A representative for Paramount Pictures confirmed Wednesday that the studio was developing a film on the life on Marley, who died in 1981 at age 36.

The studio did not offer further details but news site Deadline Hollywood said that the reggae legend’s son Ziggy Marley, himself a successful reggae musician, was leading production plans.

The late legend has already been featured extensively in concert movies and documentaries, notably the 2012 film Marley by Scottish director Kevin Macdonald which brought together archival footage and interviews.

Read also: Marley’s ‘Legend’ notches record 500th week on US chart

Any Hollywood biopic is likely to be scrutinized in Jamaica and abroad over what it chooses to emphasize.

Marley has become loved by global audiences for hits such as “No Woman, No Cry” and “Redemption Song”, but diehard fans often question whether casual listeners appreciate his Afrocentrism, his Rastafarian faith or his major influence as a peacemaker within Jamaica.

Marley’s fame has only grown since his death, which was triggered by cancer in a toe.

Legend, a greatest-hits collection released in 1984, has spent more non-consecutive weeks on the benchmark US album chart than any work other than Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon.//AFP

After severely criticising the government’s human rights record, its shuttering of independent news outlets and the court-dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), the EU will almost assuredly withdraw from most of the agreements it has made with the Kingdom, or so says the former CNRP president, Sam Rainsy.

In a two-minute video clip posted on Tuesday, Rainsy, who was speaking from the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, after meeting EU leaders, said he was told by those at the meeting that Prime Minister Hun Sen had gone to lengths to damage relations between it and Cambodia.

“At the European Parliament, I just met with the EU’s leaders, who told me that Hun Sen’s government has broken cooperation agreements, which required Cambodia to follow the democratic path.

“But by dissolving the CNRP and banning it from competing in the elections, Hun Sen has lost the confidence of the EU as the government prepares a fake and a joke of an election,” Rainsy claimed.

Despite living in exile to avoid arrest for a host of convictions, Rainsy said it wasn’t he who was the criminal.

Hun Sen ‘an outlaw’

“Hun Sen killed Cambodia’s democracy, so Hun Sen made himself an outlaw, and now his government is considered an outlaw by the EU,” Rainsy claimed.

“The EU cannot continue to cooperate with Cambodia like before. The mistake was [that] Hun Sen used authoritarian measures to kill democracy,” he said.

Cambodian People’s Party spokesman Sok Eysan said he doesn’t believe the EU intends to end cooperation with the Kingdom.

He labelled Rainsy’s remarks as a lie meant to deceive the people, and noted that, as an international bloc, the EU would have difficulty ending cooperation agreements with Cambodia because not all member states would support such a move.

“Despite his opinion of the EU position . . . and I believe it is his right to express his opinion on the situation in Cambodia, the content of his comments do not fit the actual situation in the Kingdom,” Eysan said.

“I understand that [ending any agreement with Cambodia] is the EU’s right, but I think it is a bit difficult because some countries in the EU still stand up to support the proper actions [taken by] the Royal Government of Cambodia.”

Political analyst Hang Vitou said he had not received any official information about the breaking of relations between Cambodia and the EU, but if such a decision were to be made, there would be serious problems for the Kingdom.

This, he said, included the EU’s rejection of the election results and the possibility of post-election economic sanctions.

“If such things really happened, it would have a severe affect” on the Kingdom, Vitou said.

Efforts on Wednesday to reach the EU’s Cambodian delegation were in vain.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Securities Commission Malaysia had said in February they would work together to set up a stock market trading link by year end to enable Singapore and Malaysian share investors to trade in Bursa Malaysia (BM) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

The link, first announced by then Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, would provide access to a total of 1,600 public-listed firms worth more than US$1.2 trillion (S$1.6 trillion). The initiative was to be expanded later to include other stock markets in the region.

Tun Dr Mahathir also said after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday he had accepted the resignation of central bank governor Muhammad Ibrahim and would meet the King as soon as possible to discuss Tan Sri Muhammad’s successor.

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“We have not decided on his successor because we need to have the approval of the Agong before we can announce,” Dr Mahathir told a news conference, referring to seeking approval from the King.

He said the replacement of the Malaysian stock exchange chief was not discussed. Reuters cited two sources as saying earlier on Wednesday Malaysia is looking to replace the chief executive officer of the stock exchange.

Mr Muhammad, whose five-year term at the central bank, or Bank Negara, isn’t due to run out until 2021, had offered to resign on Tuesday following revelations that proceeds from a RM2 billion land purchase by the bank were used to help troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The former government of Datuk Seri Najib, who lost power in an election last month, sold land to the central bank in late 2017 to raise money to help pay the 1MDB fund’s huge debt, the Wall Street Journal reported in May, citing people familiar with the transaction.

Malaysia’s Finance Ministry later confirmed the report.

The land deal put the independence of the central bank from government business in Malaysia into question.

Bank Negara Malaysia said it bought the land from the Finance Ministry at market prices. Last month, the bank said it “has extended comprehensive information on the transaction to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission for its complete and independent review”.

The new government of Dr Mahathir has called for an investigation by the anti-corruption commission of the central bank’s land purchase.

Mr Muhammad said on Wednesday he was resigning as public confidence in the bank has been eroded over the land deal.

“As a central bank, we are only as effective as the trust and confidence that the people of Malaysia and its leaders place in us,” Mr Muhammad was quoted by state news agency Bernama as saying in a WhatsApp message.

“I am prepared to relinquish my post if I no longer have the strong trust and support of the public. I cannot in good conscience continue if it affects the bank’s image and reputation.”

Fears of a new blowup of the 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) volcano have stalked rescue workers since Sunday’s eruption buried entire villages on its southern flank.

The National Forensic Sciences Agency said in a report Wednesday that morgues had received the remains of 99 people killed as a result of the eruption.

Only 28 have been identified so far, it said.

“We already have data with names and locations where there are missing persons and that number is 192,” Sergio Cabanas, head of Guatemala’s disaster management agency, told reporters earlier in the day.

Experts warned Wednesday that heavy rains in the area could provoke avalanches due to the large flows of volcanic mud, known as lahars, since the eruption on Sunday.

Volcanologists recorded the volcano exploding several times an hour Wednesday, which generated a fresh 4,700 meter (15,500 feet) high column of gray ash.

“The explosions are generating moderate avalanches that have an approximate distance of 800 to 1,000 meters,” the Vulcanology Institute said.

It said the lahars could sweep down the mountain laden with concrete, rocks up to a meter (yard) in diameter and tree trunks.

“The activity continues and the possibility of new pyroclastic flows in the next hours or days cannot be ruled out, so it is recommended not to remain near the affected area,” it said.

Emergency workers had to temporarily suspend their search late Tuesday after a new eruption triggered a landslide.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from seven communities in the Escuintla area near the summit, as panicked locals rushed to their cars to escape, causing chaotic traffic.

An AFP photographer saw a large plume of ash rise into the sky, prompting an evacuation of everyone authorities could find before the police, the military and rescuers were ordered to stand down.

– Ongoing search –

Hundreds of rescue workers, including firefighters, police and the military, were battling adverse conditions to search for remains in the tangled morass of rubble, dust and earth left behind by the landslides.

General Walter Sanchez, in charge of operations around the epicenter of the destruction near the village of El Rodeo, said the heat from the ash and hot sediment made rescue work difficult.

Firefighters hosed down their smoking boots, which had sunk into molten volcanic material just below the ash surface.

Everything in the search area was covered in a thick blanket of dust. In the murk created by the dust, police were using red ink to mark homes that had already been searched for bodies.

More than 12,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, the disaster management agency said, more than 3,000 of them housed in temporary shelters.

On the slopes Wednesday, local volunteers distributed food to rescue workers, and columns of cars handed out food, water, toilet paper, diapers and other necessities to residents.

Some residents said they had organized themselves to prevent looting that they claimed occurred on the first night of the disaster.

– Strongest in decades-

The killer eruption was the Central American country’s strongest in four decades.

It sent huge clouds of ash barreling over the surrounding area, blanketing roads, cars and people in thick gray dust as a river of molten mud carved a path down the mountain, sweeping away entire villages.

Officials said the speed and ferocity of the eruption took mountain communities by surprise, with many of the dead found in or around their homes.

Despite offers of international help from the United States, Mexico and several Latin American neighbors, Guatemalan authorities have not made a request for foreign aid.

The foreign ministry said disaster management agency CONRED would help determine any such request.

“We are ready when CONRED as the governing body of emergency management authorize us to make an appeal,” the ministry said in a statement.

President Jimmy Morales has been criticized on social media for passively waiting to react to offers of international aid.

The head of the International Red Cross Francesco Rocca is due to visit the country on Thursday, the Geneva-based agency said.

Kennedy’s son and namesake, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, is not convinced the Palestinian-born did it, or at least not alone.

RFK Jr wants a fresh investigation of the assassination — an appeal which is supported by only one of his eight surviving siblings.

Robert F. Kennedy, 42, was shot dead just after midnight on June 5, 1968 in the kitchen pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

The younger brother of president John F. Kennedy, cut down by an assassin’s bullets five years earlier, had just delivered a victory speech in the hotel ballroom after winning the California presidential primary.

The former US attorney general and New York senator died the next day.

Sirhan, who was born in Jerusalem and moved with his family to the United States in 1956, was convicted of firing the fatal shots with a .22 caliber pistol.

Sirhan, who was 24 at the time, confessed to the murder at his 1969 trial but claimed he could not remember carrying it out.

Diaries in which he had written “RFK Must Die” were entered as evidence along with a motive of supposed hatred for Kennedy’s support for Israel.

Sirhan was captured at the scene, the gun still in his hand, but there have long been claims a second gunman may have been involved.

Several witnesses and an acoustics expert believe that a total of 13 shots were fired although Sirhan’s gun only held eight bullets.

Also, Kennedy was hit behind the right ear by a bullet fired from point-blank range although Sirhan was said to be standing in front of him.

‘Curious and disturbed’

RFK Jr, 64, an environmental lawyer who is the third-eldest of Robert and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, is among those who entertain doubts.

He revealed to The Washington Post last week that he visited Sirhan in prison in December of last year.

“I went there because I was curious and disturbed by what I had seen in the evidence,” RFK Jr told the Post.

“I was disturbed that the wrong person might have been convicted of killing my father,” he said. “My father was the chief law enforcement officer in this country.

“I think it would have disturbed him if somebody was put in jail for a crime they didn’t commit.”

His sister, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, 66, the former lieutenant governor of Maryland, said she supports her brother’s call for a fresh look at the assassination.

“Bobby makes a compelling case,” she told the Post. “I think it should be reopened.”

Paul Schrade, a labor organizer who was wounded at the Ambassador Hotel that night along with four other people, has long campaigned for the case to be reopened.

“Yes, (Sirhan) did shoot me,” Schrade, now 93, told the Post. “Yes, he shot four other people and aimed at Kennedy.

“The important thing is he did not shoot Robert Kennedy,” Schrade said. “Why didn’t they go after the second gunman?

“They knew about him right away. They didn’t want to know who it was,” he said. “They wanted a quickie.”

– Focus on his life –

Two other surviving Kennedy children — his eldest son, Joseph P. Kennedy II and Kerry Kennedy — told The Boston Globe they did not support reopening the case.

“I think what is most important is that our country and my family reflect on what my father stood for and fought for — a legacy promoting global peace, social justice, and civil rights,” Joseph Kennedy said.

Kerry Kennedy, a human rights activist, said “the reason that people are interested in the circumstances of my father’s death is because of what he did with his life.

“And I think we should focus on his life and not so much on his death.”

There appears, in any case, to be little likelihood the investigation will ever be reopened.

In a 2013 rejection of Sirhan’s appeals, US magistrate Judge Andrew Wistrich dismissed the claims there were 13 shots instead of eight as not conclusive.

The judge also said the fatal shot behind the ear could be explained by the “chaos” and Kennedy perhaps turning his head after Sirhan opened fire.

Sirhan, now 74, was sentenced to death in 1969 but his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 after the death penalty was abolished.

His requests for parole have been repeatedly denied.

Fears of a new blowup of the 3,763-meter (12,346-foot) volcano have stalked rescue workers since Sunday’s eruption buried entire villages on its southern flank.

Officials said the known number of dead from that eruption was 75, though the toll was expected to rise.

“We already have data with names and locations where there are missing persons and that number is 192,” Sergio Cabanas, head of Guatemala’s disaster management agency, told reporters.

Among the latest of the 75 fatalities reported by the National Institute of Forensic Sciences was a 42-year-old woman who died in hospital, having lost both legs and an arm in the eruption.

Experts warned Wednesday that heavy rains in the area could provoke avalanches due to the large flows of volcanic mud, known as lahars, since the eruption on Sunday.

Volcanologists recorded the volcano exploding several times an hour Wednesday, which generated a fresh 4,700 meter (15,500 feet) high column of gray ash.

“The explosions are generating moderate avalanches that have an approximate distance of 800 to 1,000 meters,” the Volcanology Institute said.

It said the lahars could sweep down the mountain laden with concrete, rocks up to a meter (yard) in diameter and tree trunks.

“The activity continues and the possibility of new pyroclastic flows in the next hours or days cannot be ruled out, so it is recommended not to remain near the affected area,” it said.

Emergency workers had to temporarily suspend their search late Tuesday after a new eruption triggered a landslide.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from seven communities in the Escuintla area near the summit, as panicked locals rushed to their cars to escape, causing chaotic traffic.

An AFP photographer saw a large plume of ash rise into the sky, prompting an evacuation of everyone authorities could find before the police, the military and rescuers were ordered to stand down.

Ongoing search

Hundreds of rescue workers, including firefighters, police and the military, were battling adverse conditions to search for remains in the tangled morass of rubble, dust and earth left behind by the landslides.

General Walter Sanchez, in charge of operations around the epicenter of the destruction near the village of El Rodeo, said the heat from the ash and hot sediment made rescue work difficult.

Firefighters hosed down their smoking boots, which had sunk into molten volcanic material just below the ash surface.

Everything in the search area was covered in a thick blanket of dust. In the murk created by the dust, police were using red ink to mark homes that had already been searched for bodies.

More than 12,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, the disaster management agency said, more than 3,000 of them housed in temporary shelters.

On the slopes Wednesday, local volunteers distributed food to rescue workers, and columns of cars handed out food, water, toilet paper, diapers and other necessities to residents.

Some residents said they had organized themselves to prevent looting that they claimed occurred on the first night of the disaster.

Strongest in decade

The killer eruption was the Central American country’s strongest in four decades.

It sent huge clouds of ash barreling over the surrounding area, blanketing roads, cars and people in thick gray dust as a river of molten mud carved a path down the mountain, sweeping away entire villages.

Officials said the speed and ferocity of the eruption took mountain communities by surprise, with many of the dead found in or around their homes.

Despite offers of international help from the United States, Mexico and several Latin American neighbors, Guatemalan authorities have not made a request for foreign aid.

The foreign ministry said disaster management agency CONRED would help determine any such request.

“We are ready when CONRED as the governing body of emergency management authorize us to make an appeal,” the ministry said in a statement.

President Jimmy Morales has been criticized on social media for passively waiting to react to offers of international aid.

The head of the International Red Cross Francesco Rocca is due to visit the country on Thursday, the Geneva-based agency said.

    “We lost hundreds of homes in Kapoho Beach Lots and Vacationland overnight, but we don’t have exact figures,” Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for Hawaii County, told AFP.

She said the lost homes were in addition to 117 others destroyed since the volcano began erupting on May 3, forcing the evacuation of 2,500 people.

The latest two communities affected by the lava flow had been ordered evacuated beforehand and there were no immediate reports of any casualties.

One of the homes lost was that of Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim, Snyder said.

“His second home was claimed by lava,” she said.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said that an overflight early Tuesday confirmed that lava had completely filled Kapoho Bay, inundated most of Vacationland and had covered all but the northern part of Kapoho Beach Lots.

It said that a series of earthquakes had rattled the island for most of Monday night and into Tuesday morning, including one with a magnitude 5.5 that generated an ash plume.

Lava has engulfed an area of about eight square miles (20 square kilometers) since the volcano — one of five on Hawaii’s Big Island — began erupting.

Scientists believe that volcanic activity can be a precursor to a major eruption, similar to the Kilauea eruption in the mid-1920s.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday after its Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister said Muhammad had expressed his desire to leave and the Cabinet had accepted it.

“He didn’t say a concrete reason,” he said, when asked whether it was linked to the RM2bil land deal.

However, Dr Mahathir said the King’s approval was needed to announce a new governor.

StarBiz reported earlier that the move comes less than a month after the Pakatan Harapan coalition won a surprise election victory and Lim Guan Eng, raised questions about the central bank’s purchase of land from the previous administration.

Lim said in May that the previous administration of Datuk Seri Najib Razak had used money raised from a land sale to the central bank to pay off some of the debts of 1MDB, the state investment fund that’s been mired in a corruption scandal.

Bank Negara has said the purchase was transacted at fair value and complied with all governance requirements and relevant laws.

Muhammad was promoted to lead the central bank for a five-year term in May 2016 when Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz stepped down after 16 years of leadership. He had risen through the ranks of the central bank since joining it in 1984 and was endorsed by Zeti when she left as a successor able to provide policy stability.

Former deputy governor Datuk Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus is strongly tipped to succeed Muhammad.

Shamsiah was involved in policies to strengthen the banking system during the Asian financial crisis and in the development of regulations and guidelines for the financial sector.

She also helped formulate the financial sector’s 10-year master plan through 2010.

Chan Tha, 45, living southwest of the pagoda, told The Post that in the past, Wat Ounalom had one crematorium, but later the authorities and pagoda committee decided to close it down due to concerns over its environmental impact and the welfare of Cambodians and tourists.

“When there is a cremation, we find it very difficult to bear the stench blowing from the crematorium, and we also do not know whether the body is carrying a disease. The smoke and smell of the burning body also affects our health,” she said.

Tha said she could not understand why although the existing crematorium was demolished, on Monday there was a cremation held at the pagoda.

“Why was there a cremation in this pagoda? It affects both our health and the environment. It especially affects the number of international tourists staying and visiting downtown in Phnom Penh,” Tha said.

Meanwhile, an owner of a food shop located west of the pagoda, Ouk Sam Oeun, 53, said authorities should stop the cremations from happening inside Wat Ounalom.

“We are unsure if the body is diseased, while the smoke and stench from the crematorium is very difficult to endure,” Sam Oeun said.

The director of the Municipal Cults and Religion Department, Phorn Davy, told The Post that pagodas located in Phnom Penh are prohibited from carrying out cremations. However, he said cremations are permitted in pagodas located outside of Phnom Penh. Additionally, cremations of high-ranking government official are permitted at Botumvatey pagoda.

“For the cremation in Wat Ounalom pagoda on Monday, I have not received any letter from the event initiator,” he said.

He said on Wednesday morning he will investigate and question the pagoda committee over the matter, besides recommending that cremation inside Wat Ounalom be immediately stopped.