LONDON (Reuters) - A British woman is divorcing her husband after discovering his online alter-ego was having an affair with a virtual woman in the fantasy world of Second Life, media reported on Friday.

A 43-year-old player in a virtual game world became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.

The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his ID and password to log onto the popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

She isn't accused of homicide, exactly, but a woman in Japan could spend five years in jail on charges related to "murdering" her virtual husband in revenge for a virtual divorce.

A woman has been arrested in Japan after she allegedly killed her virtual husband in a popular video game.The 43-year-old was reportedly furious at finding herself suddenly divorced in the online game Maplestory.Police say she illegally accessed log-in details of the man playing her husband, and killed off his character. The woman, a piano teacher, is in jail in Sapporo waiting to learn if she faces charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data.

Nicholas Longano, former executive of Vivendi Games, and Grammy Award winner Rodney Jerkins, are teaming up to work on creating a new virtual World for musicians and fans. Dubbed "Music Mogul", the site will offer online games, video streams of live performances and social networking features, as well as giving real-life rewards to users. Users will also be able to upload videos of themselves performing for the chance to win a three-song demo deal with Jerkins' Darkchild Productions.

Slatterz writes "Sony and Microsoft are poised to do battle in virtual worlds. The console kids both announced Second Life-style virtual environments at the Tokyo Game Show today. Both games show striking similarities to Linden Lab's creation. Players are represented by avatars which live a virtual life — engaging in relationships, going about day-to-day business."

Develop a virtual world application to make user's lives better

Second Life is in the news yet again this week, although this time not because of virtual adultery, but because $10,000 is up for grabs for canny developers.

Linden Labs is calling on freelance developers to build Second Life's greatest ever application or in-game project that will improve the lives of the virtual world's residents when they are offline, with a $10,000 car

A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher's sudden divorce from her online husband in a virtual game world made her so angry that she logged on and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Chinese government will collect a 20% personal income tax on any profits obtained through the redistribution of virtual currency. The legislation is intended to curtail speculation in virtual markets, which can be quite profitable. Quoting: "The announcement, which was distributed to local tax bureaus, specifically takes aim at those who buy virtual currency from gamers and surfers and sell it to others at a mark-up.