Fantasy Getaways for former ambassadors...

[Walt Starr]

Yes, if I were a former ambassador, looking for a free trip to some exotic locale, this would certainly be high on my list of places I would try to con the government into sending me...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/07/21/niger.hunger.ap/index.html

Report: 3.6m face Niger starvation

Thursday, July 21, 2005; Posted: 5:34 a.m. EDT (09:34 GMT)

LONDON, England (AP) -- About 3.6 million people face starvation in the West African nation of Niger unless the international community responds urgently to the food crisis there, the aid agency Oxfam said Thursday.

Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, was devastated by an invasion of locusts that ate everything green last year and was then hit by drought that lasted until earlier this month.

The U.N.'s humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, said earlier this week that 2.5 million people in landlocked Niger were in desperate need of food after the world community ignored U.N. appeals for urgent aid.