Famine-Hit Ethiopia Buys $504,000 Villa

The military regime of famine-plagued Ethiopia has bought a posh suburban Swiss villa, complete with swimming pool, for $504,000, Swiss newspapers reported Saturday.

The villa, in the Geneva suburb of Chambesy, was bought to house the Ethiopian diplomatic mission to the European headquarters of the United Nations and U.N. specialized agencies in Geneva.

Ethiopian Ambassador Kassa Kebede defended the purchase, even in light of massive outside funds being contributed to save starving Ethiopians, saying: “We will save a lot of money by having our own property without having to pay the high rents in Geneva. We also did not receive any money from Addis Ababa but raised the funds by cutting down the size of our staff.”