The anthropology centre will produce the cultural exhibit for the "Smithsonian Folk Life Festival 2007", to be held from June 27 to July 8. Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China's Yunnan province will participate in the festival, which is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution.

The theme will be "Mekong River: Connecting Culture", Culture Minister Khaisri Sri-aroon said yesterday.

The anthropology centre will meet with the river-basin nations to select art and performances for the festival. The ministry upped the centre's normal annual budget by an extra Bt25 million so it could pay for the project. The money will pay for performers and artists to travel to the United States. This year, the centre received about Bt72 million - up 84 per cent from last year. - The Nation.

Bt83m needed for noise reduction

A Bt83-million budget is needed to implement noise-reduction projects at three Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA)-run schools located near Suvarnabhumi Airport that suffer from excessive aircraft noise, a multi-party panel charged with the task said yesterday.

The three schools - Wat Bamrung Ruen, Wat Plook Sattha, and Wat Lat Krabang, all located in Lat Krabang district - will have noise-absorbing material attached to their ceilings and classroom walls, while air-conditioners will be installed in all classrooms.

The projects, which will take three months to complete, will help reduce noise levels from 90-100 decibels to 39. However, all schools will have to shoulder electricity bills of about Bt100,000 a month on their own, said panel chairwoman Arunee Rassamithat, a senior BMA official. Wisoot Samrejwanich, a Lat Krabang district council member and panel member, said he would ask the Airports of Thailand to contribute to the schools' electricity bills. - The Nation.

DSI pokes holes in police report

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has found police contradictions in the case of the nine-year-old boy, Chakraphan Srisa-ard, who died from bullet wounds in Bangkok during a police operation to arrest his drug-dealing father, a source said yesterday.

Last December, the DSI took charge of four cases involving people murdered or who had disappeared mysteriously during the Thaksin government's war on drugs three years ago.

The source at the DSI said the investigation had made progress, especially concerning Chakraphan's death and the disappearance of his mother, Pornwipa Kerdrungruang, after the incident.

The DSI investigators found errors in the police report and were trying to find out if there was a conspiracy to lodge a faulty report to help the arresting police team, the source said. The report at first said it was an extrajudicial killing but later concluded it was a silence killing by drug dealers - The Nation.