The move — which it said was financed by the generosity of the university’s “trustees, alumni, and friends,” amounts to a reduction of $55,018 in annual fees, regardless of financial needs or academic merit.

It does not cover living and administrative costs averaging $27,000 a year.

“A population as diverse as ours is best served by doctors from all walks of life, we believe, and aspiring physicians and surgeons should not be prevented from pursuing a career in medicine because of the prospect of overwhelming financial debt,” said Dr. Robert Grossman, dean of the NYU School of Medicine.

In its statement, NYU also pointed out that high student debt was putting graduates off pursuing less lucrative specializations including pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the median debt of a graduating medical student in the US is $202,000 — while 21 percent of doctors who graduate from a private school such as NYU face over $300,000.

“Our hope — and expectation — is that by making medical school accessible to a broader range of applicants, we will be a catalyst for transforming medical education nationwide,” said Kenneth Langone, chair of the Board of Trustees of NYU Langone Health.

Thursday’s announcement came as a surprise ending to the school’s annual white coat ceremony, which marks the start of first-year students’ medical careers.

Those 93 students will benefit from the scholarship, along with 350 others enrolled further along in the program.

NYU said it is the only top 10-ranked medical school in the US to offer such an initiative.

Malaysia’s AirAsia Group joined the ranks of those keen on the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Clark International Airport, among the gateways being pitched as an alternative to the congested Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in Manila.

AirAsia joined eight other groups, which included local conglomerates and international airport operators, as it bought bid documents for the 25-year Clark Airport O&M project, a Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) official said.

The bid submission date was reset to Sept. 4, 2018 from the original July 20 deadline after would-be participants sought an extension, the official said.

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes earlier expressed his interest to make Clark Airport, located in Pampanga province, a major hub for Philippines Air Asia. The airline restarted operations in Clark last year after pulling out in 2013 when it made the strategic decision to focus on Manila.

Groups that earlier bought bid documents included San Miguel Corp., Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Megawide Construction Corp., and Filinvest Development Corp. Other local companies were businessman Manuel Villar Jr.’s Prime Asset Venture and Central Luzon Infrastructure Consultancy Inc. Consortium.

Foreign groups were India’s GVK Airport Developers Ltd. and France’s Groupe ADP, previously known as Aéroports de Paris, which helped design the long-term master plan for Clark Airport.

The Clark Airport expansion and O&M deal is the Duterte administration’s first hybrid public-private partnership project. The scheme mainly involved separating the expansion of the airport and the O&M into two distinct contracts.

The government last December awarded a contract to Megawide and India’s GMR Infrastructure for the construction of a new passenger terminal in Clark Airport. The project, to be financed by the BCDA, will increase the airport’s current capacity of four million passengers annually to 12 million passengers by 2020.

The winner of the O&M contract will also reimburse the BCDA for its investment in the construction component. This is equivalent to P10 billion, to be paid on an installment basis, the project’s information memorandum released on April 27 showed.

The main bid parameter for the O&M contract is the highest percentage share in quarterly gross revenues that the concessionaire will pay the BCDA.

Don was in Myanmar from Monday to Wednesday for the 9th meeting of the Joint Commission for bilateral cooperation, which he co-chaired with U Kyaw Tin, Myanmar’s Union Minister for International Cooperation.

In a meeting with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi the commission raised a wide variety of issues to improve bilateral ties. The issues included economic and socio-cultural cooperation, protection of Myanmar workers in Thailand, improving connectivity along the border, building villages in Rakhine State to support Myanmar’s efforts for regional development, improving people-to-people contacts, fisheries cooperation and supporting the establishment of vocational schools to help build the capacity of Myanmar workers.

“As this year marks the 70th anniversary of Thai-Myanmar diplomatic ties, we are committed to enhancing cooperation with our Thai counterparts in developing alternatives to poppy cultivation. We believe it will drive the socio-economic development of the Thai-Myanmar border areas and improving the standard of living,” Sai Tun Nyo, deputy permanent secretary of Myanmar’s Ministry of Border Affairs, said.

He seems really impressed with Thailand’s projects to develop alternatives to opium production, particularly those implemented by the Mah Fah Luang Foundation. Myanmar authorities have been working on a pilot project to offer substitutes for opium production since 2016 and Thailand has been sharing its knowledge and expertise with them, he said.

After the meeting, Don signed a revised Air Services Agreement with Thant Sin Maung, Myanmar’s Minister of Transport and Communications and witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on shrimp culture development in Rakhine State. The MoU was signed by the director-general of Thailand’s International Cooperation Agency and the director-general of Myanmar’s Department of Fisheries, a Foreign Ministry press statement said yesterday.

Meanwhile, the revised aviation pact, replacing the one signed in 1969, will help improve links between the nations, Ye Htut Aung, deputy director-general of the Department of Civil Aviation, explained.

The new agreement will help improve routes and the frequency of airline services between the two countries, the official said. He foresees more direct air links between different cities of both countries in the near future.

In addition, Aung Soe, director-general of Myanmar Trade Promotion Organisation, said the two sides had agreed to double bilateral trade volume by 2022. He said he foresees higher border trade over the next three years, thanks to the Initial Implementation of Cross-Border Transport Agreement.

In order to promote seamless connectivity both sides plan to open the second Friendship Bridge across the Moei/Taungyin River at the earliest opportunity and look forward to an early conclusion of the MoU on the Initial Implementation of Cross-Border Transport Agreement (IICBTA), the press statement said.

Businesses in Myanmar also considered Don’s visit a major step for closer ties with their Thai counterparts. Ye Htut Naing, president of the Tanintharyi Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the authorities of Kanchanaburi and Prachuap Khiri Khan provinces voiced their eagerness to build two sister cities – between Dawei and Kanchanaburi and between Myeik and Hua Hin.

“Since the beginning of this year, we are aware of rising interest from the Thai side to cooperate with our [Tanintharyi] region, as we share a long border with Thailand. The quicker we sign agreements on sister cities, the more beneficial it will be to locals and businesses in both countries,” Ye Htut Naing said.

Fifteen representatives from the chamber will discuss bilateral economic cooperation at a meeting in Hua Hin later this month, he added.

PRIME MINISTER General Prayut Chan-o-cha has urged policymakers and entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia to develop and nurture a digital trade ecosystem as information technology in the region takes off.

Delivering the keynote speech on the topic of “CLMVT Taking-Off Through Technology”, Prayut praised the region’s status as a popular destination for investment and trade. He pointed to the “Look East” policy of the western world and India, along with the “Look South” approach of China, Japan and South Korea.

The immediate challenge for the CLMVT (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand) countries, said Prayut, was to figure out how to utilise new technologies to further share prosperity among the people.

Prayut was addressing the CLMVT Forum 2018 hosted by Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce.

He said that from now on, capacity building for entrepreneurial development must focus on preparation for the new economy and should be provided to all CLMVT entrepreneurs. “A region-wide digital trade ecosystem for CLMVT should be developed and nurtured. This includes the region’s own e-commerce platforms, efficient cross-border transport and logistics, payment systems as well as common standards and interoperability,” he said.

Commerce Minister Sontirat Somtijirawong pointed to the region’s high rate of economic growth and adoption of information technology. The average GDP growth rate of the five countries was 6.28 per cent last year, he said, and there were an estimated 150 million Internet users or 61 per cent of the total population. There were about 120.5 million Facebook accounts in the region. As well, online shopping has been growing rapidly, with Thailand and Vietnam together boasting about 47 million online shoppers, said Sontirat. Each shopper spent $109 (Bt3,620) last year via e-commerce channels, a 10-14 per cent increase from 2016. Online purchases reached $5.1 billion, up 20-22 per cent up from the previous year.

Asked what actions policymakers in the five countries would together pursue to promote a digital economy, Sontirat said the Commerce Ministry will gather information from the two-day forum for future consideration.

Meanwhile, a Myanmar business executive said his country was facing challenges to improve infrastructure and in educating both merchants and consumers about the digital economy.

Htay Aung, the chief executive officer of Aung Chaw Trading Co and Myanmar’s former Hotel and Tourism minister, said his country faced a challenge to improve infrastructure as logistics costs remained high. The government also needed to reform regulations to meet international benchmarks. Moreover the Myanmar government needed to educate both merchants and consumers about e-commerce, said Htay Aung.

Mara Warwick, World Bank country director for Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, said the challenge of digital technologies was how to make sure everyone benefited from them. She said policymakers should focus on three pillars – inclusion, efficiency and innovation.

Warwick warned that digital technologies could lead to market concentration, so policymakers must ensure there was both competition and transparency in the market. Children should be educated to love lifelong learning, which would help them catch up with fast-changing technology. Also, the development of emotional skills continued to increase in importance for children in the digital economy and would help them to get jobs later, she said.

Several Thai start-ups have opened booths at the forum. Among them is Builkone, which provides software application services for construction material suppliers and contractors. Thitikorn Chanson, who is in charge of business development at Builkone, said the company had expanded its business to Myanmar and Laos and looked forward to expanding to other Asean countries.

The event will be held in parts of Beach Street, Bishop Street, Church Street and Church Street Ghaut from 5pm to 11pm.

Event organising company TLM Event planned the festival with endorsement from the state goverment and support from Penang Global Tourism.

TLM Event managing director Jack Wong said popular must-eat Malay, Chinese and Indian items from both the mainland and the island would be featured.

The list of delicious street food treats includes duck egg char koay teow from Bukit Mertajam, world-famous laksa from Balik Pulau, award-winning Line Clear nasi kandar and tropical tasting Dangai Warisan Ibunda.

Also at the press conference were state Tourism Development, Heritage, Culture and Arts Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin, Penang Global Tourism chief executive officer Ooi Chok Yan and event executive Aaron Teoh.

Yeoh said the event was a great platform to show off Penang food to both locals and tourists.

For more details, visit http://www.piff.com.my/psff2018 or check out the Penang International Food Festival official Facebook page.

Tun Hung Seong was arrested in April last year after a tipoff that he had hired a man to smuggle nearly 300 kilogrammes of crystal meth — known as ice — through the violence-scarred south.

Investigators believe he acted as a gatekeeper to the Malaysian drug market just over the border and laundered money through karaoke bars, hotels and restaurants.

The Bangkok court convicted Tun, 65, on drug trafficking charges alongside two Thai women and a Taiwanese man.

All four were sentenced to death, although the sentences of the Taiwanese man and one of the Thai women were reduced to life imprisonment due to their “useful” confessions.

Situated along the drug-running routes of the “Golden Triangle,” Thailand provides overland routes for the smuggling of meth from factories in lawless parts of neighbouring Myanmar and Laos, in a trade estimated to be worth $40 billion a year.

Drug seizures across the region have shot up to record levels in recent months.

Malaysian authorities in May said they seized a record 1.2 tonnes of crystal meth from Myanmar hidden in tea packets, believed to be the largest ever in the country in terms of value and weight.

Thailand torched more than six tonnes of narcotics in June, most of it meth.

From October to July this year, some 1,705 drug cases were reported in the kingdom, compared to 453 in the same period the year before.

Suspects convicted of serious drug offences face harsh sentences in Thailand in one of its many overcrowded prisons.

The country carried out its first execution since 2009 in June, after previously sending signals it would abolish the practice.

“After implementing the odd-even policy, from Aug. 1 to 15, the number of accidents dropped to 153,” Jakarta Police traffic law enforcement subdirectorate chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Budiyanto said on Thursday as reported by kompas.com.

In comparison, 171 traffic accidents took place in the 15 days before the policy was implemented, explained Budiyanto.

The odd-even policy, which restricts private cars from entering certain major thoroughfares based on plate numbers, was expanded on Aug. 1 to ease congestion ahead and during the Asian Games.

The new expanded policy increased the restriction time to 15 hours per day from seven hours, and included weekends.

Addressing the nation from the Red Fort on the occasion of 72nd Independence Day, he described permanent commissioning of women in the armed forces as a “gift” to the “brave daughters”.

“I want to give a good news to our brave daughters. Women officers who have been appointed through the short service commission in the armed forces will get permanent commission through a transparent process. It is a gift for them,” Modi said.

While it was not clear immediately if permanent commissioning would pave the way for women’s entry into combat positions in the Army and the Navy, according to reports, the government is likely to come out with a comprehensive policy in the next couple of months on permanent commissioning of women in the Army, Navy and the Indian Air Force.

The Indian Air Force has already started induction of women as fighter pilots.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman thanked Modi for making the announcement.

Permanent commissioning allows officers to serve till the age of retirement, while SSC allows tenures ranging from five to 14 years.

Both the Navy and the IAF recruit women pilots under the SSC scheme. The Army recruits women SSC officers in air defence, engineering, signals and services streams.

A case relating to permanent commissioning of women in the Army is pending in the Supreme Court. The government had gone the apex court after the Delhi High Court ordered it in 2010 to give permanent commission to women Army officers on short service commission.

In April, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it was considering granting PC to women Army officers recruited under the SSC scheme. A group of such officers had approached courts seeking PC status.

The statement was made in a joint declaration on technology co-operation during the CLMTV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) Forum 2018, organised by the Thai Ministry of Commerce in collaboration with partner organisations with the theme “CLMTV Taking-Off Through Technology” that kicked off in Bangkok today.

The two-day forum aims to strengthen economic ties in the CLMTV region and promote regional cooperation amidst challenges in the context of current global trade, with an emphasis on the use of technology for economic development.

The forum has attracted about 1,000 participants from the public, private and academic sectors along with members of the media.

During his opening remarks, Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said that the CLMTV Forum provided a unique opportunity for leading business people, senior policy makers and academics, and the younger generation of entrepreneurs to come together and exchange views on the sustainability of future cooperation.

“With shared historical, geographical, and cultural ties, the CLMTV region has great potential to develop into a thriving global hub for commerce, industry and tourism. An outstanding feature of the CLMTV region is our resilience as a preferred destination for international trade and investment,” he said.

“As the region is emerging with greater creative talent and entrepreneurial ingenuity, there is an excellent opportunity to take advantage of this trend by highlighting the importance of technology and innovation towards the momentum of this regional growth,” the Prime Minister said.

This will require fine-tuning our cooperation in digital technology, transport infrastructure connectivity, environmental sustainability, and human resource development, all of which would be substantial to the discussions within the 2018 CLMTV Forum, he said.

Thai Minister of Commerce Sontirat Sontijirawong said the forum created opportunities for public and private sectors from all CLMTV countries to develop a shared narrative to enhance collaboration and improve the state of economic development in the region amid rapidly evolving disruptive technology.

“It is the only international forum that connects prominent public figures, distinguished business leaders, visionary young entrepreneurs, and renowned academics from the CLMVT region and beyond to discuss the most pressing issues facing the region today,” Sontijirawong said.

The first day of the forum is themed “Technology to Change Trade and Investment”, comprising parallel discussions, ministerial conversations and leading business people exchanging views and extending networks.

The second day, themed “Technology to Change Life and Yound Generation”, emphasises the promotion of an inclusive economy by enhancing the capacity to ultilise technologies among SMEs and startups, and by applying digital technologies to support a creative economy.

The CLMTV Forum 2018 also features more than 40 exhibition booths from domestic and international organisations.

    Leading the charge was The Boston Globe, which had issued an appeal for this drive — accompanied by the hashtag #EnemyofNone — that has been joined by more than 200 newspapers around the country.

“Today in the United States we have a president who has created a mantra that members of the media who do not blatantly support the policies of the current US administration are the ‘enemy of the people,'” the Globe editorial said.

“This is one of the many lies that have been thrown out by this president, much like an old-time charlatan threw out ‘magic’ dust or water on a hopeful crowd,” it added in a piece entitled “Journalists are not the Enemy.”

Trump’s treatment of the press is also encouraging strongmen such as Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey to treat journalists like enemies, the Globe argued.

The coordinated effort comes amid Trump’s persistent claims that mainstream media outlets that publish articles critical of him are churning out “fake news.”

Free press advocates argue that Trump’s efforts threaten the role of the news media as a check against abuse of power in government and imperil the constitutional First Amendment guarantee of freedom of the press.

The New York Times, one of the most frequent targets of Trump’s criticism, ran a short, seven-paragraph editorial under a giant headline with all capital letters that read “A FREE PRESS NEEDS YOU” and with the statement that it is only right for people to criticize the press, say, for getting something wrong.

“But insisting that truths you don’t like are ‘fake news’ is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the ‘enemy of the people’ is dangerous, period,” the Times wrote.

Across the country, other papers joined in, defending their place in society — from upholding the truth to simply saving people time.

“At a practical level, we journalists sit through boring government meetings and learn about public school financing formulas, so you don’t have to,” said The Arizona Daily Star. “It’s not as lofty a statement as the First Amendment, but it serves.”

– Cannot sit back –

Free press advocates say Trump is a real threat to the role of the press.

“I don’t think the press can just sit back and take it, they need to make their case when the most powerful man in the world tries to undercut the First Amendment,” said Ken Paulson, a former editor-in-chief of USA Today who heads the Newseum’s First Amendment Center and is dean of communications at Middle Tennessee State University.

But Paulson questioned whether editorials would be effective.

“The people who read editorials don’t need to be convinced,” he said. “They are not the ones trying to shout you down at presidential rallies.”

In the face of a White House onslaught, Paulson said the media needs a broader marketing campaign to highlight the importance of a free press as a core value.

The campaign also faces the potential for galvanizing supporters of the president around the notion that the media is out to get him.

“The media are organizing an ever more deliberate and public attack on @realDonaldTrump and on the ‘deplorable’ half of the country who support him. And the media wonders why we think they are ‘fake news?'” tweeted Mike Huckabee, a former Republican governor who is a Fox News commentator.

But media rights advocates say the stakes are too high to allow the president’s claims to go unchecked.

Some say Trump’s comments have incited threats against journalists covering his events, and may have created a climate of hostility that opened the door to violent attacks like a deadly one in June against the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland.