(AP)—Diet Coke has topped rival Pepsi-Cola for the first time to become the second-most popular soft drink in the country behind Coca-Cola.

It marks a victory for Coca-Cola Co. as its sodas now hold the top two rankings, beating out its rival PepsiCo Inc.

A study by Beverage Digest released March 17 found that Coca-Cola sold nearly 927 million cases of the diet soda in 2010. PepsiCo sold roughly 892 million cases of Pepsi.

Sales of soft drinks in the U.S. have fallen for six straight years as consumers cut back on spending and switched to healthier alternatives. While both Diet Coke and Pepsi’s sold less soda, Pepsi’s fell more.

by Jim Vertuno

(AP)—Muddy Waters was looking for a new piano player when chain-smoking journeyman Pinetop Perkins showed off his aggressive keyboarding during a jam session.

“He liked what he heard. The rest is history,” said Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, who was a drummer in Waters’ band back in 1969.

THUMBS UP—Grammy winning blues pianist Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins motions a “thumbs up” gesture during the 2009 annual Blues festival at Hopson Plantation in Clarksdale, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

By then, Perkins, an old school bluesman with the gravelly voice, for years had played the rickety bars among the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, and toured far beyond them with rock pioneer Ike Turner in the 1950s. He performed with the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson and slide guitarist Robert Nighthawk.

When he and Waters hooked up, Pinetop was in his 50s and never had recorded an album of his own but “had more energy than us younger folks did,” Smith said.

Week of March 26-April 1

March 26

1831—The founder of the AME Church, Richard Allen, dies at age 71 in Philadelphia, Pa. As its first bishop, Allen set the African Methodist Episcopal Church on the path to becoming the first Black religious denomination in America to be fully independent of white control. He, in effect, chartered a separate religious identity for African-Americans. He also founded schools throughout the nation to teach Blacks. This includes Allen University in Columbia, S.C.

RICHARD ALLEN

by Cristian Salazar

NEW YORK (AP)—President Barack Obama found out years ago he had an Irish ancestor who fled the potato famine in 1850. He can now claim 28 living relatives who also descended from that Irishman, including a Vietnam veteran, a school nurse and a displeased Arizona Republican.

OBAMA’S COUSIN—Dorma Lee Reese poses for a picture at her home in Tucson, Ariz., March 16. Reese, 83, a retired EEG technologist, learned about a year ago that she is a third cousin to President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

The president’s newly identified relatives are revealed in a study released to The Associated Press by Ancestry.com, whose genealogists also traced descendants of 23 other Irish passengers on the ship that brought Falmouth Kearney to the United States when he was 19.

The survey allowed genealogists to further trace branches in Obama’s family tree and others who arrived on the ship, known as the Marmion, on March 20, 1850.