Predictions:Daily News picks 2016 Oscars winners

Leading up to Sunday’s Academy Awards telecast, more attention has been paid to the lack of diversity in the acting contenders than in the performances of the nominees themselves. And no single film will challenge the record of 11 wins shared by “Ben Hur” (1959), “Titanic” (1997) and “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” (2003).

That doesn’t mean, however, there isn’t plenty of drama surrounding the biggest night in the movie business. Here are the Daily News’ picks:

                                                                              COURTESY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

"The Revenant" is riding a wave of momentum, with awards from the Directors Guild of America and at the BAFTAs. It may also signal the big award, finally, for Leonardo DiCaprio.

Best Picture

“The Big Short”

“Spotlight”

“The Revenant” — Just a few weeks ago, the spotlight seemed to be on “Spotlight” as the front-runner for best picture, but “The Revenant” has since come in out of the cold. The intense survival saga about real-life trapper Hugh Glass has caught major momentum with nods from the Directors Guild of America and at the BAFTAs, Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars. The box office hit has earned $165 million since opening Christmas Day.

“Bridge of Spies”

“The Martian”

“Room”

“Mad Max: Fury Road”

“Brooklyn”

Best Director

Adam McKay, “The Big Short”

Lenny Abrahamson, “Room”

Tom McCarthy, “Spotlight”

George Miller, “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Alejandro González Iñárritu, “The Revenant” — It’s another feather in the cap for Iñárritu, who won last year for “Birdman.” The Mexican-born filmmaker would be the first director to nab back-to-back statuettes since Joseph L. Mankiewicz managed the feat with “A Letter to Three Wives” and “All About Eve” in 1949 and 1950.

Best Actor

Bryan Cranston, “Trumbo”

Matt Damon, “The Martian”

Leonardo DiCaprio, “The Revenant” — Consider this as much a lifetime achievement award for a perennially snubbed talent as it is an honor for his dialogue-sparse performance in the best picture front-runner. But DiCaprio also got points from voters impressed with the hellish conditions he endured to shoot the movie in the frigid Canadian tundra.

Michael Fassbender, “Steve Jobs”

Eddie Redmayne, “The Danish Girl”

Best Actress

Cate Blanchett, “Carol”

Charlotte Rampling, “45 Years”

Brie Larson, “Room” — The 26-year-old has dominated awards season and critics’ lists with her performance as a kidnapped mother trying to give her son a sense of normalcy in captivity. Larson already has a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a SAG Award on her mantle, and is considered a slam dunk by prognosticators.

Jennifer Lawrence, “Joy”

Saorise Ronan, “Brooklyn”

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, “The Big Short”

Sylvester Stallone, “Creed” — Hollywood loves a comeback story, on and off the screen, and Stallone put forth a heavyweight performance as the aging former champ in this Rocky spinoff. Still, it’s noticeable amid the uproar over the lack of diversity at the Oscars that the only nominee in one of the most inclusive movies of the year wasn’t its black director (Ryan Coogler) or lead actor (Michael B. Jordan).

Mark Rylance, “Bridge of Spies”

Mark Ruffalo, “Spotlight”

Tom Hardy, “The Revenant”

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Jason Leigh, “The Hateful Eight”

Rooney Mara, “Carol”

Rachel McAdams, “Spotlight”

Kate Winslet, “Steve Jobs”

Alicia Vikander, “The Danish Girl” In the most wide-open of the major categories, the Swedish actress has delivered arguably the best overall performance of the year. Though co-star Eddie Redmayne had the showier turn as transgender pioneer Lili Elbe, Vikander more than held her own as the landscape painter’s fiercely loyal wife, Gerda.

Best Animated Film

“Anomalisa”

“Inside Out” — It’s hard not to be animated about the chances of this Pixar masterpiece, which was the highest-profile nominee at the box office and strong enough to notch a best original script nomination.

“Boy & the World”

“Shaun the Sheep Movie”

“When Marnie Was There”

Best Original Screenplay

“Spotlight” — Fittingly enough for a movie about ink-stained scribes, the real heroes behind this tale are screenwriters Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer.

“Inside Out”

“Ex Machina”

“Bridge of Spies”

“Straight Outta Compton”

Best Adapted Screenplay

“The Big Short” — The stock is rising on this pick, thanks to Adam McKay and Charles Randolph’s deft job in turning Michael Lewis’ book into a comedic yet chilling look at the 2008 financial crisis.

“Carol”

“Room”

“The Martian”

“Brooklyn

After 3 years closure Borno highways re-opens

According to NAN, the Nigerian Army announced on Saturday that it had re-opened all major highways linking Maiduguri, Borno, with other parts of the country after being shot for about three years due to suspected Boko Haram terrorist attacks.


Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), announced this at the launch of Army Combat Motor Bikes in Damboa, headquarters of Damboa local government area of the state.


Buratai said that the army will work towards securing the lives and properties of motorists plying the roads.


"From today the road - Maiduguri-Damboa and Damboa-Biu highway will be opened.


"The road is going to be entrusted into the hands of the Brigade Commander of the 25 Task Force Brigade,'' he said.


Buratai added: ``I do not want to hear any case of attack on innocent civilians or motorists on the road henceforth.


"Our troops will be on alert 24 hours to ensure that the road is kept open.’’
He said that the Nigerian Army had also re-opened other highways, including the Maiduguri-Bama, the Maiduguri-Mafa-Dikwa-Gamboru/Ngala roads, among others.

"All other major roads have been re-opened to motorists in the state.

"We are deliberate in ensuring that the roads are opened and the people that ply the roads and indeed the residents are safe.

"Those who left should come back, I know that the Borno State Government is doing something and the Federal Government is doing something too on the issue,'' Buratai said.


He explained that the launch of the Motor Bikes was aimed at beefing up security on the highways to prevent attacks on innocent persons.

"I am here to formally launch the Motor Bike Battalion of the Nigerian Army, we see it as a first multiplier to the fight against the Boko Haram terrorists.

"We intend to use the Motor Bikes effectively to ensure that our roads are kept safe and the terrorists are pursued anywhere they go,'' Buratai said.

He added that the Motor Bikes were fitted with fire power and communication gadget for effectiveness.

"This is a first multiplier with added fire power with the speed as well as the communication that is being added to the bikes.

"The reach of these Motor Bikes will be a very important element in ensuring that our troops maintain the initiatives and continue the exploit what they have so far achieved,'' Buratai said.

"So as the roads are re-opened now people should be able to move freely and we will do our job to ensure that they are secured.''

Buratai also launched the posters of the second batch of the Boko Haram most wanted terrorists.

"We are also launching the second batch of Boko Haram most wanted terrorists on our list.

"The choice of Damboa is not by accident; it is deliberate knowing the centrality of Damboa in this operation,'' he said.

"The vigilantes here will play important role in identifying these terrorists.

"We will send the posters across the country to ensure that those that have run away will be fish out.

"We call on the public to look at the posters carefully, identify and report any person they can recognise and report accordingly.

"We want to appreciate the support of the public, indeed all Nigerians, because we received tremendous support in the first set of 100 pictures and many of them had been identified and arrested.

"Although we are still pursing some of them we call on all Nigerians to support us by identifying these terrorists on these posters,'' he urged.

A teenager made robots from e-waste

A childhood photograph of Quipse selling some his first creations made from copper wires

Seventeen-year-old Esteban Quispe is busy at his computer. Seated in the room his parents have turned into a workshop, Quispe is surrounded by different materials - electrical wires, metal sheets, and bulbs of different sizes and colours - all of which he has collected from a local rubbish dump to make into robots.

Quispe's creations are made from electronic waste and the teenager is entirely self-taught.

He proudly shows off a toy car with a circuit of bulbs that light from left to right like the KITT car from the 1980s American TV series Knight Rider; an LED cube which displays 3D images; and his most complex and beloved creation - a square-shaped robot that is a replica of, and is named after, the Pixar character Wall-E.

Quispe's hometown, Patacamaya, with a population of about 12,000, lies about 100km southeast of the Bolivian capital La Paz.

Bolivia remains  the poorest country in South America, with low levels of scientific and technological innovation. In Patacamaya, where many residents live in poverty and don't have access to secondary education, Quispe's talent for making electronic devices from e-waste has made him something of a local celebrity. 

The teenager's knack for building electronic devices caught the attention of local media last year after he won first prize in a high school robotics competition with his robot Wall-E.

In the landfill near his home, one Bolivian boy collected e-waste to build a robot inspired by the Pixar character Wall-E

He first came up with the idea of making it in 2008 after watching the Pixar film. Quispe began collecting materials to piece together the robot. After several attempts, he completed the final version in 2014.

"I immediately liked the character because of its intelligence and ecological conscience," Quispe explains.

"I am a bit like Wall-E," says the teenager, "as I wish Bolivia was a less polluted country."

Quispe describes one of the reasons why he focused on electronic waste. "I know electronic waste should be discarded separately from other kinds of waste because it's more dangerous, but here in Patacamaya people still don't understand the importance of differentiating," he says.

Quispe became interested in mechanics when he was a child - he used to watch his father, a former construction worker, make wooden toy cars in his spare time. Together, when Quispe was 10, they built a toy vehicle with a set of lights. Quispe began practising on his own, making small objects from copper wires, moving on to increasingly complex designs, and soon outdoing his father's models.

When he was 11, he started selling his first creations on the street. He would set them up on a table and sit on the pavement with his younger brother Hernan and other children from the neighbourhood and wait for people to stop by. 

Thanks to the money he made from selling his creations, Quispe's parents were able to buy schoolbooks for their sons. Now, with his father unable to work due to chronic back pain, Quispe hopes to utilise his skills to support his parents and his brother. 

"I can now make more sophisticated robots, like Wall-E, and I had a proposal from a person here in Patacamaya interested in buying it. I would be happy to use the money to help my parents and Hernan, especially after all they have done for me," he says as he walks out of his workshop into the garden.

Showing off photographs from her son's recent high school graduation, his mother Teresa Churata recounts with a timid smile that her son "has always been the first of his class". 

Churata herself began working at a young age to support her family. She never had the time to study. As a devout Catholic, she prays every night that her sons will have the chance to study at a foreign university.

Every week, Quispe visits the rubbish dump near his family's house to collect materials for his robots.

"It's not ideal, but the dump is the only place where I can find materials without having to pay for them. Using new materials would be better but I cannot afford them," he says.

"Also, I like the idea of recycling electronics that people throw away. I don't usually see many people there; I'm the only one making robots from waste here. Hernan always comes with me though."

Quispe's younger brother Hernan is now 14-years-old and eager to learn as much as he can from his older brother and always goes along on the landfill excursions.

As the brothers chase each other and play amid the mountain of burning waste thick with smoke at the dump, Quispe tells that he hadn't realised that collecting e-waste could be hazardous until the reporters who interviewing him brought it up.

"[They] told me that collecting e-waste directly from the dump is dangerous for my health because of contamination and air pollution," he says.

"I did not know these things before. I now try to be more careful, but there is not much I can do to reduce risks. Not coming any more would be the answer but I do not want to do that." 

Walking through the rubbish dump, filled with everything from discarded electronics to animal carcasses, Quispe demonstrates his meticulous material selection process. He carefully checks the e-waste and quickly determines whether or not something is of use.

After about 20 minutes, he decides that there's nothing interesting to take home with him that day and heads back.

Quispe shows how his Wall-E responds to commands sent directly from his mobile phone through software he created.

He plans to make a more sophisticated Wall-E that can recognise its owner's voice, respond to commands and complete simple activities, such as moving around in different directions, he says. He wants to sell it for about 11,000 Bolivianos ($1,600). 

Quispe is preparing to begin a five-year electronmechanics course at the Universidad Catolica de La Paz where he has been offered a scholarship, and although he is excited to live in "a real city with better services than Patacamaya", he has set his mind to go further.

"I love my country, but I think I would achieve more in a richer place," says Quispe, explaining that he plans to earn a postgraduate degree in Europe.

"People in Bolivia are still not aware of the importance of recycling, or of environmental issues in general. Studying in a country with more sophisticated technological instruments would allow me to invent more and to invent better." 

Nevertheless, Quispe believes in his hometown's potential to grow and wants one day to become an active player in its social and economic development.

"Patacamaya is already bigger than two years ago. So many more houses are being built and I am sure it will be a different place in five years' time. I would be happy to be able to run my own business here after my studies, and if I will have to travel a lot for my job, I will manage it from abroad," he says.

Although he is overwhelmed by the media attention, he believes sharing his story can only help.

"I have been working with e-waste for several years, but I only got an offer for a scholarship after reporters started writing about me. I'm not necessarily interested in being famous, but maybe if people talk about what I do, other universities in Western countries will offer me scholarships too," he says.

"I am ready to start my course in La Paz. Now I can only hope to make the most of this opportunity and to build a better future for me and my family."

With Al Jazeera

Only beans screened will be allowed into the country - NAFDAC

The Nigerian Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has announced the banning of foreign beans into the country except those screened by the Agency.

The Acting Director General of the Agency‎, Mrs. Yetunde Oni who disclosed this at the awareness/Sensitization Workshop on Safe and Responsible use of Regulated Agricultural inputs for Stakeholders in the North Central Zone in Minna Wednesday emphasized that only beans screened by the Agency will be allowed into the country in order to be sure of their safety.

According to her “We must recall that these banned beans produce that have been banned in the European Union (EU) are those ones that never passed through NAFDAC. All the beans that passed through NAFDAC and issued EU certification to, of food and health impart on Nigerians do not get rejected.

The ones that have been banned are those ones that never passed through NAFDAC”. She however called on all relevant Agencies to be awake to their responsibilities by working hand in hand with the Agency to actuaize this objective.

“It is not entirely the function of NAFDAC, but the primary assignment of the Quarantine which is under the Ministry of Agriculture to look into beans because it is an Agricultural produce”, she had used.

On whose purview the produce is regulated, she said ‎”beans is an agricultural produce, as opposed to a semi or fully processed regulated product under the purview of NAFDAC and such products are food, drugs, medical devices, chemicals, packaged water and detergents. These are the ones that are under our purview.

“But because we have seen that the beans is a raw material into a final product that is regulated by NAFDAC, we are now talking of collaboration with one another so that all relevant stakeholders will join hands towards a common goal of ensuring that only good quality regulated products are available for consumption, for sales, distribution, advertisement, information and importation into the country.‎”

With AIT News

We condemned violence against children in any form or shape - Christian Women Group

The National President of the Women Wing of Christian Council of Nigeria, Mrs. Omatshola Williams, has condemned violence against children in any form or shape, Channel Television reported.
She also called on all Nigerians to join the crusade in saying ‘No to Violence against Children’.

Mrs Williams made this known while speaking during a courtesy call on the Governor of Anambra state, Willie Obiano, at the Governor’s Lodge, Amawbia, where they presented a branded T-shirt shunning the vice that is said to be prevalent in most south-south and southeast states of the country, in the report.

The governor commended their mission and said the ecumenical spirit that united them in the campaign is noteworthy and urged them to continue to help make the state and the country, at large, a better place to live in.

The women presented a branded T-shirt to the governor which they intend to use to drive home the message of shunning violence against children.
Governor Willie Obiano’s commended the spirit with which they formed the association to help mankind fight vices while enthroning virtues.

He urged them to continue in same spirit to achieve the ultimate purpose of having a safe and secure world to live in.

The visit featured prayer sessions for peace in the state and for God’s protection on the governor.

The National President also spoke extensively on forms of violence perpetrated against children in the country, which includes cultism, gay practice, trafficking and unwholesome attitude of orphanage homes.

She prescribed good Christian home training, sensitization and advocacy on the subject matter.