Mass Suicide

The woman identified as the leader of a small religious group was being held for questioning after a 22-hour search sparked by fears of a suicide pact, officials said. Reyna Marisol Chicas, 32, who has been identified by family members as the leader of the group, initially gave authorities a different name when approached by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in a park east of Palmdale, authorities said. Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore called Chicas "disingenuous" about her identity.

It took false reports of mass suicide for Mexicans to rally in great number to the aid of the legendary Tarahumara Indians, who are facing a season of starvation. But publicity about their plight has exposed the chronic marginalization and growing perils, including drug violence, faced by many indigenous communities, activists say. Members of the Tarahumara community "die every year from hunger; it's just that this year, it's worse," said Liliana Flores, a founder of the El Barzon organization, which works with poor campesinos and indigenous peoples.

An Oregon man accused of using the Internet to try to organize a mass suicide for Valentine's Day was indicted in Klamath Falls while deputies kept watch over his house to make sure no one arrived to kill themselves. Gerald D. Krein Jr., 26, was indicted on one count of solicitation to commit murder and four counts of solicitation to commit manslaughter. Krein, who was arrested last week, told investigators he had been in touch with 31 women.

Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said Monday that he's not happy with how the team has played, and he has pondered making a trade to shake things up. The two-time defending champions lost Sunday to the hated Boston Celtics and Friday night to the lowly Sacramento Kings, with both losses at home, leaving Kupchak in a state of uneasiness about his team. "Yes . . . I may have to look into a trade, but I'm not saying we have" talked to other teams yet, Kupchak said. "We have not been playing up to our level and I don't know why. Maybe it's complacency.

In a taped conversation with a lawyer, cult leader David Koresh blasted the notion that sect members planned a mass suicide and called his armed response to the initial raid by federal agents "the American way." On the tape given to the Houston Chronicle, Koresh also said he was waiting for gunshot wounds he received during the first raid to heal before ending the standoff that began with the shootout, the newspaper reported Friday.

In a taped conversation with a lawyer, cult leader David Koresh blasted the notion that sect members planned a mass suicide and called his armed response to the initial raid by federal agents "the American way." On the tape given to the Houston Chronicle, Koresh also said he was waiting for gunshot wounds he received in the raid to heal before ending the standoff that began with the shootout, the newspaper reported Friday.

The decision to flood the Branch Davidian compound with tear gas, approved by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and cleared with President Clinton, was intended to be one of a series of steps stretching over several days that would push cult leader David Koresh toward surrender--not to trigger an apocalyptic showdown, officials said Monday.

Novelist and journalist Shiva Naipaul, who won acclaim for his woeful stories of life in the Third World, has died at his north London home, his family said. He was 40. Naipaul, the younger brother of the better-known writer, Vidiadhar S. Naipaul, died Aug. 13 of a heart attack.

Some things seem beyond belief. Flying saucers, many would say, or out-of-body experiences. But in fact there are no limits on belief, and there is no more startling evidence of that than the 39 bodies found in repose, most of them under purple shrouds, at a fine home in gracious Rancho Santa Fe. Many of these men and women, most in their 40s, had coins and $5 bills in their pockets.

More than a dozen adherents of the outlawed Falun Gong meditation movement apparently died last month in a Chinese labor camp in what the government says was a mass suicide but the group's representatives allege was the result of brutal mistreatment. A government official in northeastern Heilongjiang province said that 14 Falun Gong followers hanged themselves June 20 in the Wanjia labor camp, the Associated Press reported today.

The woman identified as the leader of a small religious group was being held for questioning after a 22-hour search sparked by fears of a suicide pact, officials said. Reyna Marisol Chicas, 32, who has been identified by family members as the leader of the group, initially gave authorities a different name when approached by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies in a park east of Palmdale, authorities said. Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore called Chicas "disingenuous" about her identity.

Authorities launched a major search for five members of a cult-like group in Palmdale and at least eight children who were reported missing after leaving a prayer meeting early Saturday in a feared mass suicide plot, according to Los Angeles County sheriff's officials. The group was believed to be traveling in three vehicles: a white 2004 Nissan Quest, a 1995 white Mercury Villager and a newer-model, silver-colored Toyota Tundra, according to the California Highway Patrol, which issued an alert for them.

Why did they do it? In the nearly 30 years since more than 900 people died in what's been called the largest mass suicide-murder in history, the question of why so many otherwise seemingly rational human beings could be persuaded to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in the jungles of Guyana has been one of the most haunting of our time. The riveting documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" comes as close as we are going to get to answering that question.

A black rag doll. A burgundy choir robe. A bulletproof vest. Denice Stephenson carefully lifts a few of the remnants of Jonestown from their storage boxes. Much of the detritus of that ill-fated, would-be utopia is kept here, in a vault at the headquarters of the California Historical Society. A volunteer archivist, Stephenson places several of the hundreds of handwritten letters and photos on a long table.

An Oregon man accused of using the Internet to try to organize a mass suicide for Valentine's Day was indicted in Klamath Falls while deputies kept watch over his house to make sure no one arrived to kill themselves. Gerald D. Krein Jr., 26, was indicted on one count of solicitation to commit murder and four counts of solicitation to commit manslaughter. Krein, who was arrested last week, told investigators he had been in touch with 31 women.

A man who used an Internet chat room allegedly to try to set up a mass suicide on Valentine's Day had been trying to persuade women for at least five years to engage in sex acts with him and then kill themselves, a county sheriff said. Gerald Krein is charged with solicitation to commit murder, and prosecutors are expected to add an attempted manslaughter charge today, Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger said. Krein, 26, told investigators he had been in contact with 31 women, authorities said.

On a grassy slope in Oakland, more than 400 take their final rest, mostly children who were unclaimed or unidentified. And across San Francisco Bay, a U.S. congressman is buried in a national cemetery not far from a park that bears his name. Their lives converged 25 years ago Tuesday in a South American jungle clearing that has come to symbolize the worst that organized religion, cults and madness can reap. "The people of Jonestown were a precious people, family people," the Rev.

The leader of the armed religious sect holding federal agents at bay no longer says he is Jesus Christ and says his followers fired on authorities in self-defense, the FBI said Friday. David Koresh, leader of the Branch Davidian sect, also has expressed remorse for the shootout last Sunday that led to at least 14 deaths.

Danny Wallace, a twentysomething Brit and merry prankster, placed an ad in a London newspaper in 2002 with the words "Join Me" and cryptic instructions to send passport photos to his address -- just to see what would happen. That first advertisement yielded a solitary response, but it was enough to trigger a power trip for Wallace: "Suddenly, I was a leader of men." A few months later, after a few more enigmatic ads and fliers, the BBC comedy producer and freelance journalist launched www.

On a grassy slope in Oakland, more than 400 take their final rest, mostly children who were unclaimed or unidentified. And across San Francisco Bay, a U.S. congressman is buried in a national cemetery not far from a park that bears his name. Their lives converged 25 years ago Tuesday in a South American jungle clearing that has come to symbolize the worst that organized religion, cults and madness can reap. "The people of Jonestown were a precious people, family people," the Rev.