Hundreds of people lined up outside a Tokyo restaurant on Monday to get a taste of "beef bowl" made of Grade A U. S. beef - it's the first time the dish has been offered in two years. Some people even camped out a day before in front of a Yoshinoya restaurant. The popular fast-food chain reintroduced its favored delicacy after Japan lifted its ban on U. S. beef imports in July.

Frenchman Serge Girard on Tuesday completed an epic 260-day run from Paris to Tokyo, making him the sole runner to have raced the distance across all continents. The 52-year-old insurance worker also breaks the previous world record of the longest journey without a full day of rest. Girard was greeted by a small crowd and his three children, when he arrived at a hotel in Tokyo. He ran about 45 miles a day, guided by satellite through the Global Positioning System, to complete the 11,840 miles journey in over eight months. Girard set off his marathon from Paris on December 18.

Dropping an earlier plan to censor the photo, the subway walls in Tokyo will now feature a nude and pregnant Britney Spears. The advertisement space at the posh Omotesando station next week will be rented by HB Japan Inc. , publisher of the Japanese edition of Harper's Bazaar. They aim to promote their October issue with Spears posing naked on the cover. The AP reports that the advertisement that will appear in Tokyo is the same that was used in the August issue of the magazine's U. S. edition. It shows the 24 year old Spears baring her belly but she covers her breasts with her hands.

Hong Kong, China - Armed police took a woman off a Cathay Pacific flight because she would not put her Gucci purse under the seat in front of her or in the overhead compartment. The flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo was delayed for about an hour while the woman argued with the cabin crew, Apple Daily reported on Monday. The flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo was delayed for about an hour as the woman argued the cabin crew.

Malaysia's outspoken former leader Mahathir Mohamad now runs a Japanese-style baker's shop. The 80-year-old politician is chairman and controlling shareholder of a firm operating a business called "The Loaf" serving bread and pastries. Mahathir owns a 51 percent stake in a company called M&M Consolidated Resources Sdn Bhd. It is investing three million ringgit ($817,000) in the venture and a Japanese partner owns the remaining 49 percent stake.