FIRST OFF . . .

Seeking to head off anti-apartheid demonstrations against his new concert tour with South Africa musicians, singer Paul Simon says he has been cleared by the African National Congress and was never listed by the United Nations as violating its cultural boycott of South Africa. Simon appeared at a London news conference Friday flanked by leading South African stars of the show, which is partly based on his hit album “Graceland,” which he recorded with black artists in South Africa. “As an artist who has refused to perform in South Africa I reiterate and intend to maintain this position in the context of the U.N. cultural boycott,” Simon said in a letter he said he’d sent to the U.N. Special Committee Against Apartheid. Simon said the African National Congress has reversed its former criticism of the album and the organization’s president, Oliver Tambo, is ready to confirm this when he appears at a news conference scheduled for Los Angeles today.