Bolivian president gives UN chief coca birthday cake

[riky]

Bolivian president gives UN chief coca birthday cake

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/bolivian-president-gives-un-chief-coca-birthday-cake-230027168.html"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nNYtDgW2MMw3g_3RfmP1tQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-06-13T230027Z_1_LYNXMPEA5C179_RTROPTP_2_BOLIVIA.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="U.N. Secretary-General Ban blows the candles on a cake during a celebration for his 70th birthday in El Torno" align="left" title="U.N. Secretary-General Ban blows the candles on a cake during a celebration for his 70th birthday in El Torno" border="0" /></a>By Hugh Bronstein SANTA CRUZ Bolivia (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon got an unusual treat for his 70th birthday on Friday when the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, presented him with a cake made with coca leaves. The UN chief was in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for a meeting this weekend of the G77 group of countries to discuss measures for reducing poverty. People in the Andean region also traditionally chew on coca leaf as a source of energy or as an antidote to altitude sickness. &quot;You have lived for thousands of years in harmony with nature.&quot; The UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs banned coca leaf in 1961 along with cocaine, heroin, opium and morphine, and in 2012 Bolivia withdrew from it to protest the criminalization of the chewing of coca leaves.</p><br clear="all"/>

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