auction to sell the contents of the failed Soul Vegetarian restaurant is anything to go by.

A sale of items such as pots, pans, a deep-frier, exhaust fans and tables and chairs raised a paltry $2,000 -- just enough to make the minutest of dents in its total debt.

But even that was enough to trigger an argument among its two principal creditors, landlords Eve Company and local law firm Smith, Barnard & Diel, over who gets priority.

Deputy provost marshall general Mr. Sheldon Fox called the auction after a Supreme Court writ was issued permitting property at the restaurant to be seized.

Mr. Trew, owner of the Eve Company, said the auction "did not go too well''.

He said he was interviewing up to 40 people, keen to set up a new restaurant on the site of the Soul Vegetarian restaurant, which had been run by the Hebrew Israelite group for five years.

* * * NJ Conde Nast Traveler magazine has come up with the following best-and-worst lists to help the traveller reach a destination and enjoy maximum comfort whence there.

According to the magazine, the world's worst airports are: Indira Gandhi, New Delhi; JFK, New York; LaGuardia, New York; Kimpo, Seoul; Soekarno Hatta, Jakarta; Juarez, Mexico City.

The top 10 US airports are: Tampa International, Orlando International, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Pittsburgh International, Nashville International, Seattle-Tacoma, Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.; Las Vegas McCarran, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis-St. Paul and San Diego (tie).

Top 10 US airlines: Alaska, Midwest Express, Delta, Southwest, American, United, Aloha, Hawaiian, Northwest and America West.

Top US hotels: Mansion on Turtle Creek, Dallas; Windsor Court, New Orleans; Four Seasons, Chicago; Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco; Ritz-Carlton, Chicago; Bel-Air, Los Angeles; Ritz-Carlton Buckhead, Atlanta; The Carlyle, New York; and Campton Place Kempinski, San Francisco; Four Seasons, Dallas; and Ritz-Carlton, Boston, all tied for ninth place.

Bermuda ought to take notice of the high marks Ritz Carlton hotels all over the US attract when considering the hotel chain's plans to build a new hotel on the South Shore.

Conde Nast Traveler based its rankings on a survey answered by 38,000 readers.

The October issue also ranked the Peninsula in Hong Kong as the world's top hotel.

Bermuda's two Princess hotels were ranked in the world's top 50 resort hotels.