Dolphin beached

General News - Thursday December 20, 2007

INBrief

Dolphin beached

PHATTHALUNG : A dead Irrawaddy dolphin was washed ashore on a beach off the Lampham coastline yesterday.

The carcass of the female dolphin, about 2.3 metres long and weighing 150kg, bore deep cut wounds, and its tail had been cut off.

The dolphin, thought to be about 30 years old, was probably killed at least seven days before it was found, said Supoj Chantharapornsilp, chief of the Marine and Coastal Research Centre in the lower Gulf of Thailand.

It was the third dolphin found on a beach this month in Phatthalung.

The centre says 17 Irrawaddy dolphins have been found dead in Thailand this year after being trapped in fishing nets.

TRT assets auction

POLITICS: The Office of the Auditor-General will auction assets seized from the head office of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai party.

Auditor-General Khunying Jaruvan Maintaka said 790 items from TRT's head office would be put up for auction on Jan 9-10 at the OAG on Rama VI road.

The assets were worth an estimated one million baht. After the TRT was dissolved by the Constitution Tribunal, the OAG found the disbanded party had about one million baht in its bank accounts and owed debts of 11 million baht.

Arrests after ID cards held

PHAYAO : Police yesterday arrested the owners of video shops for taking the ID cards from their customers as a requirement for renting videos.

Most shops were in front of Naresuan University's Phayao campus in Muang district. They found 216 citizenship identification cards belonging to customers.

The shop owners have been charged with breaching the Identification Card Act.

Pol Maj-Gen Prasai Sangkhasap, Phayao police chief, said taking customers' ID cards was against the law.

Treaty with Laos signed

EXTRADITION : Thailand and Laos yesterday signed an extradition treaty, with immediate effect.

Foreign Affairs Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram and Lao ambassador to Thailand Ouan Phommachak signed the extradition treaty at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. The Lao ambassador said the treaty would allow convicts to be extradited to their native countries.

Extradition appeal upheld

COURTS : The Appeals Court yesterday upheld a Criminal Court ruling allowing the extradition of a 60-year-old Thai man to the US for murdering his Thai wife 13 years ago.

On May 17, 2000, the US asked Thailand to arrest and extradite Technical Sergeant Saner Wonggoun. The man had worked for the US Air Force and was accused of using a hard object to beat to death his pregnant Thai wife, Sopha, on Jan 6, 1994. Mr Saner fled to Thailand later the same month, just after US police in California found the body of his wife.

Bangkok Post