is meant to be slipped between the eyeball and the eyelid of the deceased.

 Can a torch of burning sulfur really keep a body from decomposing? Graham Hamrick thought so. In 1888, Hamrick devised a complicated process of embalming that included a plethora of chemicals and a burning sulfur torch that needed to be relit on a regular basis. The record shows it took more than four years for his patent to be approved, but Hamrick defended his process: "Subjects preserved by my procedure above set forth involving treatment for the longer period of about 40 days have been kept for many months through the hottest weather, in the open air, in a perfectly natural condition, and without any decomposition. I am unable to assign any limit to the continual preservation of such embalmed bodies."

 Improvement in Poison Bottles: James W. Bowles; Oct. 10, 1876 During the 19th century, losing your poison among the assortment of other -- non-lethal -- liquids and tonics in your collection was evidently a common mishap. Or at least James W. Bowles thought as much, so he set out to solve that problem in 1876 with his coffin-shaped bottles. Bowles explains in his patent: "(T)he peculiar shape of the bottle serves as a warning against the careless use of the contents."

 A decade before the turn of the century, John H. Chambers submitted a patent to systematically remove decomposition fluid from caskets -- which no longer needed to be buried, given his upright, contained design: "I am aware that it is not new to provide for the removal from the coffin of the fluid in a matter created by the decomposition of the body, and I do not seek to cover such, broadly. Neither do I claim, broadly, the process of embalming, as I am aware that it has long been the practice to embalm bodies after death; but so far as I am aware it never has been proposed to embalm the body and then provide for the exclusion of the air and the removal of the fluid matter from the coffin. This is important. I also attach importance to the employment of the disinfecting-trap in the outlet-pipe to the coffin."

 Decomposing human bodies have a unique smell — one that distinguishes them from other rotting animals, according to new research.

 Specifically, human corpses emit a unique five-chemical cocktail — comprised of 3-methylbutyl pentanoate, 3-methylbutyl 3-methylbutyrate, 3-methylbutyl 2-methylbutyrate, butyl pentanoate and propyl hexanoate — that separates them from the rest of the animal kingdom.

 These five chemicals are part of a group of molecules called esters, which are also responsible for the strong, sharp smells emitted by fruits like pineapples and raspberries, reports The Guardian.

 PHOTOS: Death Photos of Infamous and Controversial Leaders

 The human smell of death, in other words, is a little bit fruity.

 In collecting gases off of six humans and 26 different animals, researchers identified 452 distinct chemical compounds. Eight of those were specific to humans and pigs, and the five esters were unique to humans.

 The esters are produced by degrading muscles, carbohydrates and fat tissues.

 Pigs and humans share biological similarities, from growing similar hair to having the same gut flora. For that reason, pigs have been used in most previous decomposition studies. The new research is the first to look at how the two similar animals decompose in the same conditions.

 The finding might seem ghoulishly superfluous, but the information has value.

 PHOTOS: Patenting Death

 “The mixture of (these) compounds might be used in the future to more specifically train cadaver dogs,” analytical chemist Eva Cuypers told Science.

 It may also be useful in assisting party planning for the living: Increasingly elaborate Halloween parties have started to incorporate the smell of death as part of the Halloween experience.

 With advancements in the science of the smell of death, then, holiday terror can come in the form of the faint hint of pineapple — as well as a toothless man in an orange jumpsuit accosting you from behind a hay bale. ||||| In the aftermath of California’s recent forest fires, cadaver dogs sniffed beyond burning homes, charred forest, and even other dead animals to pick up the unique scent of human victims. A new study reveals how they might have done it: Decomposing humans seem to release a singular chemical cocktail, one that scientists might be able to use to better train cadaver dogs and even develop machines that could do the same job.

 Researchers have been trying to understand the “smell of death” for more than a decade. Two papers kicked off the effort in 2004, one from a Tennessee research station called the Body Farm that evaluated gases released late in decomposition, and the other from Greece, which looked at the early stages of the process. Since then, the list of carbon-based, or organic, compounds given off during decay has grown quite long, but there have been conflicting reports about which ones are emitted only by humans.

 In 2010 the Belgian Disaster Victim Identification Team asked analytical chemist Eva Cuypers and her forensic toxicology lab at the University of Leuven in Belgium for help finding the best way to train cadaver dogs to pick out human scents. Cuypers’s graduate student Elien Rosier started by putting tissue samples and organs from six autopsied corpses in jars in a lab closet. The jars’ screw caps, which let in some air, had stoppered holes that allowed her to periodically take samples of the gases building up inside. She set up other jars with pig, mouce, mole, rabbit, turtle, frog, sturgeon, or bird remains. Pig remains in particular have often been used in past decomposition studies because of their similarities to human bodies (which are often hard to come by): They have the same microbes in their guts, the same percentage of body fat, and similar hair as people. But it was not clear whether the decomposition process was the same because the two species had never been studied under identical conditions.

 Rosier identified the compounds in the collected gases and compared them among species. Over 6 months, she found 452 organic compounds. At first, sulfur-containing compounds seemed to distinguish the different species, but they were not unique to humans or even present in all humans. Further, they disappeared over time. Compounds called esters, a big component of animal fat, looked more promising. Ultimately, eight compounds distinguished pig and human remains from those of other animals, and five esters separated pigs from humans, the researchers report this month in PLOS ONE. “The mixture of [these] compounds might be used in the future to more specifically train cadaver dogs,” Cuypers says.

 The finding is important because “so far there [hasn’t been] any study based on monitoring human and pig carcasses under exactly the same conditions,” says Agapios Agapiou, an analytical chemist at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia who was not involved with the work. “But there are still many steps before creating a synthetic substance to train cadaver dogs.”

 “I don’t think there’s one specific thing that says it’s human,” adds John Sagebiel, an analytical chemist at the University of Nevada, Reno, who was also uninvolved in the study. He says relying solely on analytical chemistry to determine what cadaver dogs are sniffing out is too limited. It would be better to work with the dogs themselves to figure that out, he adds.

 And Arpad Vass, who is associated with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Body Farm and has compiled a list of compounds released by decomposing humans, points out that the use of specific tissues—versus a whole body—and the isolation of those tissues in jars means the researchers are looking at just a subset of the bacteria and other environmental factors that influence decomposition.

 Cuypers says her team plans to address some of these shortfalls in future studies. “The next step in our research is to see whether the same compounds are found in buried, full decomposing bodies in the field and to see whether dogs trained on the mixture respond more specific[ally] to human decomposing bodies.” If this cocktail passes muster, the find could pave the way for developing an electronic nose that can do what dogs do, she adds. ||||| In this study, a validated method using a thermal desorber combined with a gas chromatograph coupled to mass spectrometry was used to identify the volatile organic compounds released during decomposition of 6 human and 26 animal remains in a laboratory environment during a period of 6 months. 452 compounds were identified. Among them a human specific marker was sought using principle component analysis. We found a combination of 8 compounds (ethyl propionate, propyl propionate, propyl butyrate, ethyl pentanoate, pyridine, diethyl disulfide, methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide and 3-methylthio-1-propanol) that led to the distinction of human and pig remains from other animal remains. Furthermore, it was possible to separate the pig remains from human remains based on 5 esters (3-methylbutyl pentanoate, 3-methylbutyl 3-methylbutyrate, 3-methylbutyl 2-methylbutyrate, butyl pentanoate and propyl hexanoate). Further research in the field with full bodies has to corroborate these results and search for one or more human specific markers. These markers would allow a more efficiently training of cadaver dogs or portable detection devices could be developed.

 The decomposition can be influenced by many environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, soil type, submersion of the body [ 23 ]. Therefore, it is difficult to compare results of research groups that study the decomposing remains outdoors. In this study, we sampled the headspace of 6 human and 26 animal remains that decomposed for 6 months. This study was conducted in glass jars in laboratory environment to pre-concentrate and therefore easily sample the released VOCs. It is also a manner to standardize the methodology with control of the parameters such as temperature and moisture, as much as possible. These samples were collected and analyzed with a validated method using thermal desorber combined with gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (TD-GC/MS) [ 12 ]. When the VOC-profiles of human and animal remains were identified, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied on the results to search for (a) human specific marker(s). The aim of our study was to identify VOCs specific for human decomposition.

 Ultimately, a variety of forensic disciplines could benefit from these human specific markers. Mainly in the search of human bodies or remains. Thanks to their good olfactory capacity, cadaver dogs are able to locate bodies [ 17 , 21 ]. At this moment, mostly nonspecific compounds such as cadaverine and putrescine are used to train these dogs. They can find human cadavers with this training, but the use of artificial scents is highly debated. Cadaver dogs trained with these scents did not always react on real cadaver samples (data derived from dog handlers of the Federal Police in Belgium). Training aids appear to be an oversimplification of the decomposition odor [ 22 ]. A human specific marker can be used to train cadaver dogs more efficiently and therefore win time to locate a body. Moreover, when a human specific marker is found, it might be possible to develop a portable device that is sensitive enough to locate human remains.

 During the decomposition of human and animal remains, a wide spectrum of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is emitted in the environment. The past few years, the research to characterize this ‘smell of death’ has increased and a wide variety of compounds has already been identified: alkanes, alcohols, acids, esters, ketones, aldehydes, cyclic hydrocarbons, aromatic, sulphur- and nitrogen-containing compounds [ 1 – 19 ]. Pig remains are often used as human analogues ( Table 1 ) because of their similarity in hair coverage, weight, fat to muscle ratio, gut fauna and biochemistry [ 5 , 16 , 20 ]. However, the VOC-profiles of human and animal remains were hardly compared, notwithstanding the fact that they could be interesting to find a human specific marker. The following research groups compared human and animal remains. Degreeff et al. reported that phenylethene and methyl benzoate were more specific for human than animal remains [ 3 ]. Cablk et al. compared their experimental results of animal remains with literature results of human remains. They found 11 compounds published on human research which they could not detect in their animal study [ 2 ]. Vass suggested that carbon tetrachloride, pentane, decane and undecane appeared to be human specific. Additionally, he saw that 2-methylbutanal was always greater than 3-methylbutanal in the animal remains he studied (pig, deer, dog, cat, squirrel and sheep). However, in human remains he noted that this phenomenon was reversed or that both compounds were equal to each other [ 19 ]. Clearly, there are still inconsistencies in literature of the human specific compounds and more research has to be done.

 The compounds were identified in every sample and collected in spreadsheets. Based on these tables, the frequency of detection for every compound over a period of one, three or six months was calculated as a percentage for every species. The number of compounds for each chemical class (e.g. in 10 samples we saw 3 different alkanes) was expressed as a percentage of the total number of identified compounds. Based on these percentages a PCA-test was performed. The number of observations for each chemical class was also expressed as a percentage of the total observations (e.g. in 10 samples we saw 20 times an alkane). A PCA-test was conducted on these percentages too. Both tests were done after one, three and six months of sampling. After conducting these two PCA’s, the chemical classes (loadings) that were responsible for differences between human and animal remains were further investigated. In this PCA, the VOCs within the chemical class were analyzed using the prevalence of a VOC during the sampling period.

 To better understand all the data from the species gathered during six months of sampling and to determine if there were differences between human and animal remains, PCA was conducted by The Unscrambler X (CAMO Software). PCA is a multivariate data analysis that can be used when dimensionality of the data is high and where the possibility of replication is low [ 7 ]. The information is projected in principal components (PC). Multiple PC’s can be used. For every PC, every component that is analyzed in the PCA receives a loading. This loading represents how important this component is in a PC to give variation in the scores (in this study, the species). PC-1 contains the greatest source of information, PC-2 gives less information than PC-1, …. Every PC receives a percentage that indicates how much of the variance in the scores is explained using this PC. PC’s can be plotted in a bi- or tri-dimensional system to visualize all the information of a complex dataset. In this study, PC-1 was always plotted with PC-2. In the score-plot, similarities and differences can be detected in the scores, this means for this study: similarities and differences between human and animal remains. The closer the scores are to each other, the more similar they are with respect to the PC’s used. A score-plot has to be interpreted together with a loading-plot. In this loading-plot, the loadings or variables (in this study the VOCs) that are responsible for differences between scores can be found.

 The VOCs were analyzed using a validated TD-GC/MS method (Turbomatrix 150: Perkin Elmer, Zaventem, Belgium; 6890N-GC and 5975B-MS: Agilent Technologies, Diegem, Belgium) [ 12 ]. The TD was used to desorb the VOCs from the sorbent tubes. The sorbent tube was heated to 300°C for 30 min in the primary desorption. The VOCs were transported to a Tenax-coated cold trap, held at 0°C, due to a continuous flow of helium (40 mL/min). The VOCs are pre-concentrated on the cold trap. Secondary desorption was accomplished by heating the trap to 250°C at a temperature rate of 99°C/s and this temperature was maintained for 25 min. The VOCs were injected onto the GC-column (VF-624ms, 60 m x 0.25 mm x 1.4 μm) via a transfer line at 250°C. The temperature of the GC oven was held at 40°C for 1 min, increased to 80°C at 1°C/min, to 120°C at 3°C/min, to 250°C at 5°C/min and maintained this latter temperature for 10 min with a total GC-runtime of 90,33 minutes. Helium was used as carrier gas at a constant pressure of 29 psi. The GC/MS interface was kept at a constant temperature of 280°C. The electron impact ion source was used in positive mode at a temperature of 230°C. The quadrupole mass analyzer was kept at 150°C. Full scan spectra were recorded in a mass range of 15–400 amu. The VOCs were identified using NIST98 mass spectral library. For correct identification, the MS spectra match factor was minimum 70%.

 The air above the samples was drawn through sorbent tubes (prepacked Tenax TA tubes; 200 mg, 89 mm x 6.4 mm o.d.; Camsco, Houston, Texas) for 20 min at a rate of 100 mL/min using an ACTI-VOC pump (Markes, Frankfurt, Germany). After sampling, the sorbent tubes were closed with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) analytical caps. The air was sampled twice a week for the first month; once a week for the next three months and once a month until the samples had decomposed in the jar for 6 months. The sorbent tubes were conditioned prior to sampling for 1 h at 320°C at a flow rate of 100 mL/min helium (Praxair, Schoten, Belgium).

 The human remains samples were collected during autopsies. Autopsy samples were directly received from The Institute of Forensic Medicine, University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium ( https://www.uzleuven.be/en/forensic-medicine ). For our study of human remains, in which no informed consent was necessary because of the donation of anonymous autopsy samples, approval was received from the Medical Ethics Committee of the faculty of Medicine of the University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium. For the animal remains, it was approved by the Ethical Committee of the University of Leuven, Belgium (P121/2013).

 Human and animal remains were allowed to decompose at room temperature in glass jars closed with metal screw caps (1,062 L; Covera Packaging NV, Hoboken, Belgium). In these screw caps, a hole, which was sealed in between sampling, was made to allow headspace sampling. Since the screw caps were not completely air tight, oxygen could enter the glass jar and thus aerobic decomposition was ensured. This study was carried out in laboratory environment to create a concentrated environment and a similar environment between the decomposing remains. In Table 2 , the animal species that are used in this study can be found. These animal remains were chosen based on (1) the availability of dead animals and (2) the wide variety of animals useful in this study. For human and pig remains, different organs were removed and stored in the glass jars ( Table 3 ). The human remains were derived from six different bodies. An empty glass jar was placed in the same closet where all the samples were located. The headspace in the empty jar was sampled as a blank once a week together with the other samples.

 Deduced from the PCA-plot of the ketones ( S2 Fig ), there is no clear separation of the human remains. They are pulled to the lower part on the score-plot when decomposition is more advanced. This can be explained by a combination of ketones. However, none of these ketones were observed in all human samples neither were they specific for human remains.

 A PCA was conducted on the esters after one, three and six months ( Fig 7 ). After three and six months, the plot can be divided in two groups. Human and pig remains, moles and frogs are grouped at the right side of the y-axis. Only H c and H f were situated at the left. This separation in two groups is caused by a combination of esters. These esters are not specific for this group, but they had a higher prevalence during the sampling period. Looking at these compounds, the most important esters to search for a human specific marker are ethyl propionate, propyl propionate, propyl butyrate and ethyl pentanoate. These esters were commonly found in human and pig remains, except for H c and H f.

 In the PCA-plot of the alcohols ( S1 Fig ), the human remains dwell to the right side of the y-axis together with other species (Ml, P, F and R b). The alcohols with the highest X-loadings are ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-methyl-1-propanol, 1-butanol, 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-methyl-1-butanol. Those are compounds that were seen in almost every species and therefore not human specific. They have higher loadings because they were more frequently observed in these species.

 In Fig 6 , the result of the PCA that was conducted on the nitrogen-containing compounds after six months can be seen. Human remains are situated mostly in the upper left quadrant of the score-plot. Human remains a and c are pulled to the other side of the y-axis by pyrazines (2,5-dimethylpyrazine, trimethylpyrazine and tetramethylpyrazine) that were found in high percentages in these two samples. In the loading-plot indole, pyridine and skatole are found in the upper part. Indole was found in most of the species and was therefore not human specific. Skatole was only found in high percentages in sturgeon and occasionally in rabbits, chicks and human remains d. The prevalence of pyridine in human remains ranged from 53 to 96%. Human remains b was the only sample in which no pyridine was identified. This can be explained by the chromatogram: the peak of pyridine was between the overloaded peak of dimethyl disulfide and the overloaded peak of 3-methyl-1-butanol. There is a possibility that pyridine was under those peaks in the chromatogram of human remains b. Pyridine was only seen occasionally in a few other species.

 A PCA-plot was performed on the sulphur-containing compounds. In Fig 5 , the score- and loading-plots are shown after six months of sampling. The human remains are situated in the lower part of the score-plot, with the exception of human remains c. The compounds that are causing this variance are 3-methylthio-1-propanol, methylisobutyl disulfide, SO 2 , methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide, diethyl disulfide, CS 2 , methyl hexyl disulfide, H 2 S, methanethiol, methylethyl disulfide, methylisopropyl disulfide and 1-methylthioheptane. None of these compounds are uniquely found in human remains, nor are they found in all the human remains. Hence, this shift of the human samples was probably based on a combination of these compounds. However, there are three compounds that are interesting: (1) 3-methylthio-1-propanol was found in four of the six human samples (not in H c and H f), as well in pig, moles and frogs; (2) methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide was detected in five human samples (not in H f) and in pig, rabbits, moles, chicks, woodpecker and unidentified birds; (3) diethyl disulfide was identified in four of six human samples (not in H c and H f) and in the pig remains.

 After one month, the sulphur-containing compounds are the most important compounds that devide the species in the y-direction in the plot. However, after three months, the sulphur-containing compounds diminished. In Fig 4 , the percentage of nitrogen-containing compounds over time is shown for human remains a and mouse b (these two species can be found in a different quadrant in Figs 2 and 3 ). During the decomposition, the percentage of nitrogen-containing compounds increases. For both species, the loading of the nitrogen-containing compounds in the PCA are similary increasing over time. So this increase is not dependent on the species. When looking at the number of observations of the alcohols, an elevation in loading is observed during time which makes this chemical class interesting. Looking deeper into PC-1 (x-axis), esters and ketones are the chemical classes with the highest loadings and therefore the most important chemical classes that can explain the variance in the score-plot. Therefore, we will go further into these five chemical classes in the search for a human specific compound.

 In Fig 1 , an overview is shown of the number of decomposition days and samples that were taken from every species after one, three and six months. The number of samples varied sometimes because of technical issues whereby samples could not be taken or analyzed. It is important to know that in the first month of sampling, the fresh and bloating stage were ended for every species and they were already in the active or advanced decay.

 During 6 months, 452 VOCs were found in the headspace of the decomposing remains. Almost every chemical class was represented: alkanes (27), alkenes (28), aromatic compounds (17), cyclic compounds (13), ethers (13), alcohols (44), ketones (55), aldehydes (18), acids (11), esters (66), sulphur-containing compounds (77), nitrogen-containing compounds (71), halogen-containing compounds (7) and others (5). In the blank jar, traces from the laboratory environment (acetic acid, 2-propanone, ethyl ether, dichloromethane, ethanol, ethyl acetate, hexane, chloroform) and from the jar itself (triacetin, 2-ethyl-1-hexanol, 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one) were found. Also degradation products of the sorbent tube were identified (benzaldehyde, acetophenone, higher aldehydes (octanal, nonanal, decanal)).

 Discussion

 Only three research groups suggested human specific compounds previously in literature. In Table 4, a comparison was made between these compounds and the compounds that were found in our study here. Five compounds were not seen in animal remains and therefore still possible human specific markers. However, they were also not seen in human remains in our study. The setup of the study conducted by Degreeff et al. was different from our study since full bodies were used. Also the sampling method was different in the study of Degreeff et al. and Cablk et al. They used solid phase microextraction (SPME) compared to TD. It is possible that due to differences in setup, sampling and analysis method, these compounds were not released or detected in our study [6, 7, 10].

 In our study, it was not possible to separate the human remains from all the animal remains. However, a combination of eight VOCs is suggested to be human and pig specific: diethyl disulfide, methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide, 3-methylthio-1-propanol, pyridine, ethyl propionate, propyl propionate, propyl butyrate and ethyl pentanoate. When a PCA was conducted using only these eight compounds, the score-plot could be divided in two groups with on the right side the human and pig remains, with the exception of human remains f (Fig 8a). It must be noted that different remains were frozen before decomposition was started. Bacteria species may change since bacteria can be knocked down during freezing. Therefore, VOCs released during the decomposition can differ. For that reason, PCA-plot was done over without the frozen samples (H a, H d, T, Wo, Wa and B a) with five extra human samples from a follow-up experiment (H g-k) (Fig 8b). Already after one month of decomposition, separation of human and pig remains could be seen (with the exception of H f) which corroborate previous results.

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 larger image TIFF original image Download: Fig 8. PCA plots of specific markers. Score- and loadingplots of possible human and pig specific markers after six months of decomposition (a) and without frozen remains and with extra samples after one month (b). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0137341.g008

 3-methylthio-1-propanol can originate from methionine via deamination and decarboxylation by yeasts [24, 25]. The two sulfides, diethyl disulfide and methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide can be formed during the degradation of methionine and cysteine, the sulphur-containing amino acids [4, 9, 16, 26]. Also other well-documented sulfides were detected in high concentrations in this study (dimethyl disulfide, dimethyl sulfide). However, the latterly mentioned sulfides were not unique for human remains since they were seen in all animal remains in this study as well as in previous decomposition studies [2–9, 12, 14–19]. Notice that in 2 human remains (H c and H f), these human and pig specific sulphur-containing compounds (3-methylthio-1-propanol, diethyl disulfide and methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide) were not detected. This might be due to the fact that these compounds were only found in very small trace amounts. It could be possible that the smaller amount of muscles in H c and H f, and therefore smaller amount of sulphur-containing amino acids, is responsible for the lower number of sulphur-containing compounds (22 and 17 respectively) than the average human sample (27,6). 3-methylthio-1-propanol and diethyl disulfide were not detected in H c. These remains were already decomposing for three weeks before the samples were taken. Since the sulphur-containing compounds are less important further in time, this can explain why H c is lying in the upper part of the score plot, separated from the other human remains. 3-methylthio-1-propanol was previously only detected by Forbes et al. and Kasper et al. in pig and mice remains respectively [6, 9]. Until now, methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide and diethyl disulfide were not detected in other decomposition studies.

 Nitrogen-containing compounds are released during the decomposition of proteins and nucleic acids [4, 23]. The most discussed nitrogen-containing VOCs of decomposition are cadaverine and putrescine since they are assumed to be key compounds in cadaver dog alerting [17]. Putrescine and cadaverine are released after decarboxylation of arginine and lysine respectively [15, 26]. Both compounds were not detected in this or other decomposition studies. Probably because of their low volatility or because they are quickly metabolized by bacteria after they are released [4, 15, 17]. Dekeirsschieter et al. suggested that 2-piperidone could be a metabolite of cadaverine. They detected this compound in the headspace of all their decaying pig carcasses [4]. Also in this study, 2-piperidone was found, occasionally in the chicks and once in human remains c. Pyridine was frequently found in all human remains but one. It was also not detected in the pig remains. Pyridine is a solvent and reagent that is often used in a laboratory environment. This could explain the occasionally identifications in other species, however not for the human remains samples since blanks and species that were sampled the same day as human remains samples were negative for pyridine. Therefore, it is unlikely to originate from the laboratory environment. Pyridine is not abundant in nature. It was previously detected by Statheropoulos et al. and Dekeirsschieter et al. in human and pig remains (only in forest environment) respectively [4, 16]. Statheropoulos et al. suggested that pyridine was originating from niacin [16], also called vitamin B3. This is a precursor of the coenzymes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). Niacin can be synthesized in the body from tryptophan or it is found in high concentrations in organ meat, fish, whole grain products and legumes [27].

 Esters are described to be degradation products of muscles, fat tissue and carbohydrates [4, 16]. Kasper et al. suggested that esters are derived from the reaction from acids with alcohols. Since butanoic acid is detected during all the stages and the most prominent acid, they especially found esters from butanoic acid [9]. In this study, a lot of esters were also derived from butanoic acid, but other esters were found as well. Ethyl propionate, propyl propionate, propyl butyrate and ethyl pentanoate, the suggested human and pig specific markers in this study, were also found in other pig studies [6, 7, 10]. Kasper et al. detected propyl butyrate and ethyl pentanoate in decomposing mice, though it was not found in mice in this study [9]. During the analyses of the esters, the combination of ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, ethyl 3-methylbutyrate and ethyl butyrate were interesting, but not specific for human remains. Most of the time, they were detected in frogs, moles, pig and human remains. When these compounds were used in a PCA, two groups could be defined (Fig 9a). In the group at the right of the y-axis, carnivores and omnivores can be found. It is possible that the diet or bacteria in their intestines differ from herbivores and that this has an influence on the production of these compounds. Only F b, H c and H f were at the left side of the y-axis. The number of esters was also lower in human remains c and f (9 and 14 vs. 24 (average)). Probably because of a lower amount of fat tissue (H c) and muscles (H c and H f) that was decomposing in the samples. Some birds (Sp, St, Ro and Wo) are also carnivores or omnivores. They are not situated on the right of the plot, but there is a difference with the other herbivores (R, M and Wa). Those three esters were already found in pig and human decomposition studies [6–8, 10, 14]. Kasper et al. found ethyl 2-methylbutyrate and ethyl butyrate in mice remains, although they were fed with hay food pellets [9].

 In all the previous PCA’s, pig and human remains are very similar. This supports the use of pig remains as human analogues [1, 4–7, 10, 11, 13, 16]. However, pig remains could be separated from human remains based on five esters (3-methylbutyl pentanoate, 3-methylbutyl 3-methylbutyrate, 3-methylbutyl 2-methylbutyrate, butyl pentanoate and propyl hexanoate) (Fig 9b). To the best of our knowledge, only butyl pentanoate was identified previously in literature, by Dekeirsschieter et al. in pig remains [4]. This separation is based on one sample of pig remains, which could be not representative. Therefore, this aspect will be investigated further to see if human and pig remains can be separated and a human specific marker can be found.

 It should be pointed out however, that there are limitations in our study. Because of the use of glass jars only parts of organs and tissues of humans and pigs could be decomposed. It remains uncertain if other VOCs are released when full bodies are used. However, different tissue (fat tissue, muscle and liver) was sampled, whenever it was possible, to replicate the full body, intestines were added to have the main bacteria that start the decomposition. Using this experimental setup, VOCs could be concentrated in the jars that allowed easy sampling. Another limiting factor of this setup was the absence of environmental parameters that can influence the decomposition and therefore the VOCs that are released. Further investigation in the field with full bodies will have to confirm these results. It should also be noted that using MS identification alone, it is not possible to conclusively identify highly branched esters. However, we could unequivocally identify the human and pig specific compounds when comparing them to the standards (except for methyl(methylthio)ethyl disulfide, 3-methyl butyl pentanoate and 3-methylbutyl 2-methylbutyrate; for these compounds, standards were not commercially available). Notwithstanding its limitations, this study is an important step in the search for human specific markers where VOC-profiles of animal and human remains are identified in a same setup with the identical sampling and analysis method and the profiles could be compared. |||||