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AMMAN — Zarqa Preventive Security Department personnel in Dulail have seized 99 pieces believed to be of archaeological value, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Wednesday.

A security source said that the pieces were seized at a house where security personnel arrested two people after receiving a tip-off. The source added that an investigation was still ongoing.

AMMAN — A Jordanian man bought a number plate for JD522,000, including tax, in Amman on Wednesday as part of a licence plate auction. 

Jordanian number plate enthusiasts witnessed a fierce competition between two bidders to clinch the plate, numbered 77-7. 

The Drivers and Motor Vehicles Licensing Department organised the auction for the first time in Jordan with the aim of introducing an "honest way” to sell number plates, according to Colonel Mamoun Al Azzam, the department’s acting director.

“We wanted to make these 15 plates available for people who are willing to buy them. We do not aim to collect money and we only wanted to provide Jordanians, companies and foreigners the opportunity to take part in this auction,” he told The Jordan Times. 

He noted that one of the main goals of the event is to curb the trend of number plates being sold on the black market. 

Manar Abu Alayan, who bought two number plates during the event, commended the idea of the auction. 

“My husband’s hobby is to collect these plates. I like this event because there is credibility here compared to dealing with individual vendors. I prefer to deal with formal parties,” she said. 

Some participants were shocked by the huge amount of money some spent on number plates. 

Mohammad Sahouri, who came hoping to get one of these unique plate numbers, said he felt most of the participants were merchants. 

“These numbers are very expensive. I feel that most participants were not collectors or regular people wanting to obtain a unique number,” he noted. 

For Radi Farahan, some people exaggerated with their bets. “The most expensive plate that was sold was auctioned at a price beyond my expectation,” he said. 

Due to the "success" of the event, organisers said they are planning to keep holding similar auctions in the future. 

AMMAN — Desert kites, constructions which aim to trap game animals, are scattered all over the Middle East and has been the subject of study of a group of researchers between 2015 and 2016, according to a French resercher.

A team of scholars came to Harrat Al Shaam, in northeastern Jordan, to learn more about desert kites, said Remy Crassard, a French anthropologist, noting "in 2015 and 2016, the ‘Globalkites’ team decided to do intensive archaeological work in the ‘Black Desert’, or Harrat Al Shaam”.

The team first worked around As Safawi, and then closer to Ar Ruwayshed, he said, noting “our aim is to understand what were these gigantic ‘desert kites’ structures that are visible in satellite images".

"The kites are made of long walls [up to over 6 kilometres] that lead to an enclosure with little rooms all around it,” Crassard explained.

“Thanks to our extensive surveys and the various excavations in many different structure types, we are now able to date these structures and know why they were built,” the scholar continued.

The material found in soundings (test excavations) is very poor, if not absent in most of the cases, the French anthropologist said, adding that the material does not help in dating the use of the kites, but the time when the holes were filled in. 

“We then had to find other way to date these archaeological structures, namely by using physical and chemical methods, such as the radiocarbon dating and other very specialised techniques,” Crassard explained.

In addition, results of sampling of anthropogenic and natural sediments inside kites enable scholars to date the sediment itself and not only the organic material from the excavations, he continued.

“This is great because it gives us a date for the use of these structures,” the researcher underscored.

Moreover, because of the high number of excavations conducted by the team, scholars are able to conclude that these kites were hunting traps, dating as far as the Neolithic period.

“This is interesting,” Crassard elaborated, noting that “because human groups were still hunting at a wide scale at a time when they were supposed to be much more oriented towards a sedentary way of life, with domesticated animals, in the famous ‘Fertile Crescent’".

These traps are huge and very numerous, according to the scholar, who stressed that in Jordan only, 1,274 kites were recorded. "And we recorded more than 4,500 others in neighbouring countries, but also in Armenia and as far as Kazakhstan,” Crassard highlighted

"So we can really call this a 'kite phenomenon' that we still need to explain more in details," he pointed out.

AMMAN — The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), in cooperation with the Hungarian government, has opened the scholarship programme application for the post-graduate study of agriculture. 

The two-year scholarship finances post-graduate studies in agriculture-related disciplines for promising students from developing and middle-income countries, according to a statement by the FAO e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

“This programme is a valuable opportunity for youth in the region to acquire the education and knowledge that would help them develop the food and agriculture industry in their countries. The MENA region faces many challenges and bright minds equipped with the right tools would certainly bring about considerable development,” Nabil Gangi, FAO Deputy Regional Representative, said in the statement.

Gangi added that FAO called on the ministries of agriculture as well as public and private universities in the concerned countries to disseminate the news to ensure the highest participation of eligible students and alumni.

All expenses are covered in the programme, including application and tuition fees, basic books, dormitory accommodation, subsistence costs and health insurance.

The deadline for submitting applications is February 28 for the academic year starting autumn 2018.

FAO’s Regional Office in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) has succeeded in expanding the programme in the region for the past years where several students from different countries have benefited from the scholarship. 

Currently, the programme has grown to include students from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan and Yemen.

This year, the courses offered will focus on animal husbandry, agriculture water management, and environmental engineering and will be provided by the universities of Debrecen and Szent István, according to the statement.

The scholarship also aims at providing youth with a competitive edge in the job market while offering them a global professional network:  their fellow scholars and their professors, the statement said.

AMMAN — The third Aqaba Carnival is scheduled to kick off on February 1, featuring several events and attractive discounts over one month, an official said.

The carnival, organised by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), is a winter promotional campaign that includes shows, activities and discounts at most of Aqaba's facilities, spokesperson of the state-run Aqaba Development Corporation Khalil Farrayeh told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

The campaign, launched for the third year, seeks to increase the number of visitors by encouraging local tourists to make the southern city their getaway destination from the cold weather, he added. 

He noted that three-, four- and five-star hotels, souvenir and garment shops, and land and air transport companies are offering discount prices that have so far "tempted" hundreds of vacationers.

“Our transportation partners are recording increased reservations to the city in February,” Farrayeh said, adding that the campaign is also targeting Arab Israeli, Lebanese and Saudi tourists.

The discounts will range between 10-50 per cent at facilities that joined the campaign, Farrayeh said.

During the campaign, the two-way plane ticket from Amman to Aqaba will be JD10 on the Royal Jordanian Airlines, for those who provide a hotel booking confirmation, according to the spokesperson.    

The official said the winter campaign is expected to raise hotel occupancy rates in Aqaba, some 330km south of Amman, in the coming month, which he described as a "dead season" in terms of the number of tourists. 

ASEZA has launched a promotional campaign through newspaper advertisements and digital media, he added.

“This festival is part of crisis management efforts for the tourism sector, as the number of tourists usually drops sharply at this time of year,” the spokesperson said, noting that in spring, tourism typically flourishes due to demand from visitors from Scandinavian and European countries seeking warm weather. 

This year's carnival will be held under the motto “Every year is more beautiful than the one before.”

AMMAN — Lab tests showed that water of the Lahtha spring in Tafileh does not contain “worrying pollutants”, dismissing local residents’ claims that “the poisonous water killed their sheep.”

Results of lab tests conducted by the Royal Scientific Society and the Ministry of Health on samples from the spring showed that there are no “worrying” chemical pollutants in the water, but indicated that turbidity levels are high, according to Environment Ministry Spokesperson Isa Shboul.

“Although the water of the spring doesn’t contain poisonous substances, it has now been labelled as unfit for consumption or use,” Shboul told The Jordan Times.

The water of the spring "has always been undrinkable", but the residents of the area used it for irrigation and for their animals, Shboul said, noting that the water is now declared unfit for such purposes due to high turbidity.

The Environment Ministry dispatched a team of inspectors to Lafarge cement factory in Tafileh after area residents claimed last week that their sheep died after drinking water from the Lahtha spring, according to Shboul, who said that members of the local community also claimed that Lafarge cement factory was allegedly disposing off “waste” in the spring.

The ministry’s inspection team discovered that the factory had left “huge piles of jift" laying out in the open within its property, Shboul said, noting that the fluids of jift could have leaked and reached the spring.

Jift, olive leftovers after pressing, is a substance that has become a common fuel substitute, according to Shboul, who said that the factory uses the substance to fuel its furnaces.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times on Wednesday, Lafarge Jordan said that it has stored some olive residue shipments temporarily in its old limestone quarry which is fenced and secured in order to have the shipments transferred to Rashadiyeh cement plant later on upon need.

The company underlined that it does not dispose off any waste material in any area undesignated for waste disposal, stressing that it believes that “there are other waste contributors to the change of Lahtha water colour not related to olive residue.”

The company said that it has secured all necessary approvals from authorities in that regard, underlining that the limestone quarry is far away from Lahtha water with a distance of more than 1.5 kilometres.

Shboul noted that while results of the collected samples did not show that the cement factory has contaminated the spring, the ministry is “closely monitoring the factory’s use and storage of jift”.

He noted that the use of jift must occur in a regulated manner that does not create any pollution for the environment, surface and ground water.

“The ministry is inspecting the use and storage methods of the substance,” he said.

 “After receiving claims from [the] local community, we decided to transfer the olive residue from the quarry area to the plant to eliminate any potential impact that the rains could take traces from the olive residue material towards the Lahtha water…,” Lafarge Jordan said.

The company also stressed in the statement that it has gained all permits required to use alternative fuel, including olive residue, and that the local community and stakeholders were consulted before using any alternative fuel.

“We are strongly committed to environment protection as well as to health and safety and we enforce international standards in that respect…, we are being monitored by all respective authorities and we comply with all regulations,” Lafarge Jordan said, indicating that the company's emissions are monitored by the Ministry of Environment around-the-clock.

The company operates two cement factories in Jordan, one in Fuheis, 10km west of Amman, and another in Rashadiyeh in Tafileh Governorate, which is 180km southwest of the capital.

The Rashadiyeh cement factory was established in 1983 by the original company, the Southern Cement Company, which was merged in 1985 with the Jordan Cement Factories Company, which, in turn, was subject to privatisation and bought by Lafarge.

AMMAN — A local bank was robbed at gunpoint on Wednesday morning in Amman's Wihdat neighbourhood, Public Security Department (PSD) Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said.

"No one was injured in the attack and we are currently searching for the suspect," Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

Societe Generale Bank Jordan issued a statement saying that their bank was robbed at gunpoint and that JD76,000 in cash was stolen, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

“No one was injured in the incident and the authorities were immediately notified about the incident," the bank statement said, adding that “clients need not worry about the incident since the money in the branch is insured”.

Video clips circulated on social media showed a man wearing a hoody and gloves and reportedly pointing a gun at two men behind a counter while filling a black bag with cash.

Meanwhile, the PSD issued a statement warning whom they called “social media sympathisers to bank robbers” to stop issuing posts on social media.

“What armed bank robbers are doing is dangerous to our community and people should stop expressing sympathy for these robbers,” the police statement said, adding that individuals who use social media for that purpose will be prosecuted.

“We urge the public and the media to help us do our job in finding the robber by refraining from publishing inaccurate information about the incident.  We will inform the public about any developments in due course,” the PSD statement said.

Wednesday's robbery is the second to be reported in the capital in the past two days.

On Monday, a local bank was robbed at gunpoint by a man who reportedly managed to escape with JD98,000 before being arrested by authorities almost 90 minutes later.

AMMAN — “The government lacks seriousness in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as it deals with the agenda as a mere bureaucratic issue,” a working paper recently published by human rights researcher Sulaiman Sweis stated.

“Ever since the 1980s, we have been hearing about national strategies to solve issues such as poverty or unemployment, but, just a few months after they are published, it becomes clear that they remain on paper and never get to the ground,” the researcher told The Jordan Times in a recent interview, criticising the fact that “the same pattern appears to apply to the SDGs.”  

The limitations faced by civil society organisations (CSOs) are the main challenges to the implementation of the SDGs, according to the study, which pointed out that “under the constraints and restrictions imposed on public freedoms — and specifically the freedom of organisation, assembly and expression —  it is not surprising to find weakness in the role of CSOs.” 

Sweis attributed this “weakness” to the legal framework regulating the work of the organisations, noting that “the laws in this matter involve many restrictions on the work that the CSOs are allowed to carry out, subjecting them to the custody of government agencies under security pretexts — sometimes without any justification or legal grounds.” 

The researcher pointed out that the same argument was presented in a study carried out by Phenix Centre Director Ahmad Awad, which was signed by the European Union, which concluded that “the legal framework holds several restrictions against the activities of non-governmental organisations.”

“Jordan Society for Human Rights Studies experienced this issue when attempting to organise a human rights training for journalists, which was cancelled without prior notice or documentation explaining the reasons for such decision,” Sweis pointed out, criticising that “it seems like the government welcomes the presence of NGOs and CSOs in the Kingdom only as mere decor, or a tool to appear democratic in front of the international community.” 

In this regard, the working paper stressed the need to submit petitions calling for the amendment of a substantial number of laws that “limit the public freedoms and the human rights” so that they become in line with the Jordanian Constitution and the various international human rights conventions. 

AMMAN — Jordan Customs Department (JCD) personnel working at Sahab customs centre have foiled an attempt to import 92 tonnes of rotten flour into the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Sahab’s Customs Director Mohammad Alawneh said that the inspection of the four containers revealed that the flour was rotten and unsuitable for human consumption. The contents were stored and transferred to the relevant authorities.

Alawneh stressed that the customs personnel have been exerting “great” efforts to fight smuggling attempts and prevent the introduction of any harmful product into the country, in line with the strategic objectives of the department in protecting citizens and society from the dangers of smuggling.

AMMAN — The Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Foundation for Humanitarian Development (PMFHD), the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The MoU was signed by CPF’s acting CEO Nour Abu Al Ragheb, and PMFHD’s Secretary General Issa Al Ansari. The three-year agreement aims to enhance joint cooperation in the provision of youth development programmes.

Abu Al Ragheb stressed that this agreement will add to the series of efforts being exerted to develop youth skills, noting that the CPF aims to enhance its partnership with local, regional and international establishments to serve youth. Issa presented a briefing on the work and initiatives by the PMFHD in Saudi Arabia and foreign countries.