OSAKA

Luke Kibet of Kenya won the marathon in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds on Saturday, claiming the first gold medal of the 2007 track and field World Championships. Mubarak Hassan Shami of Qatar was second in 2:17,18, and fast-finishing Viktor Rothlin of Switzerland was third in 2:17,25.

In the mood for an extra-rich dessert after Christmas dinner? A Japanese department store is offering a cake layered with 100 diamonds — for a cool 100 million yen ($850 000). The chocolate cake, whose diamonds weigh a combined 50 carats, is on display at the Takashimaya department store in the western city of Osaka.

It’s been said laughter is the best medicine, but no one has yet proved it. Now a Japanese scientist is unlocking the secrets of the funny bone, which he believes can cheer up people’s genes. Geneticist Kazuo Murakami has teamed up on the study with an unlikely research partner: stand-up comedians.

After conquering Earth, instant noodles have now headed into space with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who brought a new zero-gravity version aboard the United States space shuttle Discovery. Nissin Food, which invented instant noodles, developed a special ball-shaped noodle that space-travellers can eat with a fork.

If you’re the kind of person who spends hours on build-it-yourself radio-controlled models, you’ll love the Robovie-M walking robot. For the rest of us, well, it seems like more of a chore. I thought robots were supposed to be labour-saving devices. Not this one.