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'The Hurt Locker' Wins Big at Oscars

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"The Hurt Locker," a little-seen war film with big backing from the critics, pushed past "Avatar" and other crowd-pleasers to win the best picture Oscar at a Sunday night ceremony here, while its director,athryn Bigelow, became the first woman to win the directing award.

"Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" had come into the night as favorites,but the smaller film took the prize from the bigger in the end.

"There's no other way to describe it, it's the moment of a lifetime,"
said Ms. Bigelow in accepting her award. It was presented by Barbra
Streisand, who announced it with the words, "Well, the time has come."
Mark Boal, a producer of "The Hurt Locker," said of his modest
expectations when the movie was shot back in 2007, "Hopefully, we
would find a distributor and somebody might even like the movie."

There was no mention of a last-minute embarrassment in which a fellow

producer of the film, Nicolas Chartier, had been banned from the show
for violating Oscar rules by urging academy members by e-mail messages
to vote against a film assumed to be "Avatar," which had the advantage
of a vast budget and enormous popularity.

In a sense, the awards season had shaped up into a showdown between

James Cameron, who directed "Avatar," and Ms. Bigelow, who was
previously married to Mr. Cameron.

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Sony to start selling 3D TVs in Japan in June

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Sony Corp said it will launch 3D televisions in Japan in June,
entering an increasingly crowded field of competition for what many
see as the next hot product in the electronics industry.
Sony said it would begin selling 3D TVs in Japan on June 10. The
electronics and entertainment conglomerate expects a model with a
46-inch screen to sell for 350,000 yen ($3,875) and a 40-inch model to
sell for 290,000 yen.
The sci-fi blockbuster "Avatar" and other recent titles have sparked
massive interest in 3D movies, and electronics makers are now rushing
to get flat panel TVs with three-dimensional visual effects to the
market.
Panasonic Corp has announced plans to launch its 3D TVs in the United
States on Wednesday, and cooperate with top U.S. electronics retailer
Best Buy Co in promoting them.

Last month Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the world's No. 1 TV brand,
launched 3D TV sales in South Korea and said it would launch globally
in March with the aim of selling at least 2 million 3D TVs this year.
Sony said it planned to launch its 3D TVs overseas around the time of
the Japan launch.
Prior to the announcement, shares of Sony closed the morning session
in Tokyo up 0.5 percent at 3,310 yen. The benchmark Nikkei average
fell 0.3 percent.

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Princess Aiko attends school after being mostly absent last week

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Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, attended school Monday for the first time in six days after expressing anxiety since being "treated harshly" by boys at her elementary school.

The 8-year-old princess was accompanied by the crown princess in going
into the school and attending the fourth period of morning classes.
They then left the school together, the Imperial Household Agency
said.
Princess Aiko, the granddaughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress
Michiko and a second grader at Gakushuin Primary School in Tokyo, has
not attended most of her classes since March 1, the top aide to the
crown prince and princess said during a regular press conference
Friday.

Issei Nomura, grand master of the crown prince's household, said
Princess Aiko has been complaining of anxiety and stomachache after
being treated harshly by boys in her grade, while a school official
denied the princess was directly subject to rowdy behavior by the
boys.