The House on Wednesday passed a bill requiring most group health plans to provide require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both. Forty-seven Republicans joined 221 Democrats in voting for the bill. Three Democrats voted against it. The vote was 268 to 148.

Current federal law now allows insurers to discriminate by setting higher co-payments or stricter limits on mental health benefits. Advocates of the bill say the measure would help end the stigma of mental illness and would be beneficial to cater needs of people needing mental health and addiction treatment

The government of India will reward cash gifts to any family who could bore a baby girl in an effort to reduce the number of abortions to females because of preference to sons. Indian culture considers having a son better than having a daughter because males can later become breadwinners.

Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury said the cash incentive will be given in staggered payments to any family members that could give the country additional female member of the society

A recent study determined that should current trends persist, Australia's state of Victoria will witness a 75 percent increase in the number of HIV infections in the next seven years.

Scientists from the National Center in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research drew their conclusions from statistics pointing to a rise in unprotected sex, coupled with the increase in the number of sexually-transmitted disease infections among homosexual men. The data was gathered from research beginning in 1999

U.S. Researchers say that extensive studies are still required to better ascertain if there is still benefit or harm to the elderly in taking ginkgo biloba.

The researchers made a three-year study on 118 people with no memory problem, aged over 85. Half of them took 240 mg of ginkgo biloba extract daily and half took placebo

More British women are becoming pregnant as they approach their menopausal years. According to the Office for National Statistics, overall conception rates in England and Wales went up by almost 3 percent between 2005 and 2006. But the rise was felt most in the 40 and above age group, which registered a 6 percent growth rate.

In 2005, British women between 40 and 44 who became pregnant was at 11.5 per 1,000 women. The following year, their number grew to 12.2 per 1,000 women