Brussels - The United States formally joined the European Union's rule-of-law mission (EULEX) in Kosovo on Wednesday by offering 80 police officers and "up to" eight judges and prosecutors to the 3,000-strong operation, officials said.

"The European Union and the United States have a common desire to work together to support the development of Kosovo's democratic standards," a joint statement issued at a signing ceremony in Brussels read.

Cairo - The US will not review its policy of isolating Syria because Damascus has not moved far enough to allay US fears over its role in the Middle East, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Welch, said in an interview Wednesday.

Syria's move to establish diplomatic relations with Lebanon is "a start" but is not enough to convince Washington to change its policy, Welch told the pan-Arab London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

In mid-October Syria initiated diplomatic ties with Lebanon for the first time since independence 60 years ago.

Washington, Oct 22 : Radiologists can now use three-dimensional (3-D) power Doppler ultrasound to differentiate between malignant and benign breast cancer cells, according to a new study.

Usually, malignant breast masses have increased blood flow compared to normal tissue or benign masses.

The study has found that using 3-D power Doppler ultrasound can make it is possible to detect vessels with higher flow speeds, which likely indicate cancer.

"Using 3-D scans promises greater accuracy due to more consistent sampling over the entire tumor," said lead author, Gerald L. LeCarpentier, Ph. D., assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Washington, Oct. 22 : A political scientist has predicted significant gains for the Democratic Party in the 2008 congressional elections—including 11 seats in the U. S. House of Representatives and three seats in the U. S. Senate.

Carl Klarner of Indiana State University published his forecast in the October 2008 issue of PS: Political Science and Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association (APSA).

The House and Senate forecasts were made in late July 2008, and Klarner’s model focuses on the percent of the major-party vote that the Democratic candidate received in a state or district.

Washington, Oct 22 : A research team, involving an Indian origin scientist, has developed a new self-assembling hydrogel drug delivery system that can ill not only deliver clinically approved drugs in high concentrations, but also do away with any toxic residue in the process.

Developed by scientists from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology (HST) at Brigham and Women''s Hospital, the system is biocompatible, efficient at drug release, and is also easy to tailor.

The structures will do way with carriers for the drug or generating toxic components—a problem encountered with hydrogel systems until now.

New York, Oct 22 : Many would pass the purple flower that sprouted between two concrete slabs in a Queens backyard as another unwanted weed, but Jamaican resident Sam Lal thinks that the plant resembling Lord Ganesh holds holy powers.

He claims that the growth of unusual amaranth plant has cured his back ailments.

The plant, which is not native to the area, has a trunk that resembles the elephant-headed god.

And now Lal, a Hindu by religion, is seeing an inundation of neighbours and friends to have a glimpse of the almost four-foot-tall flower that started growing in August.

Lal, 60, claimed that it was the flower that relieved him of the pain due to a bone spur near his spine and bulging discs in his neck.