Touching | featured news

Whether it's a squeeze of the hand, a big bear hug, a kneading massage, even a bedroom romp, touch is shaping up to be the ultimate mind-body medicine.

Four days after receiving a nine-month jail sentence for touching the breasts of six women patients, a San Jose dentist was arraigned Monday on a grand jury indictment of a more serious charge of lewd and lascivious acts on a 14-year-old girl.

Five Washington state baristas charged customers to touch their breasts and buttocks at an espresso stand where servers wear bikinis to draw business, police said.

Scientists in the US and Sweden say they understand more about how the body responds to pleasurable touch.