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Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan.
• In an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Doha office, Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail said on Thursday that Bergdahl "is, as far as I know, in good condition. "
• Suhail did not elaborate on Bergdahl's current whereabouts.
• ___

• LOS ANGELES (AP) -- James Gandolfini's lumbering, brutish mob boss with the tortured psyche will endure as one of TV's indelible characters.
• But his portrayal of criminal Tony Soprano in HBO's landmark drama series "The Sopranos" was just one facet of an actor who created a rich legacy of film and stage work in a life cut short.
• Gandolfini, 51, who died Wednesday while vacationing in Rome, refused to be bound by his star-making role in the HBO series that brought him three Emmy Awards during its six-season run.
• No cause of death was given by HBO and Gandolfini's managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders in a joint statement confirming his death.
• Coroner Antonio Spasola at Rome's Policlinico Umberto I hospital, in the upscale Parioli neighborhood, declined to give a cause of death. Officials at the morgue confirmed that Gandolfini was brought there.
• ___

• NEW YORK (AP) -- James Gandolfini would have hated all this fuss.
• He was an actor who shrank from attention for anything but the roles he brought to life. No false modesty. He simply did his best to remain a private citizen behind his public characters. These included, of course, Tony Soprano, the fiendish, tormented mobster who the world came to know and revere as a towering dramatic achievement.
• Now, out of the blue, this flood of tributes to Gandolfini upon his untimely death? This would likely have struck him as excessive and needless, upstaging for a moment his lifetime of work.
• In a too-brief career that ended Wednesday at age 51 while he was vacationing

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