Cult Members Go Missing in Apparent Mass Suicide Bid
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Police launched a helicopter search for 13 missing cult members on Sunday amid fears they had gone to a California desert to commit mass suicide.

The religious sect included eight children, aged as young as three, and was led by a suburban housewife Reyna Marisol Chicas, 32.

She took her two children Ezequel, 15, and Genisis, 12, with her, police said.

The group, made up of El Salvadorian immigrants, left behind a bag with a relative which contained farewell notes in which members indicated the world was about to end and they were “going to heaven.”

An alert issued by the California Highway Patrol said: “It is believed, through further investigation, that their intentions are to commit mass suicide.” >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles | Sunday, September 19, 2010

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Cult members 'planning mass suicide' discovered praying for end to sexual immorality: Members of a religious cult feared to be planning a mass suicide in a California desert were discovered hours after they went missing. >>> Nick Allen in Los Angeles | Sunday, September 19, 2010

Russian Cult Threatens Mass Suicide in Cave
THE TELEGRAPH: Around 30 members of a Russian cult have shut themselves inside a remote cave to await the end of the world and are threatening to commit suicide if police intervene, officials and media said today.

"They have covered the entrance and refuse to come out and are threatening to blow themselves up," an official in the local prosecutor's office said by telephone.

"They threaten to detonate a gas tank and blow themselves up." Russian cult threatens mass suicide in cave (more)

Mark Alexander