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| Coca puts fizz in new Bolivian energy drink Posted: 18 Jan 2011 07:07 PM PST LA PAZ, Jan 19 — A pale green energy drink made from coca leaves has given Bolivian President Evo Morales a boost as he tries to persuade the United Nations to scrap a ban on the traditional Andean practice of chewing the leaves. Coca is the raw material for making cocaine, but Bolivians have chewed the leaves for centuries for its mild stimulant that reduces hunger and altitude sickness. The coca leaf was declared an illegal narcotic in the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, along with cocaine, heroin, opium and morphine and a host of chemical drugs. Yesterday's launch of the energy drink Coca Brynco was hailed by the Bolivian government as an important step in its efforts to promote coca's health benefits and develop legal uses for its leaves in the world's No. 3 cocaine producer. "We want to reaffirm with this product that the coca leaf is healthy," Rural Development Minister Nemesia Achacollo said at the launch. "We must defend our coca leaf and show it's not a drug." Morales, who rose as leader of Bolivia's coca planters to become its first indigenous president, has asked the UN to decriminalise coca chewing. Member states have until the end of January to submit objections to the Bolivian appeal. Two years ago, another group of Bolivian entrepreneurs launched a coca-based energy drink called Coca Colla that failed to gain traction in the local market. But Coca Brynco's production manager, Jhonny Vargas, was optimistic the planned US$1 million (RM3.05 million) investment would pay off. "Our aim is to cover the whole of Bolivia and start exporting to neighboring countries," he said, adding that the plant would initially use 227 kilos of coca leaves per month. — Reuters
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| New York to deploy 700 police at rebuilt WTC site Posted: 18 Jan 2011 06:19 PM PST NEW YORK, Jan 19 — Nearly 700 police officers will guard the 6.5-hectare site where the World Trade Center is being rebuilt, under a new police command that is expected to be in place by the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the city's police chief said yesterday. The site that was destroyed in 2001 had been attacked before, in a 1993 truck bombing, and police say it will remain a high priority target after the 104-floor One World Trade Center is completed, expected by 2013. "To provide security for the memorial and, ultimately, the entire site, the Police Department has established a World Trade Center command and assigned a deputy inspector to oversee it," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told a gathering of the Police Foundation. The police presence will ramp up as the buildings are completed and occupied, Kelly said, culminating at about 700 officers, of which 672 are to be from the New York police department. Police have also been rapidly expanding a network of security cameras in the area. Plans for the command center were first announced in July 2008, after the police reached an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the so-called Ground Zero site and has its own police force. The completed Ground Zero project, now a teeming construction site, will consist of the memorial, four very tall buildings, a transportation hub and a performing arts center, all sitting on top of active subway and commuter rail lines. The signature One World Trade Center — formerly called the Freedom Tower — is under construction and more than 50 stories tall, on its way to 104. Including its antenna, it will reach 541 metres, making it the tallest building in the United States upon completion, expected by 2013. — Reuters
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