CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - Scientific research into how polyester pants affect the sex life of rats, what it's like for a human to live like a badger and how different the world looks when viewed through your legs was honored at this year's Ig Nobel spoof awards.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council has given an international inquiry five more weeks to complete its report on who is to blame for toxic gas attacks in Syria as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, France, Britain and others push for those responsible to be punished.

BEIRUT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Syria announced a new offensive against rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Thursday while diplomats failed to find a way in New York to revive a U.S. and Russian-brokered ceasefire that collapsed this week.

(Reuters) - Top seed Dustin Johnson continued his "good mojo" to earn a tie for the first-round lead with Kevin Chappell and Hideki Matsuyama at the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Thursday.

HANAM, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea's Hyundai Motor <005380.KS> will launch its standalone premium auto brand Genesis in China within two to three years, betting on a luxury lane to profit as competition bites at the lower end of the world's biggest auto market.

Sept 22 (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc said on Thursday that at least 500 million of its accounts were hacked in 2014 by what it believed was a state-sponsored actor, a theft that appeared to be the world's biggest known cyber breach by far.

LONDON (Reuters) - JPMorgan retained its place at the top of the global investment bank rankings in the first half of this year despite a fall in revenues, while Deutsche Bank's troubles ensured the top five were all U.S. banks, new data on Friday showed.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics aims to re-launch its flagship Note7 smartphone across Europe well before year-end, but it could well be 2017 before the company fully rebounds from a global product recall tied to defective batteries, a regional executive said on Thursday.

AMMAN, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood has gained a foothold in parliament after ending a decade-long boycott and returning to the fray as the mainstay of a broad civic alliance, according to preliminary results released on Thursday.