[mhking]

Supposedly, the land reverts to the Rockefeller family if the UN goes away.

Figures. I'd still rather see that land as the new Rockefeller Center than as the UN anymore. The UN needs to give up and start over again. No shame in that; they're just as toothless and feeble as the League of Nations was. It just took longer for the rest of the world to wisen up.

[JennysCool]

Iraq May Chair Disarmament Conference
By BARBARA BORST
Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--Iraq is in line to take over as chairman of the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in May, prompting one U.S. official Wednesday to say: ``The irony is overwhelming.''

Richard Grenell, spokesman for U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte, issued the comment as officials realized Iraq was in line for the rotating post. India now holds it and will be followed by Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland and Israel as countries take the job in alphabetical order.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Tuesday that the choice of conference leaders is ``a purely automatic rotation by alphabetical order'' with five or six conference presidents each year, each serving a term of about four weeks.

``I think you could expect that from time to time a letter would come up that might raise questions in certain quarters, but it has no political significance, I would say,'' said Eckhard, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, when asked if Iraq holding the job did not seem odd.

The 66-nation Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, is the world's top disarmament forum. It meets annually for 24 weeks in three sessions beginning in January.