Washington, April 17 : A research team including an Indian-origin boffin has found that coffee may be beneficial for men with Lou Gehrig''s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) but for women, it may have the opposite effect.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease that damages key neurons in the brain and spinal cord. The disease causes progressive paralysis of voluntary muscles and often death within five years of symptoms.

Washington, Apr 17 : Laughter is indeed the best form of medicine - because it is good for the heart, says a new study.

In the research, "mirthful laughter" was linked to lower cholesterol and less risk of cardiovascular disease.

Lee Berk, a psychoneuroimmunologist, of Loma Linda University, and Dr. Stanley Tan, an endocrinologist and diabetes specialist at Oak Crest Health Research Institute in Loma Linda, examined the effects of mirthful laughter on 20 high-risk diabetic patients with hypertension and hyperlipidemia - an elevation of lipids in the bloodstream.

Washington, Apr. 17 : For thousands of Americans, Tax Day was a moment to protest against bloated budgets and a pile of debt being passed on to their children.

For television channels like CNN, MSNBC and other media outlets, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use the word "teabagging" in a sentence.

Teabagging, for those who don''t live in a frat house, refers to a sexual act involving part of the male genitalia and a second person''s face or mouth.

Washington, April 17 : A new study suggests that the drugs used to treat sexual dysfunction in men may some say also address some forms of female sexual disorders.

Medical College of Georgia researchers Kyan J. Allahdadi, Rita C. Tostes, and R. Clinton Webb say that female sexual dysfunction may partly result from inadequate supply of blood to the female genitals, and that it may be addressed with erectile dysfunction drugs.

Originally developed as therapy for hypertension, such drugs work by dilating blood vessels sufficiently to produce erections in males.

Ramallah - US President Barack Obama's envoy to the Middle East was due in Ramallah Friday to hear the Palestinians' position on renewing peace negotiations with the new Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

George Mitchell, who held his first talks in Israel Thursday since the government was sworn in, was to travel the short distance from Jerusalem to the central West Bank city for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Abbas has said Netanyahu must openly endorse the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict for him to be a peace partner.

Washington, Apr. 17 : Most of the interrogative techniques that the Central Intelligence Agency has been approved to use, are considered to be torture under federal law or international treaties, according to a US Justice Department lawyer.

Lawyers in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel felt that the CIA was using almost illegal methods of interrogation.

"The question is substantial and difficult," Justice Department official Steven Bradbury write in a May 2005 memo.