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• "I know it's been a wild weekend in the NFL and I guess we're part of it now," he said.
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• NEW YORK (AP) -- The United States and Egypt sought Monday to repair ties strained severely by a year-and-a-half of rapid change in the Middle East, culminating in the last two weeks with Egyptian demonstrators overrunning the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and President Barack Obama candidly remarking that the two countries were now neither enemies nor allies.
• Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke with Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, in a New York hotel on Monday night, the highest-level meeting between the once stalwart Middle East partners since an American-made video ridiculing Islam prompted violent Egyptian protests on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. American officials said their discussions sought to strengthen a relationship that both see as vital.
• They particularly emphasized the importance of ensuring the security of diplomatic installations, said a senior U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the private meeting and requested anonymity. Morsi was criticized for his slow, initial response to the protests that ended with vandalism of the embassy and the American flag torn down, but the official stressed that U.S. officials see the Egyptian government's protection since as reassuring.
• Morsi assured Clinton that embassy protection was "Egypt's duty," the official said.
• The meeting occurred amid a jam-packed schedule for Clinton in New York, where she is attending this week's annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly and speaking with a host of world leaders. Egyptian hopes of a maiden meeting between Morsi and Obama were dashed when the White House announced that the president would not be participating in bilateral meetings during his brief stay in the city. Obama arrived Monday and will leave Tuesday.
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