Libya has released four international journalists who had been detained for several weeks. Two Americans, a British man and a Spaniard disappeared while covering the conflict in Libya. The four are said to be in good health. They were all brought to the Tripoli hotel where the foreign media covering the conflict are staying, looking tired and somewhat bewildered by the scrum of journalists awaiting them. Libyan officials say the four had been freed by a judge after being given a one-year suspended prison sentence for illegally entering the country. There's been no word on the fate of a South African citizen, photographer Anton Hammerl, who's believed to have been detained in Libya in early April. Flooding along the Mississippi River has ruined crops, damaged farmland and delayed barge traffic in parts of the southern United States. Officials say diversion of some of the water through spillways in Louisiana, though, eventually will ease the flow and help speed the return to normalcy. Closing of some sections of the river are considered only temporary. The U.S. Coast Guard has shut some small stretches of the Mississippi River to barge traffic in recent days and has allowed only one barge at a time to pass through the stretch of river near Vidalia, Louisiana, where levees are close to being topped. The passage of the barges produces a wake that can cause water to splash over the levees, making local residents anxious about their property. If a new idea in America becomes a law, people who suffer from obesity could suffer financially too. The U.S. state of Arizona wants to charge overweight citizens $50 annually if they fail to follow their doctors' advice. People with children or who are overweight because they suffer from a medical condition would be exempt. If the idea is approved by Congress, smokers and diabetics who fail to stick to a healthy lifestyle will also have to pay. Medicaid, the organization which provides healthcare to the poor in the U.S.A., costs the government $339 billion a year. Monica Coury, assistant director at Arizona's Medicaid program, said that this proposal would ask people to give something back. She said that Arizona would take a carrot and stick approach to the problem. As well as penalizing people who go against their doctor's wishes, incentives would be offered for following advice, possibly a keep-fit video. Arizona's senator Kyrsten Sinema has not backed the plans, saying that there isn't a system to decide whether someone is or isn't following medical advice. Other critics claim that people don't need the government to look after them; if they want to be fat and smoke, the 'nanny state' shouldn't try to stop them.