After a three-year long renegotiation, the fresh price of Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier was on Wednesday finalised at USD 2.35 billion by the government, a day ahead of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to India.

“The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), which met here today, has given its approval to the fresh price for Gorshkov,” a Defence Ministry official said here.

India and Russia are likely to conclude the fresh contract for the aircraft carrier, bought by the Navy in 2004 and rechristened INS Vikramaditya, during Putin’s stay in the capital.

The warship, purchased originally at a price of USD 974 million, is currently undergoing a refit at the Russian Sevmash shipyard.

Since 2007, the shipyard sought a hike in the price for the warship’s refit programme and had revised the cost of the project twice to demand USD 2.9 billion.

However, India had conveyed that it would not go beyond USD 2.2 billion as a revised price for the project.

After renegotiation of the price for three-long years, the two sides finally arrived at a figure for the refit programme six months ago, but it had to go to the CCS for a final stamp of approval, which it received today.

Along with the warship, India had also bought 16 MiG-29K naval fighter aircraft for USD 526 million. The first four of these fighters were delivered to India on December 4 last and were inducted into the Navy on February 18 this year.

The delivery of Gorshkov, which was originally scheduled for December 2008, has already witnessed a delay due to the price negotiations for the refit project and India had to push the Sevmash shipyard to hasten the programme for rescheduled delivery in 2013.

During Putin’s visit, the two sides are also expected to sign a few more defence deals worth USD four billion, including the final agreement for joint manufacture of fifth generation fighters, additional MiG-29K fighters for USD 1.2 billion and joint development of a multirole transport aircraft.

India is also expected to place orders for 40 more Sukhoi Su-30MKI multi-role fighters for the Indian Air Force.

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‘Shock and awe’ for director James Cameron and co-producer Jon Landau as their much touted film Avatar was pipped to the post at the 82nd Academy Awards by Kathryn Bigelow’s gritty war drama The Hurt Locker which swept up six Oscars, including the Best Motion Picture, Best Direction, Best Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Best Original Screenplay.

The show’s hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin kept the gags flowing from the moment curtains went up, making everyone from Meryl Streep to Woody Harrelson the butt of their jokes. But the night clearly belonged to the team of the movie ‘The Hurt Locker’ even though it’s leading actor Jeremy Renner, nominated in the Best Male Actor category, lost out to the favourite Jeff Bridges. Bridges won the Best Actor for his role in Crazy Heart. In his award acceptance speech, Bridges held the golden man statuette to the heavens and thanked his celebrated parents: “Thank you Mom and Dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession.”

Sandra Bullock, looking absolutely stunning in a figure hugging gown, won her first Oscar for her role in The Blind Side. She gave the most touching and heartfelt acceptance speech of the evening. She took time to thank all the co-actresses who were nominated in the same category.

“Gabby (‘Precious’ actress), I love you so much. You are exquisite. You are beyond words to me. Carey (Mulligan), your grace and your elegance and your beauty and your talent makes me sick. Helen (Mirren), I feel like we are family through family and I don’t have the words to express just what I think of you. And Meryl (Streep), you know what I think of you and you are such a good kisser,” Bullock said.

The evening was hugely disappointing for James Cameron and Jon Landau, with their film ‘Avatar’ winning only 3 awards for Art Direction, Cinematography and Visual Effects.

Here’s the complete list of all the winners of the 82nd Academy Awards:

Best Picture – The Hurt Locker

Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow

Actor in leading role – Jeff Bridges

Actress in leading role – Sandra Bullock

Actor in supporting role – Christopher Waltz (The Inglourious Basterds)

Actress in Supporting role – Mo’Nique (Precious)

Animated Film – Up.

Art Direction – Avatar: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Art Direction); Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration)

Cinematography – Avatar (Mauro Fiore)

Costume Design – The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Documentary Feature – The Cove

Documentary Short – Music By Prudence

Editing – The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)

Foreign Language Film – The Secret In Their Eyes (Argentina)

Make-Up – Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)

Music (Original score) – Up (Michael Giacchino)

Music (Original song) – Crazy Heart (“The Weary Kind”)

Sound Editing – The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson)

Sound Mixing – The Hurt Locker (Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett)

Visual Effects – Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones)

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Geoffrey Fletcher)

Best Original Screenplay – The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)

Short Film (Animated) – Logorama

Short Film (Action) – The New Tenants

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This Oscar has been about excess, exes and sexes. Excess because this is the first time after 1943 that the Academy went for 10 nominations for the best picture award. Exes because this is the first time that two directors (James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow) who have lived together were competing for the best director and the best picture awards. Sexes because this might be the only time an actor (Sandra Bullock) has won the best actress award for her role in an absolutely men’s game: the American football.

When all of us woke up this morning we thought that our gender will change. It didn’t. It can’t. Because we have proved once again that we are a country of old men and not one for women (age not barred). Which is the one and only reason that this Oscar means so much for us. It is not about cinema. It is much more than it. It is about a vote. It is about a choice. And unlike any one of us the choice is deferred.

Even when the Academy of Motion Pictures gave Hollywood cinema a new avatar we stayed tight lipped. On a day belonging to women (they didn’t ask for it), we did not have the courage to make an offer. In fact, soon after the Oscars we saw our parliamentarians tearing off a bill meant for our weaker section. Our media is replete with reports about offences made against women, girls and even minors. But they aren’t big screen scripts. That makes this Oscar important for our cultural conscience.

So when the Hurt Locker won a record number of awards we may think it is entertainment crossing the last frontier but it actually is what we have always liked to know as ‘burning the bra’. Even as Avatar didn’t win any Oscars the question remains Up in the Air: When can women look for a reincarnation? Hurt and Locked, excess, exes and sexes notwithstanding. The morning after: a fact remains that Bigelow broke the glass ceiling.

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Peter Chapman pretended to be a young man to attract women as friends on Facebook.

A 33-year-old man was jailed for life on Monday after admitting the kidnap, rape and murder of a teenager he met on the Facebook social networking site.

Convicted sex offender Peter Chapman had cultivated his victim, Ashleigh Hall, 17, by pretending to be a student.

Chapman was told by Judge Peter Fox, the Recorder of Middlesbrough, he would serve a minimum of 35 years in prison, the Press Association reported.

The body of the childcare student was found dumped in a farmer’s field near Sedgefield, Co. Durham, last October.

Hall, from Darlington, had been strangled.

Prosecutor Graham Reeds told Tesside Crown Court that Chapman had posed as a fictitious 19-year-old boy called “Peter Cartwright” on Facebook to befriend the college student.

After becoming her Facebook friend and chatting on other social networking sites he arranged to meet her on the evening of Oct. 25 last year.

Knowing she was expecting to meet a teenage boy and not a 33-year-old, Chapman led her to believe that Peter Cartwright’s father would pick her up.

“The defendant used this handsome alter-ego to entice 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall into meeting him,” Reeds said.

“When she met him on October 25 last year, he kidnapped, raped and murdered her.”

Judge Fox said Chapman had carried out a “significant degree” of planning and pre-meditation in snaring Ashleigh.

“This was an evil scheme very carefully brought, and with considerable detail, to trap your victim,” he told Chapman.

“She was particularly vulnerable because of her age.”

Chapman, who has a history of sexual offending, changed his plea to guilty just as his trial was about to start.

He was the subject of several sexual assault investigations, beginning when he was 15. In 1996, then 19, he was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for raping two prostitutes at knifepoint. He was released in 2001.

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