Local news

Slave driver

City woman convicted of keeping girl locked up

A Bangkok businesswoman was sentenced to seven years in jail on April 24 for keeping a girl from Buri Ram province as a slave.

On top of the seven-year sentence, the Criminal Court gave Wipaporn Songmeesap, 50, another 3.5 years in jail for causing severe physical harm to her underage maid and ordered her to pay 200,000 baht to the girl in compensation.

Hired as a servant by Wipaporn in 2003, the 13-year-old girl was forced to work from 4 am till midnight with no days off. Her chores included cooking three meals a day for a family of five, cleaning the house, laundry, washing cars and whatever she was told to do.

She was given only one or two meals a day. For each meal, she was allowed only a small portion of cold rice with the family�s leftovers or simply with chilli.

Back to life

Rare shellfish find delights villagers

Villagers in the remote district of Ban Tak in Tak province found a rare fresh-water shellfish called Hoy Prao on April 25, 10 years after trying to conserve a creature once caught for sale to restaurants.

The shellfish, 18 centimetres long and weighing around 1 kilogramme, was found in the area where the Ping and Wang rivers meet in Tak. Villagers believed this giant species had disappeared about 20 years ago.

�Today our giant Hoy Prao, which once went missing, came back again,� said Sawat Kaentang, a member of a local conservation group.

[EASY NEWS FOR M1-3]

Heavy metal

High levels of lead linked to school coolers

The risk of lead poisoning is high at around 10 percent of schools in Thailand where drinking water comes from poor quality water coolers, according to the Medical Sciences Department.

The department puts the blame on water cooler manufacturers who use lead welding instead of high-quality materials with safer coating.

Sweet touch

Actress Suwanan Khongying helps Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont put on a wristband promoting sufficiency economy at Government House on April 24.

	convict (v): to decide and state officially in a court of law that somebody is guilty of a crime sentence (v): to say officially in a court of law that somebody is to receive a particular punishment compensation (n): something, especially money, that somebody gives you because they have hurt you or damaged something that you own; the act of giving this to somebody conserve (v): to protect something and prevent it from being changed or destroyed lead (n): chemical element; lead is a heavy, soft, grey metal, used especially in the past for water pipes or to cover roofs welding (n): the act of joining pieces of metal together by heating their edges and pressing them together