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Wish 107.5 launches tilt for the ‘next singing sensation’ on YouTube

FM RADIO STATION, Wish 107.5, has launched its first online singing competition meant to find “the country’s next singing sensation” after having gathered 20 contestants from all over the country.

“Sometimes it takes another country to recognize the Filipino talent, and that’s only the time that they’re introduced to the Filipino people – and we do not want that to happen,” said Daniel Razon, chairman and CEO of Breakthrough and Milestones Productions, Inc. (BMPI), in a press release.

BMPI manages the station owned by Progressive Broadcasting Co.

The station then embarked on three-month search (both online and offline) for the 20 contestants and “has toured provinces from all over the country,” said Jay Eusebio, VP for Marketing of BMPI during the launch on Aug. 31 at Eastwood City, Quezon City.

He added that over a thousand aspirants joined the search.

The “Wishful 20” are: Al Fritz, Audrey Ranelyn Malaiba, Carmela Ariola, Charlene Hernandez, Chris Noel Bernalde, Daniel Briones, Danielle Joshua Supnet, Diana Tabitha Caro, Hacel Bartolome, Jenimay Mabini, John Harvey Magos, JM Bales, Kimberly Baluzo, Kristine Joy Peralta, Louie Ann Culala, Luka Bonol, Princess Sevillena, Vien King, Louise Ann Manuel, and Zekiah Jane Miller.

The 20 contestants will perform “only Original Pilipino Music (OPM)” and be filmed, on the station’s WISH 107.5 bus. The resulting videos will then be uploaded on the station’s YouTube channel.

WISH 107.5 currently has a running program called “Wishclusives” featuring local and foreign artists singing – including Luke Mejares and Journey frontman, Arnel Pineda – on the aforementioned WISH bus with videos uploaded on the YouTube channel.

The videos of the contestants singing will be judged by singer/songwriter Jungee Marcelo, Annie Quintos of the Company, and singer Jay R (Gaudencio Sillona III).

“The judges will watch the taped performances and react accordingly,” said Mr. Eusebio.

“And unlike usual singing contests where part of the final score will be from text votes (like American Idol), video views will contribute to the final score,” he added.

The video views will comprise 30% of the contestant’s score while the remaining 70% will be from the judges.

Every Saturday – Mr. Eusebio figures the contest will run for six months – a contestant will be eliminated until one reigns supreme.

The champion of the entire contest will win P2 million and a contract, a house and a lot, and a new car.

“This is our first season [of the competition] and we hope it won’t be last,” said Mr. Eusebio. – Zsarlene B. Chua

Hurricane damage leaves St. Martin ‘unreachable’

POINTE-À-PITRE — Hurricane Irma has caused “huge damage” to St. Martin, devastating its airport and port and leaving the Dutch part of the Caribbean island unreachable, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said Thursday.

“Alas, the island is not reachable at this point because of the huge damage to the airport and the harbor,” Mr. Rutte told reporters, though he added there were no reports of deaths on the Dutch side so far. French authorities say at least nine lives have been lost on the French side.

The French part of the Caribbean island St. Martin is “95% destroyed” after hurricane Irma tore through the region, top local official Daniel Gibbs said late Wednesday.

“It’s an enormous catastrophe. Ninety-five percent of the island is destroyed. I’m in shock. It’s frightening,” said Mr. Gibbs, a former French lawmaker, speaking on Radio Caribbean International.

The island is in need of emergency assistance, he said. “I have sick people to evacuate, I have a population to evacuate because I don’t know where I can shelter them,” he said.

At least six people have been killed in the French part of St. Martin, Guadeloupe prefect Eric Maire said.

Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, cut a deadly swath through a string of small Caribbean islands on Wednesday.

The French minister for overseas affairs, Annick Girardin, was to fly to Guadeloupe late Wednesday with emergency teams and supplies to assess the situation, the ministry said.

“It’s too soon for casualty figures (but) I can already tell you the toll will be harsh and cruel,” French President Emmanuel Macron said, adding that he expected damage on St. Barts and St. Martin to be “considerable.”

St. Martin (“Sint Maarten” in Dutch), located south of the island of Anguilla, is divided between the Netherlands and France.

St. Barts (“Saint Barthelemy” in French), which lies to the southeast of St. Martin, is administered with the status of a French collectivity, as is the French part of St. Martin.

‘TOTAL CARNAGE’
The Caribbean island of Barbuda is a scene of “total carnage” after the passage of hurricane Irma and the tiny two-island nation will be seeking assistance from the international community to rebuild, its prime minister said on Thursday.

Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told the BBC that about half of Barbuda’s population of some 1,800 were homeless while nine out of 10 buildings had suffered some level of devastation, many of them total destruction.

“We flew into Barbuda only to see total carnage. It was easily one of the most emotionally painful experiences that I have had,” Mr. Browne said in an interview on BBC Radio Four.

“Approximately 50% of them (residents of Barbuda) are literally homeless at this time. They are bunking together, we are trying to get … relief supplies to them first thing tomorrow morning,” he said, adding that it would take months or years to restore some level of normalcy to the island. — AFP

A sinister Pennywise returns with a big dose of nostalgia

MOVIE
It
Directed by Andy Muschietti

LOS ANGELES — It has been 27 years since a deranged killer clown terrorized a town on the small screen in It and ushered in a generation’s fear of clowns. Now, Stephen King’s Pennywise the child-eating clown is back, with bloodier teeth and a fresh set of victims.

It is the long-awaited movie version of King’s 1986 horror novel, rated “R” for gritty thrills, gory deaths and a Loser’s Club — the group of hero teenagers — not shy about cursing and making crude comments.

“There was still the feeling that It had not been faithfully adapted in all its glory and it’s been 27 seven years since 1990. So it’s about time,” director Andy Muschietti said.

Pennywise, first played by Tim Curry in 1990’s It television miniseries, preyed on the innocent and poisoned the sense of security of a small town.

It was part of a spate of 1980s films that made a phobia of clowns, known as coulrophobia, part of the zeitgeist and a horror movie staple.

Setting the new film in the late 1980s was a personal decision for Muschietti, who threw in a bevy of 1980s nostalgia with music and pop culture references for his cast of smart-mouthed teenagers.

“It’s also a time of your life where you basically stop being a child and… become being an adult, which is exactly precisely what happens to the Losers,” Muschietti added.

It begins with a very vivid homage to the 1990 miniseries as little Georgie Denbrough, clad in a yellow raincoat, chases a paper boat down the rain-soaked streets of the fictional suburban town of Derry, Maine, right to a storm drain.

There Pennywise, a supernatural demon clown, lurks underground and lures Georgie to a gory fate that kicks off a chain of deaths for the town’s teenagers and strange visions among the seven members of the Loser’s Club.

“It scared so many people in the ’80s,” said actress Sophia Lillis, who plays Beverly, the sole girl in the Loser’s Club.

“Their childhood was based off of It … so it has this big fan base around it but I think the basis is nostalgia.” — Reuters

IT, the latest take on the Stephen King horror story about an evil demonic clown named Pennywise, whose history of murder and violence dates back for centuries, and a group of children who find themselves fighting it amidst adult indifference, has been very popular with the critics on the review aggregate site which gave the film a 90% rating. The film stars Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, and Jaeden Lieberher, Bill Denbrough, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, and Finn Wolfhard.

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, “When a film of this magnitude has so many young characters front and center in the lead roles, so much depends on the casting — and in this case, there’s not a single misstep,” and gave the film a full four star rating.

Brian Truitt of USA Today concurs, “The infamous clown is plenty freaky, though it’s the youngsters, bursting with hormones and one-liners, who make It one of the better Stephen King adaptations.”

MTRCB Rating: R-13

Fed sees limited wage pressures as labor market remains tight

ECONOMIC GROWTH was modest to moderate across the US in the past two months as labor markets stayed tight without much wage pressure and the auto industry emerged as one of the few possible sources of weakness, a Federal Reserve survey showed.

The central bank’s Beige Book report, based on anecdotal information collected by the 12 regional Fed banks from early July through August, said consumer spending, capital expenditures and manufacturing all were increasing. Employment growth “slowed some” even as worker shortages worsened.

There were mixed results for vehicle sales and auto production, the report said. “Contacts in many districts expressed concerns about a prolonged slowdown in the auto industry,” according to the report, released Wednesday in Washington.

Fed officials have been anxious to gather fresh economic information that could help them determine whether they should lift their benchmark interest rate a third time in 2017. They hiked in March and June largely in response to a robust labor market, but some policy makers have wavered in their commitment to another increase due to weak inflation.

The report only deepened the mystery over why a tightening labor market is failing to trigger higher wages and lift prices more generally.

Prices “rose modestly” across the country, the report said in language that was similar to the last Beige Book report released July 12. Input prices gained, particularly for freight, lumber and steel, the report stated. In response to those increases, however, many firms didn’t pass on those higher costs to their customers.

SUBDUED INFLATION
The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, excluding food and energy components, was just 1.4 percent in the 12 months through July. Inflation has lagged below the Fed’s 2 percent target for most of the past five years.

With little inflation to worry about, Fed officials are rethinking how low the jobless rate can go before it starts to raise the cost of living.

“Employment growth slowed some on balance, ranging from a slight to a modest rate in most districts,” the report stated. “Labor markets were widely characterized as tight,” with worker shortages most notable in manufacturing and construction, it said.

Firms in Atlanta, St. Louis and Minneapolis were turning down business because of the dearth of people to hire, according to the report. Still, the majority of districts reported “limited wage pressures and modest to moderate wage growth.”

Unemployment has hovered at 4.3% to 4.4% since April.

The report also included a brief section on the economic impact of Hurricane Harvey, which flooded much of the Houston area. The energy and natural resources industries along the Gulf Coast were “generally positive” before the storm shut some production, the report said.

While it’s too soon to gauge the full extent of the economic fallout, freight prices jumped in the aftermath and the Port of Charleston in South Carolina expected increased volumes in coming weeks as shipments were routed away from the storm-ravaged region. — Bloomberg

Busan Rail calls for audit to validate MRT-3 defects

BUSAN Universal Rail, Inc. (BURI) yesterday called on the Department of Transportation (DoTr) to conduct a system audit to validate the cause of service  disruptions at the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-3 commuter line.

BURI, the rail line’s maintenance provider, has rejected claims by the DoTr that the company is responsible for MRT-3.

Undersecretary for Railways Cesar B. Chavez earlier submitted to the legal office of DoTr a paper of his office recommending that the contract of maintenance with BURI be terminated.

His paper cited, among others, failure to maintain safe and reliable train availability, citing derailment incidents, 98 service interruptions and 833 passenger unloading incidents, covering the January 2016 to July 2017 period. DoTr and BURI entered into a contract for the maintenance of MRT-3 in January 2016.

BURI said that as of Aug. 15, 2017, BURI’s fleet availability level for MRT-3 was 91.67%, higher than LRT-1’s 74.82% and LRT-2’s 66.67%. The company said fleet availability was 55% when BURI took over the maintenance contract.

Charles Mercado, a spokesperson for BURI, said in a statement: “Considering the difference in interpretation of the factual circumstances being used by DoTr as grounds for the termination of its contract, the dispute must be resolved following the contract-provided procedure through mutual consultation [and] through appropriate meetings.

BURI said it has formally notified the DoTr of its intention to avail of mutual consultation.

Mr. Chavez said in a text message to reporters: “I have… officially recommended the termination of the maintenance contract as I cannot countenance the poor maintenance works on the MRT-3 system which have led to 649 service interruptions and passenger unloading in 2016 and 284 in 2017, and worse, five train derailments in April and May 2017.”

“We have accordingly penalized BURI for these service interruptions, failure to comply with its obligation to ensure required number of trains available and failure to procure necessary spare parts which BURI willingly paid, thus admitting its failure to comply with its contractual obligations. At any rate, we will give BURI the right to explain its failure to comply with its maintenance works if that is what it wants,” Mr. Chavez said.

Mr. Chavez also said in a text message to BusinessWorld that DoTr is in the process of conducting the requested audit: “We are doing that (audit initiative) even without their suggestion.” — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

Mayweather-McGregor superfight gate receipts well short of record

LOS ANGELES — Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor’s money-spinning superfight failed to break the record for gate receipts at a Las Vegas boxing bout, figures released by the Nevada State Athletic Commission revealed Wednesday.

The controversial Aug. 26 fight raked in $55,414,865.79, well short of the $72,198,500 generated by Mayweather’s 2015 “Fight of the Century” against Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand.

The Mayweather-McGregor bout, staged at the T-Mobile Arena, sold 13,094 tickets, well short of the venue’s 20,500 capacity. The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight sold 16,219 tickets.

A total of 137 complimentary tickets were given away for Mayweather-McGregor, won by Mayweather in a 10th-round technical knockout.

Face-value ticket prices for Mayweather-McGregor were among the most expensive in history, with cheapest seats going for $500 and the most expensive for as much as $10,000.

Although the fight failed to challenge the Mayweather-Pacquiao gate total, it becomes the second highest-grossing gate in Las Vegas history, surpassing the $20 million generated by Mayweather’s 2013 defeat of Canelo Alvarez.

The bout is also set to be one of the richest fights in history if the most bullish predictions of pay-per-view television sales are met.

Some predictions have suggested the fight could threaten the 4.6 million buys generated by Pacquiao-Mayweather.

Official numbers have not been released although executives from cable network Showtime Sports said they expected the bout would at least be second. — AFP

North Korea and defending the West Philippine Sea

It started out with what appeared at first to be an earthquake. Just that the earthquake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale and lasting around 10 seconds, was only 10 kilometers deep and took place at Kimchaek, a known area where North Korea conducts nuclear tests.

Then it became clear: the North Korean government congratulated itself on a successful hydrogen bomb detonation, the sixth, and against the expressed international proscription to do so.

The hydrogen bomb’s power can reach levels of thousands of kilotons, able to be detonated at high altitudes, and – with intercontinental ballistic missiles – reach mainland US.

More importantly, the components were reportedly indigenous, such that North Korea need not import, and thus able to produce any number of nuclear weapons it wants without foreign assistance.

International condemnation was swift and US Defense Secretary James Mattis warned that any attack on the US or any of its allies will be met with a “massive military response”.

While Japan’s foreign minister Taro Kono and the US State secretary Rex Tillerson called for fresh sanctions, Mattis dryly stated that while the US is not looking for the “total annihilation” of North Korea, it has “many options to do so”.

But this article is not about North Korea, of which the Philippines is bizarrely its third largest trading partner.

This is about the Philippines and our territorial sea.

Because the North Korean issue revealed something about the Philippines: that it practically no longer plays a significant factor in international calculations.

After all, with the US having longer ranged weaponry and other dependably wealthy allies, what does it need the Philippines for?

To back up a bit, last 19 August 2017 Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio commented on an alleged “invasion” of Philippine territory:

“[China is now occupying Sandy Cay]. This is worse than what happened in Scarborough Shoal”. It was not even part of China’s “discredited historic nine-dashed line claim. Sandy Cay emerged within the territorial sea of a Philippine territory. If Sandy Cay becomes Chinese territory, it will reduce by a third or more Pagasa’s territorial sea. It will also prevent the Philippines from extending the territorial sea of Pagasa to include Subi Reef. By any yardstick, this is seizure of Philippine territory.”

Assuming such is true, what then can be done?

Calls for again suing China were made, of course. But in practical terms, such really doesn’t do anything.

The key assumption people always had is that the disputed Pacific areas are of military and economic importance to the US, such that it will not allow China’s dominance over the same.

But what if that assumption is wrong? What if that area and the Philippines are no longer as militarily, strategically important as it was back in World War II?

For one, during a workshop earlier this year, Australia-China Relations Institute James Laur¬ence¬son pointed out that:

“The $US5.3 trillion figure, which had then been repeated by numerous commentators, appeared to be a ‘considerable overestimate’. He said 70 per cent of global trade was carried by sea, with the world merchandise trade in 2011 amounting to $US17.8 trillion. This implied that around 43 per cent of total seaborne trade went through the South China Sea. Laurenceson said this claim was ‘extremely difficult to reconcile’ because many of the world’s most prominent bilateral trade relationships were domi¬nated by seaborne trade yet did not involve the South China Sea.”

Also, “Laurenceson said the US trade that might cross the South China Sea was that with ASEAN, yet the US Census Bureau listed this as only amounting to $US200 billion annually and included not just goods shipped by sea but also air trade”.

Australian National University Strategic and Defence Studies Centre’s Brendan Taylor then adds an interesting observation – that the disputed area as dangerous “flashpoint” is actually a myth: “First, East Asia’s traditional flashpoints—Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, and the East China Sea—stand a significantly higher prospect of combusting into broader, region-wide conflict. Second, China’s interests in the South China Sea are often overstated, and Beijing will continue to favor options short of military force to advance what interests it does have in this region. Third, the balance of military power in the South China Sea is not shifting against the United States at the rate many pundits suggest, rendering overblown the prospects for Washington being drawn into war with China to defend the credibility of its Asian alliances.”

Finally, there’s also this: the US is far from being a spent force. From economics to demographics to politics (domestic or international), frankly, time is on the US’ side.

It doesn’t need a war with China, they can just wait it out and let China exhaust itself.

This leaves the Philippines on its own.

Now, how we develop a short and long-term foreign and security policy factoring the aforementioned possibilities requires sophistication undisplayed by the last and (so far) this administration.

Jemy Gatdula is a Senior Fellow of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations and a Philippine Judicial Academy law lecturer for constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence.

jemygatdula@yahoo.com

www.jemygatdula.blogspot.com

facebook.com/jemy.gatdula

Twitter @jemygatdula

Encouraging fitness

By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Reporter

IN THIS AGE of fast and processed food, picking up the lifestyle habits of eating a healthy diet and having a fitness routine are no doubt a challenge. But for healthy food chain SaladStop!, such can be achieved if one makes a conscious effort.

In line with its mantra of “eating wide awake,” SaladStop! recently launched its “Eat Wide Awake Movement” campaign with the mission of “helping individuals maintain a healthy diet and encourage a devotion to fitness.”

SaladStop! is known for high-quality fresh salads, wraps, and hearty snacks.

For the whole month of September, which SaladStop! refers to as “Salad Month,” the food chain will hold promos and activities all geared at its end-game of reinforcing the value of conscious eating and keeping a well-balanced lifestyle.

To help it in its campaign, SaladStop! has enlisted the help of fit and strong “movers” whom it considers to embody what the whole thrust is about because of the choices they have made to stay fit and strong.

The Eat Wide Awake movers are actress Coleen Garcia, celebrity hosts Raymond Gutierrez and Kim Atienza, volleyball player Michele Gumabao, and celebrity trainer Arnold Aninion, and they are tasked to inspire others with their respective fitness journeys and choices.

“The mantra of SaladStop! is ‘eating wide awake’ which is about the relationship between us people and the food we take. It’s more of being conscious of what kind of nutrition we put in our body and the effects of which it has. The movement is about the totality of well-being,” said Steven R. Sarmenta, executive vice-president and general manager of Specialty Foods Retailers, Inc., the company which handles SaladStop!, in an interview with BusinessWorld during the Eat Wide Awake Movement campaign launch last week.

While he underscored that, based on their experience with SaladStop!, Filipinos are more familiar with vegetables and know their importance in being healthy and fit. Still, the company hopes that through the campaign, that conversation would be sustained and, in turn, propel the healthy lifestyle and fitness movement.

“The Filipinos have become more informed on healthy living. They know their vegetables now. They create their own salads and it speaks of the maturity of the Filipinos. Hopefully this campaign of SaladStop! further enhances that and continue to instigate conversation on it,” said Mr. Sarmenta.

The campaign kicks off on Sept. 9 with a series of interactive and fitness activities at the Bonifacio High Street Amphitheater, to be highlighted by a live DJ ride cycling party care of Electric Studio.

On Sept. 16, there will be having an exclusive Hybrid Density Training class led by Mr. Aninion.

Also this month, the healthy food chain will be releasing two new featured items, namely the Ting Tong (Crazy) salad and wrap, and Yeobo Yeobo (Darling) warm grain bowl.

Ting Tong is a mix of romaine lettuce, Cajun shrimp, vermicelli, ripe mango, pomelo, cherry tomatoes, snow peas, shredded coconut, roasted peanuts and Thai Peanut Turmeric dressing. The Yeobo Yeobo warm grain bowl, meanwhile, is made with baby spinach, quinoa, roasted chicken, eggs, sweet corn, alfalfa sprouts, edamame, and Korean chili vinaigrette.

“Campaigns like this by SaladStop! are very important, especially nowadays where it seems everything is processed and made fast. You really have to choose to live healthy, invest in your heath, not only for now but for the future as well. It’s hard and challenging but it’s all worth it,” said Ms. Gumabao in an interview.

SaladStop! has branches at Central Square in BGC, Power Plant Mall, OPL Building in Legaspi Village, Greenhills, Glorietta 2, Ayala Tower One, Burgos Circle, Alabang Town Center, Salcedo Village, and Ayala Center Cebu.

San Miguel to build industrial estate in Mandaue

SAN MIGUEL Corp. plans to build an industrial estate in Mandaue City, Cebu together with the local government in a bid to increase manufacturing activity and create jobs in the country.

The diversified conglomerate said in a statement on Thursday that the project will include a processed foods plant, feed mill, and other manufacturing facilities. The project will also have its own port terminal.

“We look forward to growing our presence in Mandaue City. This major development is an important part of San Miguel’s current expansion in key regions nationwide,” SMC President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon S. Ang was quoted as saying in a statement. 

SMC is currently investing in new processing plants for its food business, with P56 billion allocated for capital expenditures over the next three years by its subsidiary, San Miguel Pure Foods Corp. (SMPFC).

“Our aim is to support and accelerate our country’s economic development by investing in strategic and emerging growth areas. With this investment, we hope to help accelerate the city’s and the region’s overall growth and bring more jobs to our countrymen here,” Mr. Ang said.

For his part, Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing said the conglomerate’s investment in the city is a “strong validation of Mandaue City’s status as a premiere investment destination.”

SMC’s recurring profit grew 21% in the first semester to P27.6 billion, rising on the back of the 20% rise in revenues to P393.4 billion.

Shares in SMC lost P1.5 or 1.53% to close at P96.60 at the stock exchange on Thursday. — Arra B. Francia

Myanmar laying landmines near Bangladesh border — sources in Dhaka

DHAKA — Myanmar has been laying landmines across a section of its border with Bangladesh, said two government sources in Dhaka, adding that the purpose may have been to prevent the return of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence.

Bangladesh will on Wednesday formally lodge a protest against the laying of landmines so close to the border, said the sources, who had direct knowledge of the situation but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

An army crackdown triggered by an attack on Aug. 25 by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces has led to the killing of at least 400 people and the exodus of nearly 125,000 Rohingya to neighboring Bangladesh, leading to a major humanitarian crisis.

“They are putting the landmines in their territory along the barbed-wire fence” between a series of border pillars, said one of the sources. Both sources said Bangladesh learned about the landmines mainly through photographic evidence and informers.

“Our forces have also seen three to four groups working near the barbed wire fence, putting something into the ground,” one of the sources said. “We then confirmed with our informers that they were laying landmines.”

The sources did not clarify if the groups were in uniform, but added that they were sure they were not Rohingya insurgents.

Manzurul Hassan Khan, a Bangladesh border guard officer, told Reuters earlier that two blasts were heard on Tuesday on the Myanmar side, after two on Monday fueled speculation that Myanmar forces had laid landmines.

One boy had his left leg blown off on Tuesday near a border crossing before being brought to Bangladesh for treatment, while another boy suffered minor injuries, Mr. Khan said, adding that the blast could have been a mine explosion.

A Rohingya refugee who went to the site of the blast on Monday — on a footpath near where civilians fleeing violence are huddled in a no man’s land on the border — filmed what appeared to be a mine: a metal disc about 10 centimeters (four inches) in diameter partially buried in the mud. He said he believed there were two more such devices buried in the ground.

Two refugees also told Reuters they saw members of the Myanmar army around the site in the immediate period preceding the Monday blasts, which occurred around 2:25 p.m.

Reuters was unable to independently verify that the planted devices were landmines and that there was any link to the Myanmar army.

Myanmar army has not commented on the blasts near the border. Zaw Htay, the spokesman for Myanmar’s national leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was not immediately available for comment.

On Monday, he told Reuters clarification was needed to determine “where did it explode, who can go there and who laid those landmines. Who can surely say those mines were not laid by the terrorists?”

A Myanmar military source said landmines were laid along the border in the 1990s to prevent trespassing and the military had since tried to remove them, but none had been planted recently.

The Bangladesh interior ministry secretary, Mostafa Kamal Uddin, did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The border pillars mentioned by the Dhaka-based sources demarcate the boundaries of the two countries, along which Myanmar has a portion of barbed wire fencing. Most of the two countries’ 217-km-long border is porous.

“They are not doing anything on Bangladeshi soil,” said one of the sources. “But we have not seen such laying of landmines in the border before.” — Reuters

Palace assures assistance to Filipinos who will be affected by DACA revocation

THE PHILIPPINE government yesterday assured that it will provide assistance to Filipinos who may be affected by US President Donald J. Trump’s decision to revoke the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in a statement that the Department of Foreign Affairs, through embassy and consular officials and staff, is closely coordinating with the members of the Filipino community in the US after Mr. Trump announced on Wednesday that he will revoke the DACA, a program initiated under the Obama administration that allowed illegal immigrants who entered the country as minors to receive leeway from deportation and eligibility for a work permit. “We will provide assistance, through the use of the Assistance to Nationals Fund and the Legal Assistance Fund, to Filipinos who may end up getting deported as a result of Washington’s decision,” Mr. Abella said. — Rosemarie A. Zamora

Hollywood ends dismal summer

HOLLYWOOD’S worst summer in a decade came to a close over a dismal Labor Day weekend, the first in a generation without a big, new movie opening in wide release.

Movies notched estimated sales of $75.5 million in US and Canadian theaters from Friday to Sunday, making it the slowest Labor Day weekend since 1996, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at researcher ComScore, Inc. It caps a summer which drew just $3.8 billion in sales, the first time the season’s tally has dipped below the $4-billion mark since 2006, according to Dergarabedian.

The last time Hollywood studios didn’t have a big Labor Day release was 1992, and the absence of a new film last weekend put a capstone on what went wrong during the usually prosperous summer season. Studios spread their big budget pictures across the calendar this year, and much of what they did offer from May to September – new installments of ongoing serials – disappointed fans.

“Some comedies didn’t perform as expected and there were some great movies that didn’t resonate here, although they did better internationally,” Dergarabedian said by phone. “All it takes are one or two movies to harm the bottom line in a profound way. ”

The domestic box office is down about 6% year to date compared with a year earlier, according to ComScore.

The holdover picture The Hitman’s Bodyguard from Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. led the box office for a third time, generating $10.3 million, according to ComScore. It was forecast to generate $7.1 million from Friday to Sunday and $9.1 million through the extended holiday weekend, according to analysts at Box Office Mojo.

The biggest film opening this weekend was a re-release of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which opened in 901 theaters to celebrate the science fiction film’s 40th anniversary, according to ComScore. The film took in $1.8 million for Friday through Sunday.

The weekend also saw the debut of Tulip Fever, a period drama from Weinstein Co. featuring Alicia Vikander, and the novel release of the first two episodes of Marvel Entertainment’s The Inhumans on Imax screens. It had been planned as a film but was instead made into a TV show. ABC will premiere the series in the fall.

Among other returning films, Warner Bros.’ Annabelle: Creation returned to place second with $7.3 million. It had been forecast to generate $5.1 million over three days and $6.7 million over four days, according to Box Office Mojo.

That puts it on track to be one of the few sequels this summer to beat its predecessor, according to Gitesh Pandya at Box Office Guru.

While sales were harmed by the lack of a new opening movie this weekend, Dergarabedian is expecting an improvement in the coming months, kicked off by Warner Bros.’ release of It, a horror thriller based on the Stephen King novel of the same name.

“The good news is we have It this week, and then movies such as The Lego Ninjago Movie, Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Blade Runner 2049 to come,” he said. “We are going to make up a lot of ground in the next three months.” – Bloomberg

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