Danny Puff

CAIRO (AP) President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on Tuesday for the first visit by an Iranian leader in more than three decades, marking a historic departure from years of frigid ties between the two regional heavyweights.

Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi gave Ahmadinejad a red-carpet welcome on the tarmac at Cairo airport, shaking the Iranian's hand and exchanging a kiss on each cheek as a military honor guard stood at attention.

Ahmadinejad's three-day visit, which is centered around an Islamic summit, is the latest sign of improved relations between the countries since the 2011 uprising ousted Egypt's longtime ruler President Hosni Mubarak and brought an Islamist government to power in Cairo. Such a visit would have been unthinkable under Mubarak, who was a close ally of the U.S. and shared Washington's deep suspicions of Tehran.

Shortly after his arrival, Ahmadinejad and Morsi held a 20-minute talk that focused on the civil war in Syria, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. Iran is Damascus' closes regional ally, while Egypt is among those that have called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.

In September, Morsi offered a package of incentives to Tehran to end its support for Assad. The proposal included the restoration of full diplomatic ties, which would be a significant prize for Iran given that Egypt is the most populous Arab nation and a regional Sunni powerhouse.

Such diplomatic overtures have raised concerns among Sunni Gulf nations, who are keeping a close eye on the Iranian leader's visit. The Gulf states, who are opposed to Iran's regional policies and wary of the Shiite nation, accuse Iran of supporting Shiite minorities in the Gulf, and harbor concerns about Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Morsi and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood group from which he hails have sought to ease Gulf concerns about its improved ties with Iran, and have stressed that the security of the Gulf nations which Egypt has relied upon for financial aid to help prop up its faltering economy is directly linked to Cairo's own.

Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr Kamel reiterated Tuesday that "Egypt's relationship with Iran will never come at the expense of Gulf nations."

During his visit to Egypt, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to meet with Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's premier Islamic institution. He is also scheduled to attend the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Cairo, which starts Wednesday.

Security officials said Ahmadinejad is also going to tour the Pyramids in Giza.

Once close, Egypt and Iran severed their relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Cairo offered exile to Iran's deposed shah. Relations further deteriorated after Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

Morsi's rise to power out of Egypt's own revolution complicates his ability to pursue better ties with Iran when it is seen as suppressing a revolution in Syria. Cairo is home to the offices of the main Syrian opposition council, which has a strong presence of members of the Brotherhood's Syrian chapter.

The Egyptian president also faces pressure on the home front not to cozy up to Tehran.

On Tuesday, Egypt's hardline Daawa Salafiya, which is the foundation of the main Salafi political Al-Nour Party, released a statement calling on Morsi to confront Ahmadinejad on Tehran's support for the Syrian regime and make clear that "Egypt is committed to the protection of all Sunni nations."

Mohammed Abbas Nagi, an Egyptian expert on Iran, said Morsi may be trying to restore some level of diplomatic ties with Tehran in order to show that Cairo is pursuing a more independent foreign policy than that of his predecessor and to keep the door open to the Islamic Republic in case the Gulf states' support dwindles.

"Despite the fact that restoring relations is a sovereign decision fully belonging to Egypt, I don't see that Egypt will make a decision separate from the course of its relationship with the U.S. and Israel, for whom Iran is now the main issue," Nagi said.

Morsi visited Tehran last year to attend an international summit in the first visit by an Egyptian leader to Iran in years. He held a brief one-on-one talk with Ahmadinejad then and discussed Syria's civil war. But Morsi also used the opportunity in Tehran to lash out at Iran's ally, calling the Damascus regime "oppressive."

Egypt's leader has spearheaded an "Islamic quartet" of nations to try and resolve the Syrian crisis that includes Iran, as well as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which are two of the most vocal critics of the Syrian president.

While Saudi Arabia has largely abstained from the group's meetings in an apparent snub to Iran's Syria policies, Egyptian officials say they will try to revive those talks on the sidelines of this week's OIC summit.

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Associated Press writer Amir Makar contributed to this report.

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LONDON (AP) The structure is simple, the guitar riffs basic, the lyrics at best inane, but the Troggs' "Wild Thing" remains a garage rock classic more than 45 years after its release made The Troggs and lead singer Reg Presley international stars.

Presley, whose raunchy, suggestive voice powers this paean to teenage lust, died Monday after a year-long struggle with lung cancer that had forced him and the band into reluctant retirement, his agent Keith Altham announced on Facebook late Monday night. He was 71.

"My dear old pal Reg Presley of The Troggs died today," he said, calling Presley "one very real person in a sometimes very unreal world." He said the singer had suffered a number of strokes recently and died at his home in Andover (70 miles west of London) surrounded by his family and friends.

The Troggs, part of the British invasion spurred by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, perfected a simple, hard-driving approach to the three-minute rock song that was miles away from the lyrical art-rock of the Beatles or the poetic songs of Bob Dylan.

This was rock music at its "boy meets girl" basics, with a caveman's approach to romance and it created such a powerful image that Presley and the band played these songs to appreciative (if smaller) audiences until illness intervened.

"Wild Thing," written by American songwriter Chip Taylor, was originally recorded by Jordan Christopher & The Wild Ones in 1965, and quickly forgotten. It took the Troggs' cover a year later to make it a classic.

With its basic three-chord approach and driving beat, "Wild Thing" became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and has been covered by literally hundreds of bands since its 1966 release.

The song was picked up not only by semi-skilled garage bands the world over the lead guitar lines were easily copied but also by masters like Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Springsteen who treasured the tune's raw energy.

It even led to a successful novelty song, with a singer pretending to be Sen. Robert Kennedy "singing" the lyrics in Kennedy's distinctive voice.

The Troggs, all from the Andover area, had several other big hits, including "Love is All Around" and "With a Girl Like You."

They faded in the 1970s but their songs were revived in the 1990s when REM and Wet Wet Wet released covers of the Troggs' "Love Is All Around."

Presley, also a prolific songwriter, helped found the Troggs in the 1960s while he was working as a bricklayer.

Born Reg Ball, he took the stage name "Presley" at his manager's suggestion.

He announced his retirement in January, 2012 in an open letter to his fans thanking them for their support. He said at the time that he was receiving chemotherapy and not feeling "too bad."

He had a strong interest in crop circles, paranormal activity, and UFOs.

His daughter Karen told the music website WENN that she, her brother and her mother were with Presley when he died.

"We're absolutely heartbroken," she said.

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NEW YORK (AP) Don't blame Beyonce for blowing the lights out at the Super Bowl.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that the halftime show was not the cause of the power outage that darkened the Superdome for half an hour during Sunday's broadcast.

"There's no indication at all that this was caused by the halftime show. Absolutely not. I know that's been out there that this halftime show had something to do with it. That is not the case," Goodell said.

Beyonce was the halftime performer at Sunday night's game and used plenty of power to light up the stage. Some had joked that her electrifying performance was to blame for the outage.

But the halftime show was running on its own generator, said Goodell and Doug Thornton, a vice president of SMG, the company that manages the Superdome.

"It was not on our power grid at all," Thornton said, adding that the metered power consumption went down during halftime because the house lights were down.

Beyonce's 13-minute set included hits "Crazy in Love," ''Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and a Destiny's Child reunion.

The energetic performance was sung live days after she admitted she sang to a pre-recorded track at President Barack Obama's inauguration. And it won applause from critics who called it a major improvement over Madonna, who sang to a backing track last year, and the Black Eyed Peas' much-criticized halftime show in 2011.

Alicia Keys performed the national anthem on piano before the game, and Jennifer Hudson sang "America the Beautiful" with the 26-member Sandy Hook Elementary School chorus.

Beyonce posted on her blog that she was proud to be among those female talents, which included her Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

"What a proud day for AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN!!!!," she wrote. "You are all beautiful, talented and showed so much class! It was an honor to perform at the Superbowl with you phenomenal ladies."

Beyonce announced Monday that her "The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour" will kick off April 15 in Belgrade, Serbia. The European leg of the tour will wrap up May 29 in Stockholm, Sweden.

The tour's North American stint starts June 28 in Los Angeles and ends Aug. 3 in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Barclays Center.

It was also announced Monday that a second wave of the tour is planned for Latin America, Australia and Asia later this year.

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AP Sports Writer Brett Martell in New Orleans contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://www.beyonceonline.com/us/home

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

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NEW YORK (AP) With a partial power outage, an overly excited quarterback and a game that suddenly turned from snoozer to sizzler, CBS had its hands full at the Super Bowl. The game fell short of setting a viewership record, but it stands as the third most-watched program in U.S. television history.

The Nielsen Co. said an estimated 108.4 million people watched the Baltimore Ravens' 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. The most-watched events in U.S. TV history were last year's game, seen by 111.3 million, and the 2010 game, with 111 million viewers.

CBS had hoped to make it the fourth year in a row that football's ultimate game broke the record for most-watched event in American television history. But pro football ratings in general have been down slightly this year.

When the Ravens' Jacoby Jones returned the opening kickoff of the second half for a touchdown and gave his team a 28-6 lead, CBS' dream of a ratings record surely became even more distant. And then half the lights went out. CBS' ratings immediately dipped by two full ratings points in the overnight measurement of big cities.

When the lights returned, so did the 49ers. They quickly jumped back in the game and CBS' audience, no doubt fueled by social media chatter, came back, too. CBS was blessed with the dream of every network that telecasts the Super Bowl: a game that isn't decided until the final play.

CBS had a moment of dead air when the field darkened, since power was lost in the control booth where Jim Nantz and Phil Simms worked. After a commercial break, sideline anchor Steve Tasker appeared to say there had been a power outage. CBS then filled time with its football pregame team, showing highlights and speculating on how the delay would affect the teams.

At the precise moment the lights went out, CBS' Armen Keteyian was in the NFL's control booth, conducting an interview with Frank Supovitz, senior vice president of the NFL in charge of events.

"In the NFL control room, there was no panic, but there was an undeniable amount of uncertainty about the cause," Keteyian said Monday on "CBS This Morning." Keteyian was filming for a "60 Minutes Sports" report scheduled to be aired Wednesday on Showtime. CBS News did not participate in live coverage of the power outage.

The power outage was an immediate hot topic for quips and questions online. There were an estimated 47.7 million social media posts during the game, according to the company Trendrr TV, which tracks activity on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. That compares with 17 million during last year's game and 3 million in 2010, Trendrr said.

Baltimore had the highest rating of any individual city, Nielsen said. San Francisco was not among the top 10 cities in ratings.

CBS showcased its freshman drama, "Elementary," to an estimated audience of 20.8 million people after the game. That was markedly down from the 37.6 million who watched "The Voice" on NBC after the 2011 game or the 26.8 million who saw "Glee" on Fox in 2010. CBS noted that the drama did not begin until 11:11 p.m. on the East Coast because of the Superdome power outage.

CBS drew criticism from the Parents Television Council for not editing out a profanity said by Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco shortly after the game. Flacco was caught by microphones describing his team's victory as "f------ awesome."

"No one should be surprised that a jubilant quarterback might use profane language while celebrating a career-defining win, but that is precisely the reason why CBS should have taken some precautions," said Tim Winter, president of the lobbying group, asking for the Federal Communications Commission to rebuke CBS.

The network had no immediate comment Monday on the complaint.

CBS has said it was airing the pregame, postgame and halftime portions of the show on tape delay to guard against the use of bad language or wardrobe malfunctions. The postgame delay does not begin until the first block of commercials after the game, which hadn't happened before Flacco's expletive.

CBS' Craig Ferguson was quick to poke fun at the power outage on his comedy show, which aired after "Elementary." He was shown plugging actress Lucy Liu's cellphone charger into a power outlet at the Superdome, despite instructions not to use it.

"It's one outlet," Ferguson said. "What could possibly go wrong?"

The picture switched to the lights going out in half the dome.

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CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who in 2003 revealed she was the biracial daughter of segregationist U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, died on Monday at age 87, her attorney said.

Washington-Williams, who had been in declining health in recent years, died of natural causes at a care home in Columbia, South Carolina, said lawyer Frank Wheaton.

Washington-Williams was born in 1925 to a black teenage girl who worked as a maid in Thurmond's parents' home when Thurmond was 22. She announced she was Thurmond's daughter in 2003 after his death at age 100 that year, and the late senator's family confirmed her claim.

Washington-Williams was a teacher in Los Angeles for three decades and was the mother of four. She moved to South Carolina about five years ago to be closer to a daughter who lived there, Wheaton said.

Her 2006 memoir, "Dear Senator," detailed her decades-long relationship with her father, the letters they wrote each other and the kindness he showed her personally, which she struggled to reconcile with his opposition to civil rights and his defense of racial segregation.

"She was very low-key and never wanted to rock the boat, I think that's why she kept her secret until he died," said William Stadiem, who co-wrote "Dear Senator."

Stadiem said Thurmond had great affection for Washington-Williams' mother, Carrie Butler.

"The fact he stayed close to Essie for all those years, it would be so easy for him to say 'get out of my life, you don't exist,' and he didn't do that," Stadiem said. "I think she reminded him of her mother."

Washington-Williams as a young child went to live with her mother's sister and her husband in Pennsylvania, and it was from him that she took the surname Washington. She adopted the name Williams from her marriage to attorney Julius Williams.

Thurmond began his career as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party in 1964. In his lifetime, Thurmond said he was not racist but opposed what he saw as excessive federal intervention.

He staged the longest filibuster in U.S. history when he spoke for more than 24 hours against a 1957 civil rights bill that sought to fight the disenfranchisement of blacks in the South by giving new powers to federal prosecutors.

In 2004 a statue of Thurmond outside the South Carolina State House was altered to engrave the name Essie Mae with those of his other four children on the foundation stone.

(Reporting by Harriet McLeod; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) A sheriff's spokesman says an investigation into a fight between Chris Brown and Frank Ocean will soon be closed without any charges being sought.

Los Angeles sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore says investigators will speak with Ocean before closing the case, but the agency is unlikely to pursue a misdemeanor battery charge against Brown.

Ocean has accused Brown of hitting him during an argument outside a West Hollywood recording studio last month, but wrote on the social media site Tumblr on Saturday that he wanted the matter closed. Ocean's post stated he did not want Brown prosecuted and he had no intentions of filing a civil lawsuit.

Brown remains on probation for the 2009 beating of Rihanna and is scheduled to appear in court for a progress hearing on Wednesday.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Matt Damon is becoming a TV comedy regular.

Showtime said Monday that Damon will guest star next week on "House of Lies." He'll play what the channel called a "maniacal megastar" version of himself.

Last month, Damon staged a mock takeover of Jimmy Kimmel's ABC talk show, tying Kimmel to a chair and acting as host for a night. On NBC's just-ended "30 Rock," Damon appeared in several episodes as boyfriend to Tina Fey's character, Liz Lemon.

On the Sunday, Feb. 10, "House of Lies" episode, Damon seeks help in finding a charity to carry his name. The actor plays opposite "House of Lies" star Don Cheadle, his friend and a cast mate in the "Ocean's Eleven" movie franchise.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch was memorialized on Monday as an in-your-face, wisecracking leader who helped transform the city from a symbol of urban decay to the vital, glittering metropolis it is today.

As Koch's casket was led out of Temple Emanu-El, a soaring Fifth Ave. synagogue opposite Central Park, an organ played Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" while mourners including former U.S. President Bill Clinton and a who's who of New York politics stood and applauded.

Koch died on Friday at the age of 88 in Manhattan -- the only place other than heaven he could imagine living, as he was known to say.

"I come today with the love and condolences of 8.4 million New Yorkers who really are grieving with you at this moment," said the city's current mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

Speakers joked about the famously attention-loving Koch's obsession with stage-managing his passing. His grave-stone, complete with an epitaph and a bench bearing Koch's name, has been ready since 2008, and his friends said he had been planning the funeral for years.

"We started talking about his death in the '80s," said his former chief of staff Diane Coffey.

As mayor from 1978 to 1989, Koch, with his trademark phrase "How'm I Doin?", was a natural showman and tireless promoter of both himself and the city. He helped repair the city's finances as it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, and later led a building renaissance that would see 200,000 units of affordable housing erected or rehabilitated in some of the city's most crime-infested areas.

He could also be a divisive figure. His determination to shut Sydenham, a poorly-performing Harlem hospital that was one of the only city hospitals employing black doctors, angered black New Yorkers. And AIDS activists said he was too slow to react to the epidemic that ravaged the city's gay population in the 1980s.

Tall, nearly bald and speaking with a high-pitched voice, Koch was an unmistakable presence. He was famously argumentative, and rarely walked away from verbal jousting.

His friend James Gill remembered Koch's response to someone who had written a letter criticizing the former mayor.

"You are entitled to your opinion of me and I am entitled to my opinion of you," Koch replied. "My opinion of you is that you are a fool."

His nephews and grand-nephew and grand-niece remembered Koch, who never married, as devoted "Uncle Eddie" - eager to hear what they thought of his appearances on talk shows but also happy join his 11-year-old grand-niece for a manicure.

Clinton read from a stack of letters Koch had sent him over the years and said Koch had "a big brain, but he had an even bigger heart."

Koch remained relevant in politics long after 1989, when he lost the Democratic nomination to David Dinkins for what would have been a record fourth term as mayor. But when asked if he would run for office again, he liked to say, "The people threw me out and the people must be punished."

His endorsement was coveted by candidates decades after he left office. And his unwavering and loud support of Israel made Koch "one of the most influential and important American Zionists," said former Ambassador Ido Aharoni.

At Monday's memorial, Bloomberg noted the synagogue Koch had chosen for the funeral stood just a few blocks from the midtown bridge that had been renamed to honor him. Last year, the city released a video of Koch standing at the bridge's entrance ramp, calling out to approaching cars: "Welcome to my bridge! Welcome to my bridge!"

"No mayor, I think, has ever embodied the spirit of New York City like he did. And I don't think anyone ever will," Bloomberg said. "Tough and loud, brash and irreverent, full of humor and chutzpah - he was our city's quintessential mayor."

(Reporting By Edith Honan; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Alden Bentley)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) The creators of "The Last of Us" aren't planning to tone down the post-apocalyptic video game's violent content, including a young, knife- and gun-wielding girl.

Neil Druckmann, the game's creative director, said the developers at Naughty Dog in Santa Monica, Calif., won't alter "The Last of Us," which features 14-year-old Ellie as one of the protagonists, in light of recent real-world violence, including the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

The PlayStation 3 survival-adventure game casts players such as Joel, a gruff middle-aged survivor of a worldwide outbreak, who's tasked with protecting Ellie. Throughout "The Last of Us," the girl serves as a shrewd accomplice who guides Joel through abandoned buildings, gathers supplies and assists him in thwarting enemies.

"For us, everything in the game is necessary for the story," said Druckmann in a recent interview. "The reason Ellie is that age and the violence is that brutal is because of what we're saying with the story. You have to buy into the conflict and desperation these characters live under. If you remove any of those elements, the story suffers, and that's why we would never do it."

Some critics argued "The Last of Us" was glorifying violence after early footage of the game showed Ellie stabbing a hostile human survivor in the back, followed by Joel shooting him in the face with a shotgun. The cover for "The Last of Us," which is scheduled for release May 7, features both Ellie and Joel armed with guns.

"For someone like Ellie, because this is the only world she's ever known, things we would find horrific and that would probably scar us for life are just everyday occurrences for her," said Druckmann. "She can still, in a way, keep some of her innocence because of that. She pulls the humanity out of Joel, and this is really a coming-of-age story for Ellie."

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Online:

http://thelastofus.com/

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rising R&B star Frank Ocean said on Saturday he will not press charges against singer Chris Brown, who he said had "jumped" him last week in a parking lot fracas.

The encounter between Ocean and Brown still could derail Brown's efforts to remain in compliance with his probation stemming from his 2009 assault against singer Rihanna, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, a legal expert said.

Earlier in the week, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Ocean was "desirous of prosecution in this incident," which occurred on January 27 outside a recording studio in West Hollywood.

Representatives for Brown could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Sheriff's deputies had cited witnesses as saying Grammy-winner Brown, 23, punched Ocean, 25, in the brief altercation.

But Ocean on Saturday posted a message on www.frankocean.com saying he wanted to move past the incident.

"I'll choose sanity," he wrote. "No criminal charges. No civil lawsuit. Forgiveness, albeit difficult, is wisdom. Peace, albeit trite, is what I want in my short life. Peace."

Brown and Ocean both are nominated in the best urban contemporary album category at the Grammys Awards, which will be announced February 10 in Los Angeles.

On the day of the parking lot incident Ocean had said on Twitter that he "got jumped by chris and a couple guys." He also said he cut his finger and Brown was later photographed with a cast on his right hand.

Brown, whose hit songs include "Look at Me Now" and "Run It!," was placed on probation for five years for the assault on Rihanna. He risks having his probation revoked if charges are filed against him.

But if the judge overseeing his case suspects Brown broke the law, the judge could move to find him in violation of probation even without a criminal charge, said Steve Cron, a defense attorney not connected to the case and an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University School of Law.

"Then, Brown would be entitled to have a hearing with witnesses and his lawyers questioning witnesses and so forth," Cron said.

Cron said prosecutors still can file charges even if a suspected victim does not cooperate.

If Brown is found to have violated his probation, a judge could send him to jail or order counseling, he said.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said that if Ocean does not want to press charges, it would be difficult to proceed with the case.

Brown's entourage and that of Canadian rapper Drake were involved in a June 2012 brawl in a New York nightclub. No arrests or charges were brought in that case.

(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Bill Trott)

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