New York  - The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said Monday it had launched an emergency airlift to stockpile humanitarian supplies for civilians caught in the South Ossetia fighting, which has spread to other parts of Georgia.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, released 2 million dollars to cover the needs of those displaced by the fighting in Russia and Georgia. UN personnel were being deployed to the areas as well.

New York  - An ongoing investigation into the collapse of the auction-rate securities market was widened Monday to include JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia Corp and Morgan Stanley, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said.

Cuomo's office sent letters to the banks Monday asking them to begin "immediate" settlement talks to resolve probes into their sales of auction-rate securities, which are typically bonds whose interest rates are reset by periodic bidding.

New York  - The UN Security Council held Saturday a fresh meeting to review the situation in the breakaway South Ossetia enclave where fighting between Russia and Georgia continued for a third day.

Russia, a veto power on the 15-nation council, called for the closed-door meeting a day after the body held an open debate to hear views from Russian and Georgian representatives as well as those of council members. The council did not issue any formal statement on its position.

New York, Aug 9 : Republican presidential candidate John McCain stole a page from Hillary Clinton’s playbook, recycling her greatest primary hits against Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

In a new ad titled “Praising McCain,” his team ran clips of Democrats lauding the Arizona senator’s maverick independence - topped by this classic Clinton punch from March 3: “I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Obama has a speech he gave in 2002.”

New York - Oil futures dropped 4 per cent Fri

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.