Painful Release

The governor of the US-administered Northern Mariana Islands is feeling the heat after ordering the temporary release of a jailed suspect to give him a massage. Benigno R Fitial, the most senior politician there, demanded Chinese masseuse, Qing Mei Cheng, be set free to treat him for back pain. The masseuse was taken from the local prison, where she was being held on people smuggling charges, to the governor's mansion before being returned to jail."I made this request because this was an unusual situation where I needed to address the extraordinary pain I was experiencing," Fitial said in a statement.

Weight loss / gain

Overweight people in Britain could be paid up to £1,750 for slimming under a new scheme. Patients who meet weight loss targets can earn from £200 for losing two stone in five months under the privately-run scheme, run by a company that hopes to make it available on the NHS. The latest trial follows a pilot with the NHS in Kent where patients earned up to £425 from private firm Weight Wins for meeting weight loss targets. One person in the pilot earned the maximum £425 payout after reaching the target of losing 23 kilograms in seven months and keeping the weight off for six months.

Dead Can Return, online

Until now, there have been few ways to control our virtual afterlives, but a Swedish internet site is launching a service that offers to manage e-mail and social networking accounts after death. `My Webwill' is set to test launch in Sweden and the US this month and go live in Britain and Germany at the start of next year. Users can set up a digital will with directions on what should happen to their e-mail and social network accounts after they die. It offers a range of services, including posting prepared messages, changing profile pictures or updating status bars. Users can also pre-write e-mails that will be passed on to designated receivers.

Say the Truth

Scientists have now discovered the physiological mechanisms in the brain, which they claim can enable predicting whether someone will break a promise. A team at the University of Zurich carried out an experiment in a brain scanner where the breach of a promise led both to monetary benefits for the promise breaker and to monetary costs for the partner. The study showed that there was increased activity in areas of the brain playing a vital role in processes of emotion and control.
The pattern suggests that breaking a promise triggers an emotional conflict in a promise breaker due to suppression of an honest response.

Sure find

A schoolgirl's lost dinner money has turned up 27 years after it went missing. Lisa O'Neill, 35, lost the handwritten brown envelope containing two £1 notes at school when she was eight years old. But 27 years on, builders have rediscovered the lost cash while refurbishing the cloakroom. Lisa, now Lisa Dugdale, a section manager at Marks & Spencer in Dumfries, said: "I got a shock when the school rang to tell me they'd found my dinner money. I don't remember losing it, but I know I was in the second year of school at the time." She plans to either frame one of the old £1 notes or put them in a trust fund for her baby.