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Source: University of Virginia Date: December 20, 2006 High-quality Marriages Help To Calm Nerves Science Daily — A University of Virginia neuroscientist has found that women under stress who hold their husbands' hands show signs of immediate relief, which can clearly be seen on their brain scans. "This is the first study of the neurological reactions to human touch in a threatening situation, and the first study to measure how the brain facilitates the health-enhancing properties of close social relationships," says Dr. James A. Coan, author of the study, which is published in the December 2006 issue of the journal...

16 enter guilty pleas in marriage fraud case Emily Huigens Anderson Independent-Mail Sixteen women and four men pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Anderson to entering into fraudulent marriages that were part of a ring involving 107 separate unions between strangers in South Carolina. The women, almost all from Spartanburg County, married men who were hoping to gain permanent residency status after immigrating to the United States. Most of the men involved in the case are from Pakistan; one is from Tunisia. Another group of pleadings is set for Monday in Spartanburg and a third group is assigned to...