In a ruling sent to the Public Health Ministry yesterday, the Council said the FDA's declaration of alcohol as a label-controlled product and its order to ban alcohol advertising were invalid because it did not have the authority to impose such measures.

The Council of State said if the government wanted to ban alcohol advertising, it would need to first amend the Food Act and Consumer Protection Act, which defines alcoholic drinks as "food".

MALPRACTICE CASES :Medical Council mulls court

Setting up a special court for medical cases was one of the proposals to cope with increasing lawsuits at a meeting hosted by the Medical Council of Thailand yesterday and attended by about 250 medical professionals and legal experts.

Other suggestions were a new law that separately indicated punishments - with no jail terms - for doctors, using medical experts to co-judge cases and a fund to cover the damages caused to the profession by medical lawsuits, said Dr Amnat Kusalanant, first vice president of the council.

STUDENT LOANS :Details of new scheme finalised

The new student-loan scheme - from the merging of the Student Loan Fund (SLF) and the Income Contingency Loan (ICL) - will be implemented next year, SLF manager Prempracha Supasamout said yesterday.

Following the ICL and SLF joint board meeting yesterday, Prempracha said the new Income-Contingent Student Loan Fund would focus on helping poor students whose family income is less than Bt150,000 a year. It will also support well-behaved students with good grades to study from high school to university.

Loans under the new arrangement will provide both tuition fees and other expenses, although the funds will be given in accordance with the labour demand for the field of study. For example, students of science and technology - which is in high demand - will get enough money to cover their full tuition fee, while students of law, currently in less demand, will receive an amount within the ceiling set by the fund.

The new loans will charge an interest rate of one per cent per year once a graduate's monthly salary reaches Bt4,700, and must be paid back within 15 years.

Under the supervision of the SLF, the scheme will have a Bt36-billion budget - an increase of Bt6 billion from last year. This will also cover the loans for recent ICL recipients, so they can still receive money until they graduate.