Word: solarized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Those were some of the mysteries that tantalized investigators on three continents last week as they continued to probe the deaths of 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple, an apocalyptic religious cult, in Switzerland and Canada two weeks ago. One question was answered: Luc Jouret, 46, the spiritual leader of the cult, was among those whose bodies were found in three burned ski chalets in Granges-sur-Salvan, east of Geneva. Jouret's charred remains, along with those of co-leader Joseph di Mambro, 70, were identified from dental records. The finding ended an international manhunt...
...letter that began "Dear Charlie" was sent to the newspaper, claiming that the French embassy in Ottawa had been instructed by Paris not to renew Jocelyne's passport last year, at a time when the couple were still living in Canada. It was Pasqua's "desire to destroy" the Solar Temple through "unsupportable harassment," the Di Mambros' letter said, that had led them to "decide to leave this terrestrial plane...
Some 300 officials and organizations worldwide received packets from the Solar Temple, all mailed by cult member Patrick Vuarnet, the son of one of France's best-known skiers, on instructions from Jouret. Vuarnet, now in Swiss custody, was one of several well-connected converts to the Solar Temple, many of whom signed over their assets. Investigators suggested that the cult may have amassed as much as $93 million and that part of the money was used to support a posh life-style for Jouret and Di Mambro and to buy houses in Western Europe and Canada. Last week...
...Jouret had publicly urged followers to stockpile weapons to prepare for the end of the world and last year pleaded guilty in Canada to illegal arms possession. Canadian officials confirmed they were pursuing specific information implicating Di Mambro in money laundering, but they expressed skepticism at a report that Solar Temple leaders had purchased guns and other military equipment in Australia and resold the materiel in the Third World...
...charred bodies of 48 men, women and children -- members of a secretive religious sect known as the Order of the Solar Temple -- were discovered in two Swiss villages, a tragedy that included apparent suicides and what local authorities described as "collective murder" made to appear as mass suicide. In a fire-damaged farmhouse in Cheiry, a village north of Geneva, police discovered 23 dead men and women wearing ceremonial vestments. Fifty miles away, in Granges-sur-Salvan, investigators found 25 additional bodies in three burned-out chalets. Many had bullet wounds indicative of point-blank execution. Almost simultaneously, Canadian authorities...