Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke dies at 69 ADVERTISING Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke dies at 69 NEW YORK (AP) — Patty Duke, who as a teen won an Oscar for playing Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker,” then maintained a long
Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke dies at 69
NEW YORK (AP) — Patty Duke, who as a teen won an Oscar for playing Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker,” then maintained a long career while battling personal demons, died at the age of 69.
The actress died early Tuesday morning of sepsis from a ruptured intestine, according to her agent, Mitchell Stubbs. She died in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where she had lived for the past quarter-century, according to Teri Weigel, the publicist for her son, actor Sean Astin.
Duke astonished audiences as the young deaf-and-blind Keller first on Broadway, then in the acclaimed 1962 film version, appearing in both alongside Anne Bancroft as Helen’s teacher, Annie Sullivan (who won an Oscar of her own).
Then in 1963, Duke burst on the TV scene starring in her own sitcom, “The Patty Duke Show,” which aired for three seasons. She played dual roles as identical cousins Kathy, “who’s lived most everywhere, from Zanzibar to Barclay Square” while (according to the theme song) “Patty’s only seen the sights a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights. What a crazy pair!”
Assad tries to polish image with Palmyra’s recapture
BEIRUT (AP) — The recapture of Palmyra in central Syria from Islamic State militants puts government forces at the heart of the fight against the jihadist group — and not just geographically speaking.
For President Bashar Assad, recapturing the historic town represents a strategic political coup through which he hopes to convince the West that the Syrian army is a credible partner in combatting terrorism as it ramps up the fight against Islamic State.
It is an awkward argument that the U.S. has repeatedly rebuffed. Officials in Washington are quick to point out that it was Assad’s brutal crackdown on his own people that created the kind of vacuum that allowed extremists like IS to flourish in the first place.
An alliance between the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS — similar to the assistance and training provided to the Iraqi military on the other front in the war — seems out of the question.
But with the international focus now on fighting the Islamic State group — and a partial cease-fire in place to facilitate that — there appears to be tacit U.S. approval for at least this part of Assad’s offensive in Syria to continue. If that is seen to develop, it could help the authoritarian ruler survive a ruinous 5-year-old conflict that has seen half the country’s population displaced.
Apple remains in dark how FBI hacked iPhone without its help
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI’s announcement that it mysteriously hacked into an iPhone is a public setback for Apple Inc., as consumers suddenly discover they can’t keep their most personal information safe. Meanwhile, Apple remains in the dark about how to restore the security of its flagship product.
The government said it was able to break into an iPhone used by a gunman in a mass shooting in California, but it didn’t say how. That puzzled Apple software engineers — and outside experts — about how the FBI broke the digital locks on the phone without Apple’s help. It also complicated Apple’s job repairing flaws that jeopardize its software.
The Justice Department’s announcement that it was dropping a legal fight to compel Apple to help it access the phone also took away any obvious legal avenues Apple might have used to learn how the FBI did it. The Justice Department declined through a spokeswoman to comment Tuesday.
A few clues have emerged. A senior law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the FBI managed to defeat an Apple security feature that threatened to delete the phone’s contents if the FBI failed to enter the correct passcode combination after 10 tries. That allowed the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what’s known as a brute-force attack until the right code is entered and the phone is unlocked.
It wasn’t clear how the FBI dealt with a related Apple security feature that introduces increasing time delays between guesses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss the technique publicly.
Police charge Trump campaign manager with battery
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Police charged Donald Trump’s campaign manager with simple battery Tuesday as a videotaped altercation with a reporter transformed what was another messy campaign sideshow into a criminal court summons. Trump decried the charges.
Jupiter, Florida, police determined that probable cause existed to charge Corey Lewandowski, who has served as Trump’s most trusted political adviser for much of the past year. Police on Tuesday morning issued Lewandowski a notice to appear before a judge on May 4 for the misdemeanor charge, which carries up to a year in jail.
Speaking to reporters on his airplane in Wisconsin Tuesday, Trump said Lewandowski has been “very seriously maligned,” vowing to stand by him.
“I can’t just stand by and watch a man’s life be destroyed,” Trump said. “I’m sticking up for a person because I’m not going to let a person’s life be destroyed. No jury, in my opinion, would convict a man and destroy a man’s life over what you witnessed.”
This injects a court battle into an already contentious Republican primary season just a week before a high-profile election in Wisconsin.
