New York  - Children's cartoon character SpongeBob Squarepants has a new role - he features in an artist's critique of the controversial US interrogation technique called water-boarding.

The Water-Boarding Thrill Ride by artist Steven Powers opened this week at New York's Coney Island amusement park, where fun seekers can feed a dollar into a slot to watch robotic figures demonstrate the tortuous practice.

A sign on the outside of the booth shows SpongeBob saying, "It don't Gitmo better!" - a reference to Guantanamo Bay - as another character pours water over him.

New York  - The United Nations Security Council has called another emergency meeting scheduled for Friday afternoon in New York, after failing Thursday night to agree on a response to the escalation of violence in Georgia.

Thursday's late night meeting was called by Russia, whose ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, accused Georgia of aggressive behaviour toward the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

New York  - The United Nations agreed Thursday to disburse 1.2 million dollars to purchase non-food items, like blankets and kitchen sets, that had been burned or looted from UN warehouses for refugees in Chad.

The Central Emergency Response Fund in New York decided to release the amount at the request of the humanitarian coordinator in Chad following fighting in eastern Chad in June, which resulted in the losses in relief supplies.

New York  - Citigroup reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with regulators and governments on Thursday on claims it improperly urged customers to buy a type of bond that fell apart in conjunction with the subprime mortgage crisis.

Citigroup will buy back from customers 7.5 billion dollars worth of auction-rate securities - a type of bond without a set interest rate for which rates are instead set at periodic auctions.

New York  - The UN mission in Iraq said Thursday it stands ready to help Baghdad's parliament complete a set of electoral laws after it failed to reach an agreement before adjourning for the summer.

Iraqi legislators and political parties did not agree on Wednesday on the law, which may affect the holding of provincial elections in October. The electoral law was aimed at consolidating gains in establishing stronger security through the electoral process.