• 
• 

Published on September 28, 2007

Taphan Hin district chief Tatchapong Paekwamdee yesterday said lab tests had confirmed that the H5N1 virus had killed a number of local chickens.

"As of now, 90 fowl within a one kilometre radius from where the infection was detected have been culled," he said.

Tatchapong said local livestock officials were now disinfecting chicken coops.

According to Tatchaphong, a resident alerted authorities last week after seeing many birds dying suspiciously. Veterinarian Nirandorn Uantrakoonsuk, a senior livestock official in Phichit, said the outbreak-hit-zone status would allow the owners of the culled fowls to receive compensation. 

Hangthong case verdict

The Criminal Court will deliver its verdict at 9am today in the retrial of the Hangthong Thammawattana murder of eight years ago.

Noppadol, the defendant and a younger brother of Hangthong, said yesterday he believed justice will prevail and the evidence favoured him, but had prepared Bt6 million in assets and cash to post bail if he was found guilty.

The case was reopened in late 2003 at the request of family members hostile to Noppadol.

Hangthong, a former Prachakorn Thai Party MP, was found dead in his home slouched back on a couch with a bullet hole in his right temple on the night of September 5, 1999.

The investigation involved high-profile forensic experts, both Thais and foreigners, employed by both the prosecutors and Noppadol.

The trial that began on February 16, 2004 heard testimonies from 42 expert witnesses including Pornthip Rojanasunan, the acting director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science.

The prosecution witnesses said Hangthong was murdered while defence witnesses said he shot himself.

The Nation