Money to burn? U.S. fumes as U.N. agency hands out millions in staff bonuses

"The World Intellectual Property Organization, an obscure United Nations agency in Geneva, has twice dismayed much of the world by its cavalier disregard for U.N. sanctions against North Korea. Now WIPO, as it is known, has found something else important to ignore: the constraints of the U.N.'s cushy payroll system.

Diplomatic representatives from the U.S. and 17 other WIPO member nations known as the 'Geneva Group'-mostly rich and Western, but including the Russian Federation-called on Francis Gurry, the autocratic Director General of WIPO, to 'reconsider immediately' his announcement last month of a bonus of about $2,000 each for virtually everyone in his 1,200-person agency. Total value: about $2.4 million.

So far, he appears unlikely to do any such thing..."