Topical art
A student poses with a sculpture at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. The mixed-media exhibition has an anti-corruption theme and was created by students of 23 different nationalities.
Nice rice
Scientists develop new strain
A team of Thai scientists developed a new strain of sticky rice which can resist rice diseases caused by fungi and bacteria.
Theerayut Toojinda led the team of scientists from the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, who developed the new rice variety. He said the new sticky rice strain is resistant to leaf blast and bacterial blight, which afflict rice plantations in the North and Northeast. The rice strain is a genetic combination of Hom Nil, Kor Khor 6 and a variety from the Philippines.
Neighbour in need
Thailand to send rice
The cabinet has agreed to donate 500 tonnes of rice to the Philippines to assist the country as it struggles with the aftermath of Typhoon Bopha.
The rice will be taken from granaries stocked with rice purchased from farmers under the government’s rice pledging scheme, government officials said on December 11.
More than 700 people were killed and at least 890 others were still missing after the typhoon hit the island on December 4.
EASY NEWS FOR M1-3
Bad goods
Police raid Phuket warehouse
Customs officials seized counterfeit goods. The goods were found in a warehouse in Phuket. The goods included fake bags, wallets, watches and clothes. They were worth more than 20 million baht, police said.
Vocabulary
- strain (n): a particular type of plant or animal
blight (n): any disease that kills plants, especially crops
afflict (v): to affect somebody or something in an unpleasant or harmful way
aftermath (n): the situation that exists as a result of an important and usually unpleasant event, especially a war, a natural disaster, etc.
granary (n): a building where grain is stored
counterfeit (adj): made to look exactly like something in order to trick people into thinking that they are getting the real thing
