Chopsticks can indeed be deadly after an inmate at a prison outside of Tokyo, Japan used the eating utensils to commit suicide. According to prison officials, the inmate stabbed himself in the head with the sharp end of a broken chopstick on the night of February 19. He was rushed in the hospital but died Sunday morning.

A court has ordered a Japanese McDonald's franchise to pay more than $70,300 USD to a store manager for years of unpaid overtime. Hiroshi Takano, a 46-year-old store manager in Kumagaya, claimed that he had served more than 100 hours of overtime in a month, without taking a day off. Coming to work at 6:00 a. m. everyday, the increasing number of responsibilities would usually find him heading for home at about midnight. "I was a manager in name only and conditions were harsh," said Takano at a press conference held at the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo. "It was a long battle, but [the court] finally made the right decision. . . I hope to speak out again in the future so I can live more like a human being. "

Aside from his extraordinary leadership skills which led to his being named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine, Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon be recognized internationally for his athletic prowess. In particular his judo moves as he and an Olympic Japanese judo medalist will come out with an instructional video soon. Mr. Putin and Yasuhiro Yamashita shot the instructional video disc as a supplement to a judo manual. The disc is slated to be released on January or February, President Putin said Friday at the opening of a Toyota Motor Corporation's assembly plant near St. Petersburg.

Consumer electronics giant Sony unveiled a prototype hand-powered digital camera called the "Twirl N' Take. " In the same vein as previous hand-powered radios and flashlights, 15 seconds of movement generates enough power to snap a photo. According to reports, the "Twirl N' Take" is shaped like a pizza cutter and includes 3-megapixel mobile phone digital camera technology. Sony doesn't plan to market the device.

A woman died after jumping from the rooftop of a department store in Tokyo. A passer-by was knocked unconscious after breaking the woman's fall, authorities said Tuesday. Local Police Spokesman Tetsuhiko Kanehara said they responded immediately to the scene after phone-calls from other passers-by, finding the man and woman collapsed and bleeding on the street infront of the Ikebukuro Parco Department Store in Tokyo's Toshima-ku at around 1 p. m. on Tuesday.