Suicides

What was it that Nicaragua's greatest athlete heard from the president's envoy the night he shot himself in the chest? After dark on June 30, a loyal lieutenant to President Daniel Ortega paid a visit to Alexis Arguello, the mayor of Managua and a world champion boxer three times over. A few hours later, the mayor was dead. No one is sure why Arguello killed himself. If it really was suicide, that is. He was only six months into his new job as mayor. But things were not going well.

Reporting from Hope, British Columbia, and Los Angeles -- Detectives are investigating whether Ryan Jenkins got help disposing of model Jasmine Fiore's body after he allegedly killed her and whether others helped him flee and hide, police said. Jenkins was found dead in a British Columbia motel room Sunday night. He apparently committed suicide and police are focusing on a woman who they said was with the former reality TV star when he checked in. Canadian authorities on Monday refused to identify her and described her as a "person of interest" in the case who knew him previously.

A man accused of killing his wife, model Jasmine Fiore, did not acknowledge the killing in a suicide note left on his laptop computer but expressed his love for her repeatedly and wrote that he was jealous and angry, police said. Buena Park Police Sgt. Bill Kohanek on Tuesday said the 1 1/2 -page "suicide letter" was recovered by investigators from Ryan Jenkins' laptop after the former VH1 reality show contestant hanged himself in a Canadian motel room not far from the border after a pursuit by U.S. authorities.

A decorated Burbank Police Department sergeant who was named in an FBI probe shot and killed himself on a residential street corner Thursday, authorities said. Burbank police responding to a "shots fired" call about 11:40 a.m. near North Sunset Canyon Drive at East Harvard Road found Neil Thomas Gunn, 50, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police officials called the death of the 22-year veteran "a devastating tragedy" and said the investigation into what led to the suicide would be handled by the neighboring Glendale Police Department.

The small squares of colored paper began cropping up on the doors and walls of Henry M. Gunn High School last week, two days after William Dickens, 16, killed himself on the nearby train tracks. "Just keep swimming," one Post-it note said. "There is always someone who will listen," was written on another. And, "There's no meaning to happiness w/o sadness. Take it easy." Dickens was the fourth Gunn student in less than six months to commit suicide near where East Meadow Drive crosses the Caltrain tracks here in the affluent, high-achieving heart of the Silicon Valley.

A short workweek and the prospect of early retirement. Job-protection laws that make it almost impossible to get fired. Seven weeks of holidays and vacation time a year. Oh, and paid lunches. A harried American worker might ask: What's not to like? And a dissatisfied French worker might respond: Plenty. A wave of suicides at the country's largest telecommunications firm has unnerved France, long viewed by many outside the country as a cushy haven for employees. Experts say the incidents are the most visible examples of the growing phenomenon of stress-induced illness in the country.

Peter Sinclair rummaged through the closet and found what he was looking for. His roommate, drawn to the commotion, saw Pete raise a gun to his head. Daniel Jennings managed to yank it away. He locked up all of Pete's guns. "You can't stop me," Pete said. Jennings and Pete had served together in Iraq from 2004 to 2005, but this was a year later and Pete was struggling. Daniel encouraged him to lie down and left to get help once Pete seemed calmer. "You're a good man," Pete said.

A man found dead in a car Saturday near a popular surfing spot along the Pacific Coast Highway killed himself, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said Sunday. An autopsy determined that Castro Walker, 47, bled to death from self-inflicted wounds to his wrists and neck. His body was found in a vehicle south of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades. Police said Walker was homeless.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk dumped his justice minister and three other top justice officials after an outcry over the apparent suicide of a man imprisoned for kidnapping and murder. Tusk said he accepted the resignation of Justice Minister Zbigniew Cwiakalski a day after the death of inmate Robert Pazik, who was found hanged with a sheet in his cell. Pazik was the third man believed to have committed suicide out of a group convicted in the 2001 kidnapping and murder of Krzysztof Olewnik.

Government medical advisors recommended a ban on Darvon, a prescription medicine that's been used to treat pain for more than 50 years but has left a trail of problems such as addiction and suicide. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14 to 12 to recommend withdrawing Darvon after a daylong hearing examining its risks and benefits. The consumer group Public Citizen had petitioned the FDA to withdraw Darvon because the drug offers relatively weak pain relief and poses an overdose risk, with the potential to be used in suicides.