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AMMAN — Gendarmerie Department Director Maj. Gen. Hussein Hawatmeh on Monday honoured Oday Abu Hassweh of the Gendarmerie Department for recently winning the golden medal in the kickboxing international championship.

Hawatmeh received the Gendarmerie kickboxing team after they returned from the world tournament held in Hungary, stressing the department’s keenness to support its personnel and youth in their endeavours to excel, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. He also honoured Ali Khalaf, who won bronze at the same tournament. 

AMMAN — The Global Entrepreneurship Week 2017 kicked off on Monday at the Middle East University, celebrating innovators and entrepreneurs’ experiments.

The week, organised annually by the Queen Rania Centre for Entrepreneurship (QRCE), aims at enhancing the culture of entrepreneurship among the youth and raising awareness on its role in supporting the economy, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Salim Sharif, dean of student affairs at the university, said that this year’s edition will focus on activities aimed at creating successful business opportunities. 

AMMAN — The Kingdom, in coordination with the UAE and Germany, on Monday hosted a meeting of the group supporting stability, affiliated with the Global Coalition against Daesh.

Inaugurating the meeting, which saw the attendance of 100 participants from 32 countries, Foreign Minister Adviser Nawwaf Tal said that Jordan has been and will remain at the forefront of efforts to combat terrorism, which is a threat to all, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Tal stressed that military successes have to be accompanied by humanitarian, development and political efforts, highlighting the Kingdom’s readiness to be a gateway for reconstruction projects in Iraq, especially after the reopening of the Karameh-Turaibil border crossing. 

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) personnel have arrested 14 people suspected of involvement in nine drug trafficking cases during various raids in eastern Amman and Ruseifa, the Public Security Department (PSD) announced on Monday.

One of the cases included a raid on a suspect’s house, where AND agents arrested the suspect and seized nine palm-sized sheets of hashish, pills and cocaine which were ready for sale, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported, citing a PSD statement.

All the suspects were referred to the State Security Court prosecutor general after initial investigation was conducted, the PSD said, expressing appreciation to all citizens who contributed to arresting these suspects.

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury on Monday met with MP and Minister of State for International Development and Minister of State for the Middle East at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alistair Burt, according to a Planning Ministry statement.

During the meeting, Fakhoury thanked the UK for its continued support to Jordan’s development process and facing the burden of hosting Syrian refugees.

Fakhouri stressed the need for the international community to fully honour its commitments to support the Kingdom, highlighting the role of the UK and the EU in following up and ensuring the fulfilment of the commitments made during the London and Brussels conferences on Syria and the host countries.

Fakhoury and Burt discussed means of boosting the development cooperation between the two countries. They stressed the importance to enhance efforts in mobilising the necessary international support to assist Jordan through supporting the Jordan Response Plan to the Syrian crisis, the provision of grants and concessional funding to support the public budget, in light of the central role played by Jordan under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah.

The UK official stressed his country’s understanding of Jordan’s challenges and the continuation of support to various vital sectors such as education, water, economic opportunities for host communities, the statement read.

Fakhoury and Burt discussed the development priorities in accordance with the government’s Executive Development Programme 2018-2020, which includes the outcome of the Plan to Stimulate Economic Growth 2018-2022 and the outcomes of other national strategies.

The UK has supported vital sectors in the Kingdom including its efforts in the implementation of the agreement to simplify the rules of origin for Jordanian products at the EU markets, the statement added.

Burt commended Jordan’s pivotal role in enhancing the regional and international security and peace, as well as in fighting terrorism, inter-faith dialogue and hosting the Syrian refugees.

AMMAN — A total of 10 innovative projects created by young students with the aim of finding solutions to different social problems were displayed on Sunday at the second edition of the Young Innovators Lab.

The children were part of a 10-month programme launched by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation, which aims to improve their critical thinking skills. 

The projects focused on solving daily problems encountered by the young students, including ways to prevent domestic incidents related to babies, help students concentrate while studying, or avoid deaths by suffocation caused by heaters or fireplaces during winter time. 

A total of 42 children between the ages of 10 and 13 participated in the second edition of the Young Innovators Lab, held under the patronage of Minister of Education Omar Razaz.

 “The programme has helped us to think in the right way,” said Zain Al Qudah, a 13-year-old participant from Amman. 

“Now, we depend on ourselves when we need to find answers to problems; we don’t have to look for them in books – we think for ourselves,” the student added.

“We might be changing the world,” said optimistic Ahmad Loay Al Sarayrah, an 11-year-old from Karak. 

His team focused on the large number of deaths caused by gas inhalation and fires from heaters during winter. The team  created a sensor-based system to alert people to open the window when levels of carbon in the air are too high, therefore allowing oxygen to enter.

“Our project will help save lives,” Loay Al-Sarayrah told The Jordan Times during the exhibition.  

The second edition of the Young Innovators Lab included participants from Amman and Karak, with over 400 children who submitted their ideas to the foundation. 42 of them, 27 from Amman and 15 from Karak were selected to turn their ideas into reality.

“We teach children not to use the usual source of information,” said Husam Tarawneh, a representative of Karak’s Creativity Club, adding  that“the students are capable of thinking in a critical way that allows them to create these innovative projects on their own”.

Tarawneh highlighted the importance of the programme for the community of Karak. “This isn’t just an opportunity for the children — it helps the overall community, both socially and economically,” he said.

“Shoman gives training to these young students; they told us their initial ideas and we helped them to improve it,” said Nouwar Abdulmajeed, the foundation’s Cultural Projects Manager.

“We didn’t tell them what to think, we just taught them how to think critically so that they could develop their ideas effectively,” Abdulmajeed stressed.

All the students had mentors, students from local universities, helping and advising them throughout their project.

“Our role is to help them when they need us, especially during the production phase,” said mentor Hiba Qawasmi, adding that “we are just there to guide them; they are very smart children, they just need a little guidance in critical thinking”.

“We had so many ideas, we wanted to make a difference and to save lives,” said 14-year-old Ireen Rousan from Amman. 

Children, parents, and friends attended the exhibition of the 10 prototypes, which were created to solve problems concerning both the public and the private sectors.

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a July Criminal Court verdict sentencing a 40-year-old construction worker to 22 years in prison  after convicting him of murdering his friend over a JD2 debt in Irbid in April 2016.

The court declared the defendant guilty of fatally stabbing his friend, aged 43, following an argument on April 18, and handed him a 20-year-prison term.

The court decided to increase the verdict by two years because the defendant “was a repeated offender.”

Court papers said the defendant was playing cards with his friends at a coffee shop in Irbid city.

“The victim approached the defendant and asked to talk to him in private,” court documents added.

The victim asked the defendant to “give him back the JD2 he had lent him recently, but the victim refused and an argument ensued”.

“The defendant drew a switchblade and stabbed the victim repeatedly on his chest and stomach,” according to court papers.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital but died shortly afterwards as a result of the stab wounds sustained to his stomach, the court documents added. 

The defendant did not appeal the verdict. The Criminal Court general prosecutor appealed the verdict, asking the Cassation Court to uphold the sentence.

The higher court ruled that the Criminal Court ruling was correct and the defendant deserved the punishment he received.

The Court of Cassation tribunal comprised judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Yassin Abdullat, Naji Zubi, Bassem Mubeidin and Nayef Samarat.

AMMAN — The International Institute for Peace Through Tourism (IIPT) has recently selected HRH Princess Dana, chairperson of the Petra National Trust and UNESCO goodwill ambassador, as the “Global Ambassadors of Peace Through Tourism”, a IIPT statement said.

The announcement of the selection of the “Global Ambassadors of Peace Through Tourism” was made during the World Travel Market, held in London on November 6.

The princess was chosen among six “outstanding people” from the world of travel and tourism.

Speaking at the event, Founder President of IIPT India said: “Each one of our Ambassadors for Peace 2017 are exceptional persons who have had an illustrious career in tourism and each one of them embodies the founding principles of IIPT”. 

AMMAN — The 24th annual Jordanian Theatre Festival, under the patronage of Culture Minister Nabih Shuqum, starts at the Royal Cultural Centre on Tuesday, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Monday.

The festival, which is held in cooperation with the Jordan Artists Association, will showcase musical and theatrical performances, a short movie and several workshops.

It will also honour leading Jordanian artists. Participants from the UAE, Kuwait, Sudan, Egypt, Palestine and Iraq are taking part in the festival, which will conclude on November 21.

AMMAN — Government human rights coordinator Basel Tarawneh on Monday launched a report assessing the efforts exerted as part of the Kingdom’s report on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which will be presented at the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva later this month.

Tarawneh said in a statement to the Jordan News Agency, Petra that the Royal discussion papers, the Comprehensive National Plan for Human Rights, the Amman Declaration, the strategy on women and the Jordan Vision 2025, all contributed to supporting the efforts to end all forms of discrimination.

Jordan, he said, ratified a number of agreements including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination that has become an integral part of national legislations.