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AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Monday decided to adjourn the announcement of verdicts in the so-called Rakban case until next December.

In June 2016, a car bomb attack on an army post near Rakban refugee camp killed seven Jordanian soldiers and injured 11, prompting the immediate closure of the Kingdom’s northern and northeastern borders, which remained closed ever since.

The five defendants, all Syrians, plead for clemency before the court to have mercy on them, especially since they face death penalties if found guilty, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The charges they face are committing terror acts using explosives that led to the death of a human being, perpetrating terror acts that destructed a building with more than a person inside and the use of automatic guns with intention to use them illicitly in accomplice. 

Bashir Oqeily, the defence lawyer who was assigned by the SSC, had called for acquitting the defendants from the charges, on grounds that they are not related to the Rakban attack and that they were at the camp at the time of the explosion. 

The five defendants had been arrested on the border by a security unit affiliated with the army, and are believed to be affiliated with the Daesh terror group. 

AMMAN — Prime Minister Hani Mulki on Sunday said that the new capital suggested to be established outside Amman is part of the government's efforts to stimulate the economy and attract qualitative investments.

Mulki stressed that the town will be built on state lands and surrounded by state lands, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

During a meeting with presidents of Jordanian universities, the prime minister described the project as a great investment opportunity for the private sector.

He explained that the strategic project is designed after modern cities, adding that it would contribute to a solution to the transportation problems in Amman.

Minister of State for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson  Mohammad Momani has said in press remarks that only a handful of concerned people know the location of the planned capital. 

In the presence of ministers of higher education, Adel Tweisi, political affairs, Musa Maaytah, and media, Mohammad Momani, the premier noted that empowering Jordanians lies in focusing on the quality of education, which has been an edge for Jordan historically.

He stressed that the challenges facing education throughout all its stages have, however, influenced the outcome of the process, which is supposed to produce graduates with qualifications that meet the requirements of the labour market.

The prime minister outlined the economic challenges that face the Kingdom as a result of several internal and external factors, highlighting the need for persistence as economic reform is pursued, stressing that the country is challenged by lack of time. 

The economic reform is planned to slash public debt and stimulate economy, Mulki said, noting that the reforms carried out by the government last year managed “for the first time” to freeze the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product. The ratio stands now at 95 per cent with plans to push it down further to 77 per cent by 2021. The Kingdom is also looking to decrease its reliance on foreign aid, targeting self-sufficiency by 2018, senior officials have said. 

He noted that most existing exemptions in the Sales Tax Law were “not thoughtful”, have not achieved their goals and have contributed to public debt increase.

The prime minister stressed that the amendments to the law would not lead to increasing the sales tax above its ceiling of 16 per cent but will restore the law’s 1994 version.

He said that the government is able to control prices in many ways such as through the military and the civil consumer corporations, which make marginal profits on goods. 

As for the income tax, the prime minister said that the draft by-law in the making aims to combat tax evasion at the individual and corporate levels and will toughen penalties to reach imprisonment without the option of replacing jail sentences with fines. 

Towards the end of the meeting, Mulki listened to proposals and challenges that face Jordanian public and private universities. 

AMMAN — Jordan on Sunday announced its First Biennial Update Report (FBUR) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which looks at climate change within the Jordanian context and highlights local efforts to fight and adapt to the global phenomenon.

The Ministry of Environment, which launched the report in partnership with the Royal Scientific Society and the United Nations Development Programme, described the report as a “scientifically sound reference” that provides in-depth understanding of the complex dynamics of climate change in Jordan.

At the launch ceremony, Ministry of Environment Secretary General Ahmad Qatarneh said that projects listed under such reports must be translated into concrete action to uplift people’s living environment.

Qatarneh expressed hope that international stakeholders in the upcoming Bonn Climate Change Conference, which will open on November 7, will live up to the commitments they pledged for the developing countries.

He underscored that Jordan and other developing countries can implement projects that address the impacts of climate change including the expanding desertification, reduced rainfall patterns and increasing droughts, among other threats, by proving the needed funds.

The FBUR provided an update on greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation actions and constraints and gaps, including an outline of the support needed.

It showed estimates on grenhouse gas emissions and removals in the energy, industrial processes and product use (IPPU), agriculture, forestry and other land-use (AFOLU) and waste sectors.

The report also outlined the national inventory on emission estimates for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), in addition to perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC).

In 2010, Jordan contributed 23140.06 Gigagrams (Gg) of CO2eq or 23.14 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2eq of GHGs to the atmosphere. The energy sector was the main emitter, releasing 84 per cent of CO2, followed by the IPPU sector with 9 per cent of the total and the AFOLU sector with 1 per cent. The waste sector produced 7 per cent, according to the report.

The report showed that in 2012, Jordan contributed 27997.73 Gg of CO2eq or 27.99 million tonnes (Mt) of CO2eq of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The energy remained the highest emitter, although its contribution dropped to 81 per cent, according to the report.

Authors of the report said that the country’s expanded reliance on renewable energy caused the drop in the energy sector’s contribution to the country’s total emission of greenhouse gases.

The IPPU sector released 12 per cent of the total, followed by the AFOLU sector with 1 per cent contribution and then came the waste sector with 6 per cent of the total.

Amman — The Ghor Al Safi Women’s Association, a group of women from the Jordan Valley producing dyed textiles in collaboration with Tiraz Centre and UNESCO, on Saturday held a workshop where they taught participants how to dye fabric using natural tints derived from various plants.

The two-hour workshop, which was held at Tiraz Centre: Widad Kawar home for Arab dress in Amman, saw the attendance of women, men and children of all ages who were provided with bags and scarves, which they dyed under the guidance of the association’s members. 

Created in 1999, the Ghor Al Safi Women’s Association produces original handicrafts named “Safi Crafts”, using natural dyes. 

Their products, which are and hand-painted, stenciled, dyed and embroiled, include scarves, T-shirts, dresses, bags and home items such as covers and tableware. 

“It has been a long time that I have been waiting to learn more about how they use the natural plants to create the dyes so, when I found out about this workshop, I came all the way from Jerusalem this morning. It took me four hours but I needed to see it,” said Stephanie Saldaña, an attendee of the event.

“This indigo dye was considered extremely precious in the past. So for us to be able to create this again is so important because it really is the recognition of our culture,” she told The Jordan Times.

The dying process involves the use of organic dyes, which are extracted from plants and boiled in water.  

The participants had the opportunity to created their own bags and scarfs using different types of designs and patterns, which were handmade. 

Using natural and organic products is “a way to raise awareness about the importance of organic material to the public”, Nayfeh Al Nawasara, Head of The Ghor Al Safi Women’s Association said, adding that it helps in making people aware “of the benefits of organic products, which are good for the health”.

One of the colours used in Safi Crafts is the blue coming from the indigo plant, which was historically cultivated in Jordan and is now being grown in the association’s local farm with the support of UNESCO. 

The workshop acquainted the participants with the Jordanian culture, offering them the opportunity to learn about the Kingdom’s heritage. “If a person is aware of his or her culture and develops a good feeling about it, he or she will have a better life, and not have the bitterness widespread among young generations around the world,” said Widad Kawar, Founder of the Tiraz Centre: Widad Kawar Home for Arab Dress. 

By the end of the workshop, all the participants brought back home the material they created, enriched with a “unique experience”. 

“We are very happy to have an event like this in a renowned place in Amman and, as Widad said, it is very important to have this kind of partnerships in cultural activities,” said Nuria Roca Ruiz, project officer at UNESCO.

“We are very happy because a lot of people attended and they were very interested. They were having fun which is the most important. For us, it has been a very positive experience,” Ruiz added.  

Ghor Al Safi Women´s Association for Social Development is based in a rural village called Ghor Al Safi in the south of Jordan on the shores of the Dead Sea, and involves 15 women, according to the UNESCO website. 

AMMAN — The Ministry of Agriculture has purchased around 21,000 tonnes of wheat and barley from farmers this year, an official said on Saturday.

The amount is lower than the quantity of wheat and barley purchased last year, when the figure stood at around 70,000 tonnes, according to official figures.

The ministry said that the 2016/2017 rainy season was weak, which caused lower production of grains this year.

“The central committee for grains procurement, headed by the ministry, bought 21,299 tonnes of wheat and barley from farmers across the country. The committee purchased this year’s local yield of grains at JD8,574,008,” ministry’s Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin told The Jordan Times over the phone.

Haddadin noted that the yield can be higher than the amount of grains that the central committee purchased, noting that many farmers keep their harvest.

The government announced in June that it was buying wheat and barley from farmers for a higher price in compensation for a “weak” production season. It bought each tonne of wheat and barley for JD500, instead of JD450 , which was the buying price of the previous year.

Every year, the Ministry of Agriculture buys wheat and barley from farmers at prices preferential for producers to support the local production of grains.

The government allocated JD12 million for buying an expected yield of 30,000 tonnes of wheat and barley from the local market.

The ministry announced that the three main centres in the northern, central and southern regions of the Kingdom have closed down their doors for the season.

The centres received two kinds of wheat from farmers, one for producing flour and the second, of a higher quality, will be used for seeds. The government has also purchased two types of barley from farmers, one to be used for producing seeds, and the other as fodder for livestock.

Farmers grow wheat across the country, but grains are mainly cultivated in the plains of Irbid and Houran in the north, Madaba and Husban in the central region, and Arrabeh in the southern Governorate of Karak.

The Kingdom, which consumes more than 80,000 tonnes of wheat per month, imports over 96 per cent of its wheat needs, as domestic production covers around only 4 per cent of demand. Jordan imports the majority of its wheat from several countries, including Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Russia, Romania and the US.

AMMAN — Women constitute 43.2 per cent of the total number of employees in 93 ministries and public departments, where the number of total employees stood at 258,899 by the end of 2015, 111,859 of whom were women, Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI) said on Sunday. 

SIGI, citing the 2016 yearbook of the Department of Statistics, said that 81.2 per cent of female employees worked at the education and health ministries, where their numbers exceeded the number of male employees at these two ministries. 

A total of 75,894 females worked at the Education Ministry, amounting for 57.7 per cent of the total number of employees of 55,520, while 54.9 per cent, 14,831 females, worked at the Health Ministry out of 12,171 employees, according to a SIGI statement. 

Other females were distributed across 87 ministries and public departments, with a percentage that did not exceed 18.8 per cent, with 21,034 females, SIGI said, noting that the number of female employees was the highest at the Greater Amman Municipality (3,168 females out of 21,348 employees).

The number of female employees was the lowest in the Port Corporation (7 females out of 2,699) and Jordan Valley Authority (41 females out of 1,547), SIGI added.

In addition to the education and health ministries, females outnumbered males in the Social Development Ministry (1,525 females and 1,179 males) and in the National Library Department (62 females and 45 males).

SIGI said that four public institutions did not have female workers at all: the Supreme Judge Department (1,175 employees), Iftaa Department (147), Awqaf Fund Development Corporation (40) and Aqaba Railway Corporation (682).

AMMAN — Fortifications and the oldest known dam in the world built around 3,600BC are  the main characteristics of Jawa,a site 60km northeast of Azraq, according to a German archaeologist.

During a lecture titled “Pre-historic Hillforts in the Desert”, held at the British Institute in Amman, Bernd Mueller-Neuhof, from the German Archaeological Institute, Berlin,elaborated the work of Jawa Hinterland Project which he has been leading from 2010.

“For the long time, Jawa was in the unique position for the archaeology of the Middle East, it was so far on the east and quite isolated for a big site with some connections with the Jordan Valley and probable connections to the north,” the scholar stated, adding that one step closer to come to the explanation of the site was discovery of flint mines east of the basalt desert, in which characteristic flint tools, called cortical scrapers, have been produced. 

This kind of tools was spread throughout the Middle East from 5th to early mid -3rd millennium BC, he continued, noting that it was a common tool from Egypt and Anatolia, from the Levantine coast to Iraq. 

“The next step was to link these mines to Jawa, because they belong to the same period,” he said.

One of the problems is the landscape of the eastern desert: “When you have a look at the landscape of harra, it is quietly difficult to cross it because of the dense surface cover with basalt boulders.”

Another problem in the area is the rain fall when it gets maximum 100 milliliters of rain, which is too little for rainfed agriculture, which needs at least 200 milliliters of rain per year, Mueller-Neuhof explained. 

The archaeologist initially interpreted some linear structures in the close vicinity of Jawa as animal pens and camp sites, but it turned out very quickly that these were not animal pens but gardens —36 hectares of them in Jawa — with water canals. 

“When it rains it can be very torrential so residents tried to catch as much rain as possible and use it for irrigation of their plants,” he stressed.

“After the first four years of this project, I’ve done some documentations about mines, the trade routes and communication routes, which hypothetically linked the mines with Jawa.” the expert added.

During last three field seasons of the Jawa Hinterland Project, the team has revealed a number of prehistoric hillfort sites, located on volcanoes in the basalt desert of northeast Jordan, Mueller-Neuhof continued, adding that these sites are additionally characterised by terraced gardens located on the slopes at the foot of their elevations and that was once irrigated by artificial run-off irrigation. 

When we see this very well-organised fortifications and organised garden system and irrigation system and egalitarian type of dwellings “something is wrong”, he said.

“ These sites needed organised workforce and one thinks of stratified society with higher ranking chiefs, but we don’t have evidence which is quite unusual,” Mueller-Neuhof noted.

Radiocarbon dates from two of these sites give an occupation between the 2nd half of the 5th millennium BC and the middle of the 4th millennium BC, which is the Late Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age I (A and B) period. 

The discovery of Late Chalcolithic/ Early Bronze Age terraced garden structures close to Jawa which were artificially irrigated in a highly sophisticated manner by rainwater harvesting, “has several far reaching consequences for our current knowledge about Jawa itself and the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze age of south Levant and adjacent regions”, the scholar explained.

According to Mueller-Neuhof, “the entire water harvesting system of Jawa shows a highly sophisticated adaptation to the local environmental conditions. 

The water supply for Jawa and its population relied on two different and independent water resources: the local precipitation for irrigating the terraced gardens and the precipitation in the Jabel Druze region, which delayed arrival in the form of floodwater in the Wadi Rajjil. 

Furthermore, the terraced gardens at Jawa are the earliest evidence so far for rainwater harvesting irrigation in southwestern Asia, Mueller-Neuhof concluded.

AMMAN — UNESCO is eyeing Jordan as one of the pilot countries to implement the Internet Universality Indicators, which aims to develop indicators for governments and other stakeholders to measure Internet development at the national level and promote the norms and values based on the ROAM principles (Rights, Openness, Accessibility and Multi-stakeholder participation).

“We hope that Jordan will not only be a partner in helping towards shaping these indicators, but also be a pilot country to test these indicators,” UNESCO Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development Director Guy Berger said in a recent interview with The Jordan Times following two consultation sessions on the Internet Universality Indicators at the Jordan Media Institute.

The sessions saw the attendance of over 20 Internet experts including government officials, private sector representatives, data protection advocates, privacy experts, academia, and members of civil society and educational institutions.

“The consultations we had in Jordan were very effective and productive and are greatly contributing to the indicators,” Berger added.

Implementing and adopting these indicators will help Jordan in its efforts to reach a digital economy and to further increase its strength in the digital economy sector by following these standards, he continued.

“When implemented, these indicators will help countries that adopt them to measure points of strength and build on them… Some of the consultations that we had in Jordan covered issues related to equality of use of the Internet among gender and these were good ideas,” Berger said, voicing hope that Jordan will be among the countries to adopt these indicators.

The indicators resulting from this project will not address every aspect of the Internet, but will instead focus on the four ROAM principles and cross-cutting issues including the impact of the Internet on gender issues and on children and young people. 

They will help governments and other stakeholders assess their Internet environments against those principles and will include both quantitative and qualitative indicators, enabling a comprehensive view to be taken of progress in countries with different experiences and different characteristics. 

Special attention will be paid in their development to the gender dimension and the impact of the Internet on children and young people.

The final indicators will be presented in 2018 and will be submitted to the UNESCO Member States of the International Programme for the Development of Communication for endorsement.

AMMAN — Key education stakeholders in Jordan, ministry staff and UN partners participated in a workshop held in Amman from October 17 till 25, focusing on finalising the national Education Strategic Plan (2018-2022), according to a UNESCO statement.

The plan is currently in development with technical support from the UNESCO Amman office and UNESCO’s International Institute for Education Planning (IIEP).

The workshop was designed to focus on refining indicators and national targets while fine-tuning objectives of the draft Education Strategic Plan (ESP), the statement said. 

Ministry of Education and Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation staff demonstrated a “strong commitment” to the process, working at length in six groups representing the six domains contained in the ESP, which are: Early childhood development, access and equity, system strengthening, quality, human resources and technical vocational education and training (TVET). 

On the final day of the workshop, the draft strategy was presented in the presence of Minister of Education Omar Razzaz, UN representatives, donors and education stakeholders. 

The minsiter thanked all of those who participated in the preparation of the draft of the strategic plan. Projected costs were outlined and feedback and questions were provided by Razzaz and others in attendance.

“With a gap this big, tremendous resources will need to be mobilized to fund the plan,” Razzaz was quoted in the statement as saying.

Next week, a compiled draft of the plan will be circulated and revisions will be made, based on prioritization, the statement read. 

Targets and activities will be revised, ensuring these are aligned with Education Ministry’s priorities. In addition, the key performance indicators will be aligned with the “Common Results Framework” and other relevant indicators. And once final costs and targets are approved by the ministry, the plan will be submitted for validation by the national authorities. 

Yukiko Matsuyoshi of UNESCO thanked Razzaz for his “strong engagement” and recognised the efforts of all those who had participated in process. 

Razzaz highlighted UNESCO’s and IIEP’s contributions. “We are in a much better situation today than we were four months ago; we have a plan rather than wishful thinking,” he said.

AMMAN — A visit to the Gulf three years ago inspired pigeon fancier Ghalib Malik to start organising a pigeon auction in downtown Amman, a “first of its kind” initiative in the Kingdom. 

Malik, who liked the idea of an auctioning event, decided to organise it at his pigeon store in downtown Amman. Over the past three years, his weekly auction has become the “most sought-after” venue for pigeon owners from all over the Kingdom. 

“I hold this event every Thursday at my store. Pigeons that are on display during the event are brought from Syria, Lebanon and the Gulf,” he told The Jordan Times at the auction on Thursday.  

He said that Jordanians who are passionate about this hobby show up at the auction, bidding until they win the pigeon they seek.  

Prices of pigeons range between 50JD and 2,300JD.  

“I like this hobby and I always think about ways to improve it. There are doctors and engineers who also like raising pigeons, it is like any other hobby,” said Malik, who has been breeding pigeons for 40 years. 

Mustafa Abu Baker, who came from Zarqa to attend the event, said the auction is an “achievement”. 

“It is like a mall; you come to one place and buy any kind of pigeon you need. This auction is an achievement because it develops the hobby and it helped me buy and sell pigeons,” he added.  

Abu Khaled, another visitor, said the auction helped enhance people’s knowledge about the hobby. 

“Through the auction, people became aware of the characteristics of pigeons and now know the right prices for pigeons. They also learn how to deal with them,” he added. 

Ali Qaisi, known as Abu Amer, has been a loyal visitor to the auction. He said that pigeons are not only a hobby but also a source of income for many people. 

“This auction brought people from outside Jordan and this promoted the country a lot,” he concluded.