LOS ANGELES (AP): Larry King, the suspenders-sporting everyman whose broadcast interviews with world leaders, movie stars and ordinary Joes helped define American conversation for a half-century, died Saturday. He was 87.



King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his production company, Ora Media, tweeted. No cause of death was given, but a spokesperson said Jan. 4 that King had COVID-19, had received supplemental oxygen and had been moved out of intensive care. His son Chance Armstrong also confirmed King’s death, CNN reported.



A longtime nationally syndicated radio host, from 1985 through 2010 he was a nightly fixture on CNN, where he won many honors, including two Peabody awards.



With his celebrity interviews, political debates and topical discussions, King wasn’t just an enduring on-air personality. He also set himself apart with the curiosity he brought to every interview, whether questioning the assault victim known as the Central Park jogger or billionaire industrialist Ross Perot, who in 1992 rocked the presidential contest by announcing his candidacy on King’s show.



In its early years, “Larry King Live” was based in Washington, which gave the show an air of gravitas. Likewise King. He was the plainspoken go-between through whom Beltway bigwigs could reach their public, and they did, earning the show prestige as a place where things happened, where news was made.



King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews. In 1995 he presided over a Middle East peace summit with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Barack Obama, Bill Gates to Lady Gaga.



Especially after he relocated to Los Angeles, his shows were frequently in the thick of breaking celebrity news, including Paris Hilton talking about her stint in jail in 2007 and Michael Jackson’s friends and family members talking about his death in 2009.



King boasted of never overpreparing for an interview. His nonconfrontational style relaxed his guests and made him readily relatable to his audience.



“I don’t pretend to know it all,” he said in a 1995 Associated Press interview. “Not, <code>What about Geneva or Cuba?′ I ask,</code>Mr. President, what don’t you like about this job?′ Or `What’s the biggest mistake you made?′ That’s fascinating.”



At a time when CNN as the lone player in cable news was deemed politically neutral, and King was the essence of its middle-of-the-road stance, political figures and people at the center of controversies would seek out his show.



And he was known for getting guests who were notoriously elusive. Frank Sinatra, who rarely gave interviews and often lashed out at reporters, spoke to King in 1988 in what would be the singer’s last major TV appearance. Sinatra was an old friend of King’s and acted accordingly.



“Why are you here?” King asks. Sinatra responds, “Because you asked me to come and I hadn’t seen you in a long time to begin with, I thought we ought to get together and chat, just talk about a lot of things.”



King had never met Marlon Brando, who was even tougher to get and tougher to interview, when the acting giant asked to appear on King’s show in 1994. The two hit it off so famously they ended their 90-minute talk with a song and an on-the-mouth kiss, an image that was all over media in subsequent weeks.



After a gala week marking his 25th anniversary in June 2010, King abruptly announced he was retiring from his show, telling viewers, “It’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders.” Named as his successor in the time slot: British journalist and TV personality Piers Morgan.



By King’s departure that December, suspicion had grown that he had waited a little too long to hang up those suspenders. Once the leader in cable TV news, he ranked third in his time slot with less than half the nightly audience his peak year, 1998, when “Larry King Live” drew 1.64 million viewers.



His wide-eyed, regular-guy approach to interviewing by then felt dated in an era of edgy, pushy or loaded questioning by other hosts.



Meanwhile, occasional flubs had made him seem out of touch, or worse. A prime example from 2007 found King asking Jerry Seinfeld if he had voluntarily left his sitcom or been canceled by his network, NBC.



“I was the No. 1 show in television, Larry,” replied Seinfeld with a flabbergasted look. “Do you know who I am?”



Always a workaholic, King would be back doing specials for CNN within a few months of performing his nightly duties.



He found a new sort of celebrity as a plainspoken natural on Twitter when the platform emerged, winning over more than 2 million followers who simultaneously mocked and loved him for his esoteric style.



“I’ve never been in a canoe. #Itsmy2cents,” he said in a typical tweet in 2015.



His Twitter account was essentially a revival of a USA Today column he wrote for two decades full of one-off, disjointed thoughts. Norm Macdonald delivered a parody version of the column when he played King on “Saturday Night Live,” with deadpan lines like, “The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the equator.”



King was constantly parodied, often through old-age jokes on late-night talk shows from hosts including David Letterman and Conan O’Brien, often appearing with the latter to get in on the roasting himself.



King came by his voracious but no-frills manner honestly.



He was born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger in 1933, a son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who ran a bar and grill in Brooklyn. But after his father’s death when Larry was a boy, he faced a troubled, sometimes destitute youth.



A fan of such radio stars as Arthur Godfrey and comedians Bob &amp; Ray, King on reaching adulthood set his sights on a broadcasting career. With word that Miami was a good place to break in, he headed south in 1957 and landed a job sweeping floors at a tiny AM station. When a deejay abruptly quit, King was put on the air — and was handed his new surname by the station manager, who thought Zeiger “too Jewish.”



A year later he moved to a larger station, where his duties were expanded from the usual patter to serving as host of a daily interview show that aired from a local restaurant. He quickly proved equally adept at talking to the waitresses, and the celebrities who began dropping by.



By the early 1960s King had gone to yet a larger Miami station, scored a newspaper column and become a local celebrity himself.



At the same time, he fell victim to living large.



“It was important to me to come across as a ‘big man,”’ he wrote in his autobiography, which meant “I made a lot of money and spread it around lavishly.”



He accumulated debts and his first broken marriages (he was married eight times to seven women). He gambled, borrowed wildly and failed to pay his taxes. He also became involved with a shady financier in a scheme to bankroll an investigation of President John Kennedy’s assassination. But when King skimmed some of the cash to pay his overdue taxes, his partner sued him for grand larceny in 1971. The charges were dropped, but King’s reputation appeared ruined.



King lost his radio show and, for several years, struggled to find work. But by 1975 the scandal had largely blown over and a Miami station gave him another chance. Regaining his local popularity, King was signed in 1978 to host radio’s first nationwide call-in show.



Originating from Washington on the Mutual network, “The Larry King Show” was eventually heard on more than 300 stations and made King a national phenomenon.



A few years later, CNN founder Ted Turner offered King a slot on his young network. “Larry King Live” debuted on June 1, 1985, and became CNN’s highest-rated program. King’s beginning salary of $100,000 a year eventually grew to more than $7 million.



A three-packs-a-day cigarette habit led to a heart attack in 1987, but King’s quintuple-bypass surgery didn’t slow him down.



Meanwhile, he continued to prove that, in his words, “I’m not good at marriage, but I’m a great boyfriend.”



He was just 18 when he married high school girlfriend Freda Miller, in 1952. The marriage lasted less than a year. In subsequent decades he would marry Annette Kay, Alene Akins (twice), Mickey Sutfin, Sharon Lepore and Julie Alexander.



In 1997, he wed Shawn Southwick, a country singer and actress 26 years his junior. They would file for divorce in 2010, rescind the filing, then file for divorce again in 2019.



The couple had two sons — King’s fourth and fifth kids, Chance, born in 1999, and Cannon Edward, born in 2000. In 2020, King lost his two oldest children, Andy King and Chaia King, who died of unrelated health problems within weeks of each other.



He had many other medical issues in recent decades, including more heart attacks and diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and lung cancer.



Through his setbacks he continued to work into his late 80s, taking on online talk shows and infomercials as his appearances on CNN grew fewer.



“Work,” King once said. “It’s the easiest thing I do.”



Funeral arrangements and a memorial service will be announced later in coordination with the King family, “who ask for their privacy at this time,” according to the tweet from Ora Media.

Larry King, broadcasting giant for half-century, dies at 87

ROME (AP): Italian police have recovered a 500-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s 16th century “Salvator Mundi” painting of Jesus Christ that was stolen from a Naples church during the pandemic without the priests even realizing it was gone.



The discovery was made when Naples police working on a bigger operation found the painting hidden in an apartment. Police chief Alfredo Fabbrocini said the apartment owner was detained after he offered a “less than credible” explanation that he had “casually” bought it at a market.



The painting is a copy of the “Salvator Mundi” (Savior of the World) by Leonardo that sold for a record $450 million at a Christie’s auction in 2017. The unnamed bidder was later identified as a Saudi royal who purportedly purchased it on behalf of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It was supposed to have been unveiled a year later at the museum, but the exhibition was delayed indefinitely and the work hasn’t been seen in public since.



The copy, attributed to the Leonardo school but not the Renaissance artist himself, had been housed in a small museum in a side chapel of the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, which had been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.



Fabbrocini said the discovery was particularly satisfying “because we resolved a case before it was created.” He explained: “The painting was found but its custodian hadn’t realized it was stolen.”



The painting depicts a robed Jesus holding a crystal orb and gazing directly at the viewer. The San Domenico basilica says the painting was probably made by a Leonardo student in the 1520s and purchased by Giovan Antonio Muscettola, an adviser to Emperor Charles V and ambassador to the papal court. It was housed in the basilica’s Muscettola family chapel.



It was restored prior to being exhibited in a 1983-1984 show “Leonardo and Leonardism in Naples and Rome.”

Italian police find stolen copy of Leonardo ‘Salvator Mundi’

Kathmandu: The government has given permission to open a movie hall.



The government has given permission to operate movie halls which were closed since last year. A meeting with Prime Minister KP Oli and members of the Council of Ministers on Sunday decided to open a cinema hall, media reported quoting Aakash Adhikari, president of the Film Producers Association.



Chairman of the Film Development Board Dayaram Dahal, actor Shiva Shrestha and on his initiative a meeting was held with the Prime Minister and members of the Council of Ministers.



The meeting was also attended by Chairman Dahal, Shiva Shrestha, Prime Minister Oli, Deputy Prime Minister and CCMC Coordinator Ishwar Pokharel, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel, Health and Population Minister Hridayesh Tripathi, Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Poudel and Information, Communication and Technology Minister Parbat Gurung.



Nepal Film Association has decided to open a movie hall from January 25. The decision was not approved by the businessmen and the government.

Government allow to open movie halls

LOS ANGELES (AP): Veteran talk show host Larry King, suffering from COVID-19, has been moved out of the intensive care unit at a Los Angeles hospital and is breathing on his own, a spokesman said on Monday.



King was moved to the ICU on New Year’s Eve and was receiving oxygen but is now breathing on his own, said David Theall, a spokesman for Ora Media, a production company formed by King.



The 87-year-old broadcasting legend shared a video phone call with his three sons, Theall said.



King, who spent many years as an overnight radio DJ, is best known as host of the “Larry King Live” interview show that ran in prime time on CNN from 1985 to 2010.

Larry King, hospitalized with COVID, moved out of ICU

NEW YORK (AP): Just in time for anyone facing a heaving, post-holiday refrigerator comes a TV show about what to do with all those dubious dishes — leftovers.



Each episode of the food game show “Best Leftovers Ever!” on Netflix sees three skilled cooks make new dishes out of already made dishes, hoping to walk away with $10,000.



“People think leftovers is just reheating your food. It’s not just reheating your food. Get creative with it. You could always create new and better things with it later,” says comedian David So, one of the judges.



In the first episode, contestants are given healthy leftovers — veggie salad, cauliflower rice, pork tenderloin with beets, and avocado with cottage cheese — and are asked to turn them into comfort food in 30 minutes. They have access to a pantry and kitchen staples.



One contestant turned to Indian flavors, making a pork curry with fritters. Another went for Greek, making a beet- and pork-stuffed pastry called a tiropita. The third made a tostada with glazed pepper jelly pork.



In the second round, called the Takeout Takedown, contestants must make new dishes from restaurant leftovers in only an hour. One took chicken fingers and fries and made a potato gnocchi. Another turned old burgers and fries into pierogies.



Later episodes see contestants turn football-watching party food — bean dip, sliders and raw veggies — into beef stroganoff or tacos, and turn leftover barbeque into lasagna or dumplings.



“If the audience can walk away and go back to their fridge and say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to throw this away, I’m actually going to make something amazing out of it,’ then we did our job,” says So.



The show arrives during a time when viewers have had to adjust to ordering takeout during the pandemic and at the end of holiday feasts.



“The timing couldn’t be more perfect,” says the show’s host, actress-musician Jackie Tohn, who starred in the TV series “GLOW” and is a self-described “leftover queen.”



“We can’t go to restaurants and all we can do is order in. And then if you get that Chinese food and you don’t want it to be Chinese food on night two, we’re giving you a bunch of tips and tricks to make that possible.”



Tohn and So are joined by the second judge, British chef and TV personality Rosemary Shrager. The three have a slightly absurdist vibe, tossing cheeseballs into each others’ mouths while contestants cook, or imitating Julia Child’s high-pitched modulations.“Being on set wasn’t like work. It was just like talking to your friends and eating really good food around talented people,” So says. “I mean, everybody would love a job like that, right?”



The show appealed to both So and Tohn since they grew up in households where there was little food wasted. Tohn’s grandmother used to keep bones for marrow: “Nothing ever got thrown away. I mean, we ate leftovers until the very end.” And So had leftovers all week.



“Everybody thinks that you have to eat new food every day. And that’s just not what I grew up with,” he says. “My mom would always make a big meal on the weekend and then I would have to be creative and then make good food on the weekdays with it.”



He laughs that chefs always stress fresh ingredients but a lot of what restaurants send out is leftovers, like arancini, which are usually just yesterday’s risotto, now rolled into balls and deep fried. “I don’t think we understand a lot of our favorite foods are honestly repurposed foods.”

Netflix reworks leftovers with food-based reality game show

Kathmandu: Ninth Nepal Literature Festival will be organized virtually owing to Covid-19 pandemic.



The Virtual Literary Festival will be held from Sarangkot in Pokhara this time amidst the Covid-19 crisis.



The organizer Bookworm Foundation has informed that the festival will have 16 virtual sessions on various contemporary issues including literature, culture and politics. There will be more than 40 speakers at the festival.



The literary festival will be held on the banks of Phewa Lake with the gathering of writers, literary figures and artists from home and abroad.



During the festival, there will be discussions on issues such as the youth's view of the country, the hustle and bustle of reading and teaching, wonderful personalities, extraordinary writing and opportunities for federalism.

Nepal Literature Festival will be organized virtually

Kathmandu (RSS): The bungee jump at Bhotekoshi in Sindhupalchowk, which was closed due to coronavirus, has resumed after nine months.



Rashtriya Samachar Samiti has reported that the 160-meter long bungee jump, which has been in operation since 1999, is considered to be the best in terms of adventure. Before the lockdown was imposed in the country, up to 100 people used to come daily. Young people are more attracted to bungee jumping.



The fee for bungee is Rs 6,000 for locals and Rs 9,200 for foreigners. Along with bungee, exciting swing has also come into operation.

Bungee jump resumes at Bhotekoshi

Kathmandu: The 18th edition of Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival (KIMFF) has started.



All the films of the festival, which started on Thursday, can be watched free from home. Films screened at the festival will be available on KIMFF's website. According to KIMFF, the film will be screened at the festival for five days and the viewers can enjoy all the movies free of cost.



30 films will be screened on this year's KIMF for five days starting from today. Of these, 18 films from 15 countries have been selected for screening. According to the organizers, 12 more films including story and documentary will be screened for Nepal Panora.



During the festival, a program of 'virtual' interactions and seminars with filmmakers and speakers will also be conducted.



The three-member jury of the festival includes American documentary filmmaker Julie Bridgham, Swiss journalist and filmmaker Lisa Rusli and Nepali writer Nayan Raj Pandey. The first, second and third place films in the international segment grossed Rs 200,000, Rs 150,000 and Rs. 100,000 cash prizes.



The cash prize has been sponsored by Nepal Mountaineering Association, Himalayan International Mountain Film of China (HIMF) and Swiss businessmen Ursala and Freddie Holland respectively.



By the time the 18th edition arrives, KIMFF's message is 'Tamasoma Jyotirgamay' and in English, 'Against Despair, Toward Hope'.



Each edition of KIMFF features selected films from around the world. At the same time, there are seminars and other debates among Nepali young filmmakers about documentary and fiction films. Following the screening of special documentaries on World Epidemic Covid-19 and lockdown this year under the 18th edition, it will be discussed among experts virtually.

KIMFF begins; watch free movies at home

LAUSANNE (Reuters): A Swiss nightclub shuttered by COVID-19 restrictions has been converted into a temporary blood donation centre, bringing new life to an empty multi-floor warehouse that previously heaved with revellers.



Chandeliers that used to illumine the dance floor for thousands of party-goers at the MAD nightclub in the student town of Lausanne now light the way for nurses to insert needles as songs by Queen, the Bee Gees and Michael Jackson play.



“It was almost heartbreaking to see a place like this which has existed for almost 35 years asleep for so long,” said manager Igor Blaska. “So of course we were proud to organise any activity that was possible.”



The nightclub in the Flon district, normally at the heart of the city’s nightlife, has been shut for almost 10 months due to restrictions aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19.



Switzerland has been hit hard by a second wave of COVID-19 cases. In total, it has reported more than 350,000 infections and more than 5,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.



One former reveller-turned-blood donor said it felt good to be back at MAD -- which stands for Moulin a Danse or ‘dance mill’, and has a giant, red wheel suspended from the roof.



“I came without question because it is a legendary place,” said Olivier Rebel. “There was this side (of me, saying) - get out of the house, go back to a place I’m not going to anymore but which is full of memories. It was just nice.”

Swiss nightclub, shuttered by COVID-19, reborn as blood donation centre

(BBC): 



Pop star Rita Ora has apologised for a second breach of the UK's Covid-19 restrictions, after failing to self-isolate following a trip to Egypt.



The 30-year-old flew to Egypt for a private performance on 21 November. On her return the following day, she should have isolated for two weeks.



Instead, she threw a birthday party in London, which was itself in violation of lockdown rules.



The star apologised for the party last week, and offered to pay a fine.



Details of her trip to Egypt subsequently emerged in the Mail On Sunday.



The newspaper said the singer, whose hits include I Will Never Let You Down, Your Song and Let You Love Me, had played an exclusive set at Cairo's W Hotel for a six-figure sum.



An unverified source also told the Mail that Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi was among those in attendance, although the claim has been disputed.



In response, Ora said she "deserved criticism" for her actions, and would donate her fee from the concert to charity. 'Guilt and shame' In a statement, she said: "I recently flew to Egypt to perform at a corporate event for a private company, where my travel party followed protocol and presented negative Covid tests upon entry, as required by Egyptian authorities.



"Upon my return to Britain, I should have followed government advice and isolated myself for the required period. As you know, I didn't follow government advice and for that I apologised earlier this week. I apologise again, unreservedly."



After reassuring fans she had tested negative for Covid-19, she continued: "While I realise the apologetic words of a pop star might not carry much weight, especially one who has broken the rules like I have, I do realise that some might seek to follow my example. My message to them is simple: Please don't.



"The guilt and shame I've carried this week for my mistake aren't worth it. Instead, continue to listen to the government advice and the voices of the heroes of the NHS and take the required precautions. I will take the criticisms coming my way because I deserve them."



She added that she hoped "to one day make it up to the public who have given me so much support over the years and, in particular, make it up to the heroes of the NHS".Meanwhile, Kensington and Chelsea Council has denied that Ora paid a £10,000 fine over the party she held in Notting Hill's Casa Cruz restaurant, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.



Up to 30 people were at the event, according to reports, although the pop star herself described it as a "small gathering".



Some press outlets claimed she had handed over a five-figure sum, but on Friday 4 December, a council spokesperson said no such fine had been paid.



They added that the council was investigating the premises for a potential breach of licensing and Covid regulations, and that it was not in their power to investigate an individual.

Rita Ora apologizes for second breach of Covid lockdown restrictions

NEW YORK (AP): Bob Dylan’s entire catalog of songs, one of the great treasures in music history, has been acquired by Universal Music Publishing Group for an undisclosed sum.



The catalog includes such modern standards as “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” and “Like a Rolling Stone,” a body of work that may only be matched by the Beatles, whose songs were re-acquired by Paul McCartney in 2017 after changing hands several times, for its breadth and influence.



The New York Times, which first reported the deal, said it was struck directly with Dylan.



Dylan topped the Rolling Stone list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time in 2015 and the song “Like A Rolling Stone” was named by the magazine as the best ever written.



Dylan was influenced by the bluesman Robert Johnson and folk singer, songwriter Woody Guthrie, but added a lyrical depth to his music that eventually earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016. He is the only songwriter to receive the award.



Financial terms were not disclosed Monday, but the catalog may be the most prized in the music industry. Four years ago, when Michael Jackson’s estate sold the remaining half-share that it owned in the artist’s catalog, it fetched $750 million.



“Brilliant and moving, inspiring and beautiful, insightful and provocative, his songs are timeless — whether they were written more than half a century ago or yesterday,” said Sir Lucian Grainge, CEO of Universal Music Group, in a prepared statement.Dylan’s songs have been recorded more than 6,000 times, by various artists from dozens of countries, cultures and music genres. Notable releases include the Byrds’ chart-topping version of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and Jimi Hendrix’s reworking of “All Along the Watchtower.



Joan Baez, Bryan Ferry and the folk singer Odetta put out tribute albums, though his influence cannot be measured. Patti Smith, Adele and Sting contributed to an album honoring Dylan for his human rights work in 2012.



The sale of Dylan’s musical catalog comes a few weeks after the Jewish singer-songwriter’s musings about anti-Semitism and unpublished song lyrics sold at auction for a total of $495,000. It also follows Stevie Nicks’ recent sale of the majority stake of her music to the publisher and talent management company Primary Wave.



Dylan first entered the public consciousness with New York City’s Greenwich Village folk scene during the early 1960s. When he brought an electric guitar on stage in 1965, he split the music community in what was then considered a radical departure for an artist.



Dylan then produced three albums back-to-back in just over a year that changed the course of rock ‘n’ roll that decade, starting with “Bringing It All Back Home.”



Dylan has sold more than 125 million records globally.

The Dylan catalog, a 60-year rock ‘n’ roll odyssey, is sold

Kathmandu: Dancing reality show 'Dance Master Lil Chams' is going to be organized. Organizing an event on Sunday, its team has officially announced that the show is about to start. 'Three Productions' is going to produce this show in collaboration with 'Nepa Productions'.



The reality show will be directed by Bishal Bhandari. Bishal had earlier directed the movie 'Kohalpur Express' and 'Comedy Champion' was also aired under his direction. Keki Adhikari, Reema Bishwakarma, Bishal Bhandari, Rohiya Maharjan, Reena Maharjan and Gambhir Man Singh will be the producers in this show.



Children under the age of 13 can participate in this show. Saranga Shrestha will be the super judge of the show. Similarly, Teriya Magar, Sushant Khatri and Rohiya Maharjan will be among the judges. The show will be hosted by Rima Bishwakarma and Suman Koirala.



Director Bishal Bhandari informed that the program is being started with the objective of giving opportunity to the children who can dance well. He said that now Nepali children do not have to go to various shows abroad in search of a better platform.



The winner of the reality show will get a Rs 2.5 million cash prize. Similarly, the second-place winner will get Rs 1.5 million and the third-place winner will get Rs 1 million in cash. The winner will have to share 50 percent of the prize with the choreographer.

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