Ernest Hemingway was ‘driven to suicide over FBI surveillance’
New York, July 4
For over 50 years, journalists, writers and even psychologists have tried to unravel the exact reason why American author Ernest Hemingway took his own life. Now his close friend and collaborator has claimed that Hemingway may have been driven to suicide, by shooting himself at his Idaho home while his wife Mary slept, because of surveillance by the FBI, the media reported.

Death mystery solved? Ernest Hemingway

Bangkok, July 4
Thailand's powerful army, which had deposed former premier Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006, today accepted the spectacular victory of his sister's Pheu Thai Party at the hustings, even as Yingluck Shinawatra announced the formation of five-party coalition government.

Defence Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon said the army would accept a government led by 44-year-old Yingluck, set to become the country's first woman PM and vowed the military would not stage a coup.

"I've said this several times," Prawit was quoted as saying by the Thai media. "We are not going to intervene." The assurance by the military offers a new sense of stability in the country plagued by political uncertainty and puts at rest rumours of any coup attempt.

Yingluck Shinawatra said her priority would be to put the nation on a path of national reconciliation, a day after the Pheu Thai Party swept the national elections. It announced an accord with four other parties for a coalition.

Yingluck, whose party has on itself won a majority of 265 seats in the 500-seat lower house of parliament, said the agreement would boost her coalition to a strength of 299 seats.

The Democrat Party, which has led a coalition government for more than than three years, will now sit in the opposition.

The other components in the coalition would be Chartthaipattana with 19 seats, Chart Thai Pattana Puea Pandin with and Palang Chon with seven each and Mahachon with a single seat. The 299 MPs should be enough to ensure a solid majority, she said.

Earlier, the outgoing Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva resigned as leader of his Democrat Party today owning responsibility for the crushing defeat at the hands of the opposition.

"I have decided to resign because I could not lead my party to victory in the elections," the suave Oxford-educated Abhisit said. Democrat Party members will now meet to select a new leader.

Meanwhile Yingluck said Thailand's new government intends to reopen a corruption case against ousted premier Thaksin but no special favour would be granted to him.

The corruption case slapped in 2006 had forced Thaksin out of Thailand and the fugitive leader has continued to remain in self-imposed exile in Dubai to escape a two-year jail term awarded over the charges.

With a government led by his allies now back into power, Thaksin's supporters hope he could return.

In an interview to CNN following a thumping victory in the general election, Yingluck Shinawatra said authorities will reopen an investigation into her brother Thaksin's case though "rule of law" would be followed. The telegenic businesswoman-turned politician also said she has no plans to encourage her brother to return to Thailand to serve his sentence.

Yingluck said the most urgent task for her administration would be to forge a national reconciliation in a politically-divided country that witnessed violent clashes last year resulting in the 90 deaths. — PTI

Washington, July 4
The Twitter account of FoxNews.com’s political news feed, FoxNewspolitics, was hacked today and sent several false tweets saying that President Barack Obama had been shot dead.

“Those reports are incorrect, of course, and the president is spending the July 4 holiday with his family,” Foxnews.com said on Monday in statement saying its site had been hacked. There was no immediate reaction from the White House and the Secret Service declined to comment.

Obama is celebrating the July 4 Independence holiday with his family at the White House and a Reuters photographer in the President’s news pool said Obama had just left the White House on Monday morning to play golf.

The first tweet appeared around 2 am and in all some six false tweets were issued, saying Obama had been shot at a restaurant in Iowa while campaigning. Obama has not been in Iowa this weekend and returned on Sunday to the White House from a brief trip to Camp David.

A FoxNews statement said: “The hacking is being investigated, and FoxNews.com regrets any distress the false tweets may have created.” — Reuters

Hacking Trouble

“BarackObama has just passed. The President is dead. A sad 4th of July, indeed. President Barack Obama is dead.”

“BarackObama has just passed. Nearly 45 minutes ago, he was shot twice in the lower pelvic area and in the neck; shooter unknown. Bled out”

New York, July 4
For over 50 years, journalists, writers and even psychologists have tried to unravel the exact reason why American author Ernest Hemingway took his own life. Now his close friend and collaborator has claimed that Hemingway may have been driven to suicide, by shooting himself at his Idaho home while his wife Mary slept, because of surveillance by the FBI, the media reported.

AE Hotchner says he believed the FBI’s monitoring of the Nobel Prize-winning author, over suspicions of his links with Communist Cuba, “substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide” 50 years ago.

He wrote in 'The New York Times' that Hemingway's concerns, which were dismissed as paranoid delusions, actually had a massive impact on him which "substantially contributed to his anguish and suicide".

Hemingway, who penned 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' and 'The Old Man and the Sea', was terrified of being bugged and followed by the FBI, according to Kotchner. He writes: "I now believe he truly sensed the surveillance, and that it substantially contributed to his anguish and his suicide." In 1983, the FBI released a 127-page file it had kept on Hemingway since the 1940s, confirming he was watched by agents working for J Edgar Hoover. Hotchner described being met off a train by Hemingway in Ketchum, Idaho, in November 1960, for a pheasant shoot with their friend Duke MacMullen.

Hemingway, struggling to complete his last work, complained "the feds" had "tailed us all the way" and that agents were poring over his accounts in a local bank that they passed on their journey. Later that month he was committed for psychiatric care at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. A few days after returning home, he shot himself in the head with his shotgun aged 61. — PTI 

The Hague, July 4
Guards at the UN war crimes tribunal removed Ratko Mladic from the courtroom today after the former Bosnian Serb army chief harangued the judge as he read out the charges and entered a not guilty plea on Mladic's behalf.

Having threatened to boycott his second hearing since being tracked down and extradited from Serbia to The Hague in May, Mladic did in fact appear but spent several minutes demanding new legal representation and seeking a delay in filing his plea.

He also complained of cold after being told not to wear his cap. Judge Alphons Ourie rejected the request for a postponement but said the tribunal would check whether the lawyers he wanted, a Serbian and a Russian, would at subsequent hearings be allowed to replace the court-appointed attorney acting for Mladic.

When Ourie moved on to rule that, in the absence of a plea, the court would enter one for Mladic after reading out the charges, the 69-year-old former career soldier shouted: "No, no, no! Don't read it to me, not a single word." — Reuters

Islamabad, July 4
Thousands of Pakistani troops, backed by helicopter gunships and fighter jets, advanced on Taliban strongholds in Kurram tribal region and consolidated their positions today even as hundreds of families fled the conflict zone.

Pakistani soldiers and paramilitary troops were attacking militant hideouts in Kurram Agency to eliminate and expel the rebels, the local media quoted military sources as saying.

"Taliban militants did not show any resistance," an unnamed military officer said. The security forces advanced in mountainous areas, including Mushat, Masozai and Ali Sherzaoi, all former strongholds of the Pakistani Taliban.

The troops consolidated their positions and established checkposts atop mountains overlooking key roads to monitor the movement of militants. Most of the militants had already fled their hideouts ahead of the operation, reports said.

The government had notified 80 sq km in Kurram Agency as a conflict zone a fortnight ago. Curfew was imposed and communications across the region were suspended before the operation was launched. Troops were dropped by helicopters in Manato and Zaimukhet areas.

Thousands of troops were taking part in the operation against militants affiliated with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan led by Hakimullah Mehsud, media reports said.

Local residents said thousands of people had left their homes and taken shelter in a relief camp at Sadda, a key town in the region. Hundreds of families shifted to the camp after authorities told them to leave their houses to avoid casualties. — PTI