MICHELLE NICHOLS ETHIOPIA failed at the United Nations in its bid to block funding for an independent investigation into abuses in the country's conflict, garnering just 27 yes votes, while 66 countries opposed the move and 39 countries abstained. The vote was in the 193-member U.N. General Assembly's budget committee. The budget committee then voted to approve funding for the inquiry established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva in December to collect evidence and identify those responsible for abuses, with a view to future prosecutions. Ethiopia has vowed not to cooperate. Ethiopian diplomat Lemlem Fiseha Minale told the…