Sri Lanka, Oct. 1 -- The police are investigating the death of South Africa's ambassador to France as a possible suicide, after he was found dead outside a Paris hotel on Tuesday, according to the French authorities.

Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said in a statement that the ambassador, Nkosinathi Emmanuel Mthethwa, had booked a room on the 22nd floor of the Hyatt Regency hotel, on the western edge of the French capital. The room's window had been forced open with scissors that were left at the scene, and Mr. Mthethwa's body was found in the hotel's courtyard shortly after 11 a.m. by a security guard, Ms. Beccuau said.

Mr. Mthethwa's wife had reported him missing to the police on Monday evening after he sent her a message "in whi...