• Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla’s achieved milestones in 2018.
• They have broken records via their movie The Hows of Us and had projects that made impact overseas. 

There were 125 films shown last year. And most of them were from film festivals like Sinag Maynila, Cine Filipino, Cinemalaya, Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino, TOFARM Film Festival, Cinema One Originals, QCinema, and the recently concluded Metro Manila Film Festival.

Despite a number of film festivals, Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo‘s The Hows of Us topped the highest grossing film in 2018.

In fact, It was the only Filipino movie that has reached the eight hundred million mark in the Philippine box-office which beaten the previous holder of the top spot, John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo‘s A Second Chance.

READ: KathNiel lords over other love teams, critics suggest that this is not healthy for the entertainment industry

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlzxDRaALDE/

The movie also held premieres in Indonesia and Vietnam. It was Star Cinema‘s first time to do so in Jakarta.

KathNiel were not just rocking the box-office but the world of fashion as well. They were the cover of METRO Magazine‘s August 2018 issue.

They have been part of ABS-CBN’s line of representatives in the Thailand Network Trade Launch, which is the country’s largest media event. They attended the trade show with Maja Salvador and Jericho Rosales.

READ: BOX-OFFICE CHAMPS: How did KathNiel movies gross through the years?

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The couple has also won the Favorite Foreign TV Actor and Actress award in the Face of the Year Awards in Vietnam.

La Luna Sangre was acquired by MKCS Global became the platform for the show to be aired in Myanmar. She’s Dating the Gangster was also acquired by a Spanish movie channel called Cinelatino.

Last but not the least, aside from the success of their careers, 2018 has also been the mark of the confirmation of Bernardo and Padilla’s real-life romance of more than five years.

• An Indonesian man and an English girl’s wedding photos go viral on Facebook.
• The two met in Indonesia one year ago and decided to wed on December 16.

A set of wedding photos went viral on Facebook.

The photos that Polly Robinson uploaded was shared like crazy after people saw an unusual couple. An Indonesian man married an English girl.

View this post on Instagram

One year by your side… • I’m ready for many more ❤️

A post shared by Polly Alexandria Robinson 🌾 (@pollyoddsocks) on Aug 21, 2018 at 11:01pm PDT

Robinson met Karna Radheya in Bali, Indonesia in August 2017. From then on, they constantly see each other during her stay in the country and admitted to have fallen in love.

As she went back to her home in Manchester, England, the lovebirds kept in touch and decided to enter a long distance relationship.

Robinson then converted to Islam so that she could marry Radheya in his hometown in Magelang, Indonesia.

They had a traditional Muslim ceremony on December 16. The wedding was attended by the groom’s family and friends. And despite the absence of her family, the bride was happy to have married the restaurant owner and certified surfing instructor.

They didn’t let the distance bring out the worse in them and decided to take their relationship further.

“My only intention is to make our relationship halal. But since our story has already gone viral, I hope it will be an inspirational tale for netizens,” Robinson stated.

• Student and teacher married each other after dating for seven years.
• When they started being together, she was 13 and he was 27.

Relationships between people with big age gaps are not viewed positively. But this never stopped a 13-year-old Indonesian high school student from falling in love with her then 27-year-old teacher.

Vinida Virginia got into a relationship with her teacher Erwin Pangalia during her secondary days, and now that she finally hit the age of 20, they decided to tie the knot.

Their love story started in SMP Negeri 2 Tenga in Jakarta when Vinida noticed Erwin while writing on the blackboard of another class. She said that his broad shoulders got her attention.

She bumped into him again during her extra curricular activity while he was engrossed with his work. Seeing him working hard made her decide to pursue him because of her fondness on him.

It was like Vinida’s prayers were answered when Erwin got assigned to teach the class she’s in. But she had competition as it turned out that she was not the only one that had a crush on the male instructor.

In order to stand out, she often stayed late in school and attended Q&A sessions with him and after a while, he finally felt the same toward his student. They started dating in 2011.

They admitted that they did get a lot of negative comments, criticizing their 14-year age gap. Others said that it was highly immoral for a teacher to fall in love with his student.

The couple proved that their love isn’t shallow as after seven years, they finally got married!

• Maine Mendoza shared her happiness on Twitter.
• The television personality has been recently linked with actor Arjo Atayde.

Maine Mendoza expressed her happiness in a single tweet that became the source of her fans’ joy.

In a tweet posted on November 25, she said “So much happier now than I’ve ever been and so so grateful for that.”

So much happier now than I’ve ever been and so so grateful for that. ❤️😌

— Maine Mendoza (@mainedcm) November 26, 2018

As the message had no details, others assumed that it is linked to the dating rumors between the TV personality and actor Arjo Atayde.

They have been spotted together in several occasions including a dinner at a restaurant in Makati City and at a bar in Bonifacio Global City.

A few weeks ago, Mendoza and Atayde were once again rumored to have spent a trip in Bali, Indonesia together. They were also seen watching a concert in Quezon City a few days after the said vacation.

In an interview last November 15, Atayde said that he is happy with the current state of his love life, but the actor didn’t disclose more details regarding such.

• Reports say that Indonesian women are subject to two-finger virginity test in order to officially join the police force.
• Another requirement is that policewomen are supposed to be good-looking. 

According to reports, Indonesian women hoping to join the police force are subject to a ‘two-finger’ virginity test. It is to prove that they are ‘good girls’.

The test is said to involve the insertion of two fingers into an applicant’s vagina and will determine whether or not the hymen is still intact.

The activity was actually a method that has been long proven to be inaccurate to indicate or verify if a woman is still a virgin.

According to a woman named Zakia, the insertion of fingers do not only happen in the vagina.

“They didn’t just insert their fi‌ngers into my va‌gi‌na, but also into my a‌nu‌s. They kept probing … it was extremely pai‌nf‌ul.

“Every time I remember what happened, I cry … I feel like I don’t want to live anymore.”

When she insisted that she’s a virgin, the police intimidated her and told her to ‘come clean’. This resulted to her failing the second round of the application process.

Indonesian p‌ol‌ice‌ believe that society cannot accept a female officer who used to be a s‌e‌x worker or even has an active s‌e‌x life, according to Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono.

“Many military generals believe that the hymen is like a clock, if the h‌ym‌e‌n is torn between 11:00 am to 2:00 pm it’s mostly because of physical activities … but if the hymen is torn at 6:00 pm it means the woman has a se‌xu‌al life.”

The country was said to have banned the virginity testing, but according to a study from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) written by Dr Sharyn Graham Davies , the practice still remains as a key part of the police recruitment.

In addition, applicants are actually required to be good-looking, have excellent physical health, and possess a strong religious belief.

Dr. Sharyn Davies added, “As Indonesia’s po‌li‌c‌e force consistently rates as one of the world’s most corrupt, brutal and ineffective, any strategy resulting in an increase in public confidence in po‌l‌ic‌e must have some merit.

“Furthermore, the celebrity status achieved by p‌ol‌ic‌ewomen has inspired girls to consider a p‌oli‌ce career, an inspiration that too must have some merit.”

• KathNiel attended the premiere of ‘The Hows of Us’ in Indonesia and Vietnam.
• It was the first time that a Star Cinema film held a premiere in Indonesia.

Fans recently welcomed real-life couple Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla at the premiere of the intenational screening of their box office hit The Hows of Us.

They visited Indonesia and also held a premiere in Vietnam.

This was the first time that a Star Cinema film held a premiere in Indonesia so it was a huge honor for the two Kapamilya stars.

Aside from the red carpet screening of their movie, Kathryn and Daniel also held a meet and greet session for their growing fanbase in the said countries.

Their schedules are jampacked as it was also revealed that right after the international screenings of The Hows of Us, Daniel will head over to his solo concert rehearsals, and Kathryn will be filming with Sharon Cuneta and Richard Gomez for an upcoming movie.

“Sa mga Filipino and non-Filipino fans namin sa Jakarta and Vietnam, pupunta na kami diyan so sana ma-enjoy niyo ang movie.”

• President Rodrigo Duterte holds bilateral meetings with Vietnamese Prime Minister, Indonesian President
• The President then joined his fellow ASEAN leaders in a social dinner hosted by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, which was followed by the Plenary Session

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday, April 27, met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Leaders’ Summit here.

The President together with some of his Cabinet officials first met with Prime Minister Phuc at Ritz-Carlton Millenia Hotel.

The Prime Minister congratulated Duterte for the successful Philippine ASEAN chairmanship, stating that its outputs were good foundations for more productive work for ASEAN.

Both expressed confidence in the steady growth of Philippine-Viet Nam strategic partnership.

Duterte said the Philippines looked forward to increasing two way trade with Viet Nam and encouraged more investments.

Both leaders cited the importance of partnership to ensure ample supply of rice in the Philippines.

They also stated the need to continue working closely together to ensure security and stability in the region, including in the South China Sea.

The two reaffirmed the importance of United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the constitution of the oceans.

Prime Minister Phuc likewise thanked President Duterte for the humane treatment and release of Vietnamese fishermen who were caught in Philippine waters.

Duterte then thanked Vietnam for hosting Filipinos in their country.

Both leaders reaffirmed the value of Philippine-Vietnam relations.

After his meeting with Prime Minister Phuc, President Duterte met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at Istana.

The two leaders during a pull aside meeting reaffirmed the importance of relations between the Philippines and Indonesia.

Both renewed the commitment to work at further strengthening ties on issues of mutual importance, including security, stability and sustainable development.

They also discussed opportunities to meet again in the future at a mutually agreed event or date.

The President then joined his fellow ASEAN leaders in a social dinner hosted by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, which was followed by the Plenary Session.

• Philippines was named the 4th laziest country in the world
• Filipinos’ daily average steps is 4,008

We hate to break it to you but, a recent study from Stanford University suggested that the Philippines is the 4th laziest country in the world.

Is this true?

The researchers used data captured via smartphones to observe the habits of more than 700,000 people across the world. This is to find out the most active and laziest countries in the world.

First published in July through the advance online edition of Nature Research Journal, the results showed that Filipinos tend to be ‘activity poor’ tallying only 4,008 steps as a daily average.

Meanwhile, fellow Asian countries Indonesia and Saudi Arabia were hailed as the most inactive countries with a daily average of 3,513 and 3,087 steps respectively.

“If you think about some people in a country as ‘activity rich’ and others as ‘activity poor,’ the size of the gap between them is a strong indicator of obesity levels in that society,” researcher Scott Delp connected the results to the obesity rate per country.

On the other hand, Hong Kong residents tallied as the most active in the world averaging 6,880 steps per day.

How?

Researchers measured the data through smartphones which are equipped with ‘accelerometers’, tiny sensors that automatically record stepping motions.

The study aims to improve public health campaigns against obesity and support policies that will encourage the people to walk more and make the roads pedestrian-friendly.

A sketchy video of a motorcycle group became viral because of an alleged mysterious creature gets on their trail.

According to The Jakarta Post, the “sighting” was captured by motor trail community in Banda Aceh. The video was uploaded after the group’s trip to the forest.

In the video, one rider suddenly fell off his motorbike after seeing an unusual creature in front of him. On the other hand, the rider who has the camera chased the unknown entity while everyone was still in shock. Unfortunately, the creature was too fast and ran through the bushes instantly.

Other members of the group caught up with the guy who has been holding the camera. To no avail, they weren’t able to catch up with the small creature.

The entity that showed up said to be far shorter than average humans. It was carrying a wooden stick that could be its walking stick or hunting spear.

Speculations

After being viewed million times already, speculations rose that the creature might actually belong to one of the ethnic groups in Aceh, particularly the Mante tribe. Netral News reported that the Mante ran away after beeing seen by the group. They are said to have short bodies similar to the figure in the video.

Besides the Mante tribe, there are more pygmy tribes living in the forests of Indonesisa. Some are elusive, while some are a little bit friendly. But whatever or whoever that creature was, it just shows that there are still mysteries that not even a theory can explain.

A remote village in Sulawesi, Indonesia was dumbfounded when a giant python was cut out in the stomach and a dead man’s body was recovered from it.

It was reported that Akbar Salubiro, 25, went missing after going to harvest palm oil in the remote village, west of Sulawesi.

The seven-meter long python was sliced open using an 18-inch knife and Akbar was found lying dead after being swallowed whole.

How did they find out?

Akbar’s neighbor, Satriawan, said in an interview that the python was found in his garden. Usually, Akbar leaves his home to harvest palm, but after not returning, people started to look for him.

His wife, Munu, was not in their house at the time her husband disappeared. It’s only through news and local media did she know about what happened.

“People had heard cries from the palm grove the night before Akbar was found in the snake’s stomach. When the snake was captured, the boots Akbar was wearing were clearly visible in the stomach of the snake,” said Salubiro Junaidi, the village secretary.

It is said that reticulated pythons are boa constrictors who suffocate their prey first before swallowing it whole.

The slicing of the snake was caught on camera and was soon uploaded online.