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Meshach Taylor, who played a lovable ex-convict surrounded by boisterous Southern belles on the sitcom "Designing Women" and appeared in numerous other TV and film roles, died of cancer at age 67, his agent said Sunday.

Taylor died Saturday at his home near Los Angeles, according to agent Dede Binder.

Taylor got an Emmy nod for his portrayal of Anthony Bouvier on "Designing Women" from 1986 to 1993. Then he costarred for four seasons on another successful comedy, "Dave's World," as the best friend of a newspaper humor columnist played by the series' star, Harry Anderson.

Other series included the cult favorite "Buffalo Bill" and the popular Nickelodeon comedy "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide."

Taylor's movie roles included a flamboyant window dresser in the 1987 comedy-romance "Mannequin" as well as "Damien: Omen II."

He guested on many series including "Hannah Montana," "The Unit," "Hill Street Blues," "Barney Miller," "Lou Grant," "The Drew Carey Show," and, in an episode that aired in January, "Criminal Minds," which stars Joe Montegna, with whom Taylor performed early in his career as a fellow member of Chicago's Organic Theater Company. Taylor also had been a member of that city's Goodman Theatre.

The Boston-born Taylor started acting in community shows in New Orleans, where his father was dean of students at Dillard University. He continued doing roles in Indianapolis after his father moved to Indiana University as dean of the college of arts and sciences.

After college, Taylor got a job at an Indianapolis radio station, where he rose from a "flunky job" to Statehouse reporter, he recalled in an interview with The Associated Press in 1989.

"It was interesting for a while," he said. "But once you get involved in Indiana politics you see what a yawn it is."

Resuming his acting pursuit, he set up a black arts theater to keep kids off the street, then joined the national touring company of "Hair." His acting career was launched.

After "Hair," he became a part of the burgeoning theater world in Chicago, where he stayed until 1979 before heading for Los Angeles.

Taylor played the assistant director in "Buffalo Bill," the short-lived NBC sitcom about an arrogant and self-centered talk show host played by Dabney Coleman. It lasted just one season, 1983-84, disappointing its small but fervent following.

Seemingly his gig on "Designing Women" could have been even more short-lived. It was initially a one-shot.

"It was for the Thanksgiving show, about halfway through the first season," Taylor said. But producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason told him if the character clicked with audiences he could stay.

It did. He spun comic gold with co-stars Jean Smart, Dixie Carter, Annie Potts and Delta Burke, and never left.

Meanwhile, his real life worked its way into one episode.

"We were doing some promotional work in Lubbock, Texas, and somehow Delta Burke and I got booked into the same hotel suite," he said. They alerted their respective significant others to the mix-up, then muddled through with the shared accommodations.

"When we got back I told Linda, and she put it into a show: We got stranded at a motel during a blizzard and ended up in the same bed!"

Taylor is survived by his four children and his wife, Bianca Ferguson.

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EDITOR'S NOTE — Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

PARIS (AP) — French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has blasted plans to raise by more than five times hotel taxes paid by tourists, saying the move would be dangerous for tourism and France's stumbling economy.

Lawmakers from Fabius' Socialist Party initiated two increases in the tourist tax, passed last week in parliament's lower chamber.

If confirmed by the Senate, they could force tourists to spend up to eight euros ($10.90) per night in hotel taxes, instead of 1.50 euros currently, with the price rising with the hotel category. Another increase adds two more euros for Paris region hotels to pay for transport improvements.

Fabius said in a statement Sunday the increases are "dangerous and totally contrary to the promotion of tourism, a priority for jobs." He joins tourist professionals decrying the moves.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A court appearance for the alleged mastermind of the attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, is the first step in a long legal process that could yield new insight into a fiery assault that continues to reverberate across U.S. politics.

The case of Ahmed Abu Khattala, who pleaded not guilty during a brief court appearance Saturday, also represents a high-profile test of the Obama administration's goal of prosecuting terror suspects in civilian courts — even in the face of Republican critics who say such defendants aren't entitled to the protections of the American legal system.

Abu Khattala made his first appearance in an American courtroom amid tight security, two weeks after being captured in Libya by U.S. special forces in a nighttime raid and then whisked away on a Navy ship for questioning and transport. He was flown early Saturday from the ship to a landing pad in Washington and brought to the federal courthouse, a downtown building mere blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

A grand jury indictment made public Saturday accuses Abu Khattala of participating in a conspiracy to provide material support and resources to terrorists in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2012, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The Justice Department says it expects to bring more charges.

The Libyan who maintained a garrulous public persona at home — granting interviews with journalists and gaining popularity and prominence in Benghazi's circle of extremists — showed little reaction during a 10-minute appearance before a federal magistrate judge. He spoke just two words, both in Arabic, in response to perfunctory questions, stared impassively for most of the hearing and sat with his hands behind his back.

He will remain in custody — though the judge did not say where — and the next court date was scheduled for Wednesday.

As the Justice Department embarks on a high-profile prosecution of the alleged militant, the case is likely to provide a public forum for new details about a burst of violence — on the 11th anniversary of the attacks on the Sept. 11 attacks — that roiled the Middle East and dominated American political discourse. In the nearly two years since the attack, dozens of congressional briefings and hearings have been held and tens of thousands of pages of documents have been released. Yet there's still a dispute over what happened.

Republicans accused the White House, as the 2012 presidential election neared, of intentionally misleading the public about what prompted the attacks by portraying it as one of the many protests over an anti-Muslim video made in America, instead of a calculated terrorist attack. The White House said Republicans were politicizing a national tragedy.

The capture of Abu Khatalla marked the first significant breakthrough in the investigation of the attacks. Prosecutors say they hope to identify, locate and bring to court any additional co-conspirators.

"Now that Ahmed Abu Khatallah has arrived in the United States, he will face the full weight of our justice system," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement Saturday. "We will prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, the defendant's alleged role in the attack that killed four brave Americans in Benghazi."

The Obama administration has said it's committed to prosecuting defendants like Abu Khattala in American courts. Government officials point to successful prosecutions, like the March conviction in New York City of Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, to suggest that the civilian justice system is fair, efficient and can yield harsh penalties for suspected terrorists.

But not everyone is convinced. Many Republicans in Congress have urged the Justice Department to send Abu Khatalla to the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and say granting terrorists legal protections, such as advising them of their right to remain silent, risks hindering access to national security intelligence.

A U.S. official said Saturday that Abu Khattala had been advised of his Miranda rights at some point during his trip to the United States and continued talking after that. The official wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation by name and spoke on condition of anonymity. The nature of those conversations wasn't immediately clear.

The criminal case may sort out the exact role Abu Khattala is alleged to have played in the attack.

The U.S. government accuses Abu Khattala of being a member of the Ansar al-Shariah group, the powerful Islamic militia that officials believe was behind the attack.

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AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.

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Online:

Justice Department: http://tinyurl.com/m79bngq

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran began exporting automobiles to Russia for the first time in five years on Sunday, after meeting upgraded emission standards, the country's largest auto manufacturer said.

Workers at Iran-Khodro's factory in Tehran loaded the first shipment, which includes Samand and Runna sedans. The company plans to export 10,000 cars of various models to Russia by 2015, with the vehicles selling for $13,000 to $16,000.

Iran-Khodro exported more than 12,000 cars to Russia from 2007 to 2009, but the shipments stopped when Russia adopted stricter Euro-4 emission standards.

The resumption comes at a time of greater openness to trade with Iran following an interim nuclear deal reached in November that saw some international sanctions eased in return for Tehran freezing or curbing parts of its nuclear program. Iran hopes to reach a final nuclear deal with Russia and other world powers by next month.

The auto deal also reflects increasing cooperation between the two countries. Russia built a nuclear power plant for Iran that went online in 2011, and Tehran and Moscow are in discussions to build more.

Iran's Ambassador to Russia Mahdi Sanaei said he expects the volume of trade with Russia to increase this year, after plunging from four billion dollars to $1.5 billion in the four years leading up to 2013. "This was due to the sanctions imposed against the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said. "However, with help of God, this downward slope will be reversed in the year 2014."

Andrey Luganskiy, Russia's trade representative in Tehran, said the exports would allow Iran to acquire Russian currency, which it can then use to buy goods that it is unable to import from the West.

Iran's manufacturing sector has been crippled by international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program. Western nations have long suspected Iran of covertly seeking a nuclear weapons capability alongside its civilian program.

Tehran denies the allegations and insists its nuclear activities are only aimed at power generation and medical treatments.

Before the sanctions, Iran produced more than one million cars per year.

Russia is a big market, with a total of 2.78 million new vehicles sold there in 2013.