Ban of Controversial Painkiller Dramatically Cuts Suicides in UK

The withdrawal of a popular painkiller from the market in the United Kingdom has led to a dramatic decrease in the number of suicides and accidental overdoses in that country, according to a study conducted by researchers from Oxford University's Centre for Suicide Research and published in the British Medical Journal.

The drug in question is a combination of the narcotic painkiller dextropropoxyphene (in the opioid family) with the over-the-counter painkiller acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol or Tylenol. In the United Kingdom, the drug was marketed as co-proxamol, but it is also known as Darvon with APAP, Capadex, Di-Antalvic, Di-Gesic and Lentogesic.

In 2005, the British Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) decided to remove co-proxamol from the market after statistics emerged suggesting that the drug was particularly dangerous, causing between 300 and 400 self-poisoning deaths every year. Approximately 80 percent of these deaths were intentional suicides.'

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The Guantánamo 'Suicides': A Camp Delta Sergeant Blows the Whistle

When President Barack Obama took office last year, he promised to "restore the standards of due process and the core constitutional values that have made this country great." Toward that end, the president issued an executive order declaring that the extra-constitutional prison camp at Guantánamo "shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order." Obama has failed to fulfill his promise. Some prisoners are being charged with crimes, others released, but the date for closing the camp seems to recede steadily into the future. Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006.'

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France Telecom Staff Protest Over Wave of Suicides

Dozens of France Telecom employees have staged protests in Paris and in the city of Troyes, where a 49-year-old technician employed there stabbed himself after a demotion. There have been a staggering 22 suicides at the company in just 18 months.

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Woman Found Hanged Is 24th Young Suicide Victim In Bridgend in Two Years

Lisa Dalton, a 25-year-old mother-of-one, had been battling against anorexia since she was a teenager.
She was discovered in her two-bedroomed semi-detached home - just weeks after being released from hospital.
Friends said Lisa's little girl Gracie was being cared for by her grandmother while she was being treated for anorexia.
A neighbour said: "She was a loving mother and wherever she went she had little Gracie with her. She was lovely and would always say hello but she had ongoing problems because of her weight.
"In the last couple of months people had remarked how much better she looked as she put on a bit of weight. But since the summer she had been in and out of hospital for treatment. What has happened is awful - she was so young and had a beautiful little girl."
Police confirmed Lisa had been found hanged inside the property. Gracie was not there at the time.
Another 23 young people aged 15 to 27 have been found hanged in the borough of Bridgend since the start of 2007.
But South Wales police say there is no link between the deaths.
A spokesman said: "We were called to a report of a sudden death of a 25 year old woman in Bridgend. The death is not being treated as suspicious. A file is being compiled on behalf of the coroner.
"There are clearly similarities between recent sudden deaths in Bridgend but we can confirm our investigations have by no means uncovered any criminal evidence that links them."

Daily Telegraph