Bolivian president gives UN chief coca birthday cake

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon got an unusual treat for his 70th birthday last 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. Coca is used to make cocaine, but Morales, the host and a former coca farmer, has long defended its legal use as an "ancestral rite" for tea, sweets and medicines, going so far as to pull coca leaves out of a small plastic bag during a UN anti-drug meeting in Vienna in 2012 and chew on a wad of them. People in the Andean region also traditionally chew on coca leaf as a source of energy or as an antidote to altitude sickness. "The Bolivian people will never forget your visit," Morales told Ban on Friday in front of hundreds gathered for the presentation of the cake and a traditional Bolivian jacket. Ban was effusive in his thanks but stopped short of publicly taking a bite of the torta de coca or of endorsing Morales' position on the controversial leaf.

Woman celebrated party-style at unorthodox funeral

When Miriam "Mae-Mae" Burbank succumbed to cancer earlier this month, her New Orleans family determined the funeral would be no ordinary celebration of her life. Instead of a traditional casket, the deceased 53-year-old was seated at a table for the two days of services that concluded Friday, with a menthol cigarette in hand, disco balls overhead, a can of her preferred Busch beer in front of her and a bottle of Jack Daniels within reach. "They wanted to do her the way she lived," said Bishop Percy McCray, a longtime friend who officiated at her funeral. "That's the way she lived her life. That's what she liked to do." A lifelong New Orleans Saints fan, Burbank, was dressed in the football team's colors - gold and black - with matching nail polish. The area around her at the Charbonnet Funeral Home, done up to look like a living room, was roped off, with the remainder of the room divided between areas resembling a church and a nightclub, McCray said. McCray, who works at the funeral home, said visitors attending another funeral and passersby from the street alike marveled at Burbank in her final glory. "Some people said, 'That's the way I want to go out!'" McCray said. "It was exciting."

Mayor lambasted for dog poop incident resigns

The mayor of the wealthy Southern California city of San Marino, who has been dogged by security camera images purporting to show him toss a bag of canine feces on to his neighbor's property, has resigned, media reported. After Mayor Dennis Kneier's neighbor on June 7 found the small bag outside his home, he reviewed his surveillance footage and notified police, who later cited the politician for littering, police and media said. The video went viral and drew community anger after the neighbor shared it publicly. Kneier has apologized. "These events continue to be embarrassing to me, and to the city," Kneier wrote in a letter to fellow City Council members announcing his resignation on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported. "Because of this, I have decided to step down as mayor." Kneier did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The neighbor, Philip Lao, was reported to have suggested Kneier was responding to a "No Poop Zone" sign outside his home as well as his public opposition to a proposed area dog park, the Times reported.

Man tries to toss drug-packed football into prison

A Michigan man faces felony charges for allegedly trying to hurl a football stuffed with heroin and cellphones into a state prison yard, a corrections department spokesman said on Tuesday. The man hopped out of a vehicle on Sunday morning and heaved the football, which landed short, between two security fences at a state prison in Jackson, Michigan, about 120 kilometers west of Detroit, prisons spokesman Russ Marlan said. "From where he was throwing, it would not have been that difficult of a throw to throw it in ... but you don't know how heavy it was," Marlan said. The football had been sliced open, stuffed with drugs, phones and chargers and stitched back together, Marlan said. The man, identified as Christen Deon-Sterling Moore of Detroit by the Detroit Free Press, was charged with furnishing contraband and cellphones to prisoners. A prison officer apprehended the would-be quarterback and the driver after seeing him toss the football and turned them over to Michigan State Police, Marlan said.

Reuters

(China Daily 06/22/2014 page4)