'Sucide doctor' a fugitive

Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan doctor who has assisted in more than 20 suicides, has become a fugitive after failing to turn himself in to the police as promised yesterday, writes Patrick Cockburn in Washington. A judge has signed a warrant charging Dr Kevorkian with assisting in the suicide of Meriam Frederick, a 72-year-old woman who died from carbon monoxide poisoning in his apartment last month. Dr Kevorkian already faces two assisted suicide charges under a law introduced by the state of Michigan specifically to curtail his activities earlier this year. His lawyer still insists the retired pathologist will give himself up to the police later.