Local

MAFRAQ — Four people were injured on Thursday when a vehicle overturned in the Faisalieh area in Mafraq.

Civil Defence Department personnel administered first aid to the injured and took them to Mafraq Public Hospital, where they were reported to be in fair condition.

AMMAN — Three Lower House blocs — Watan, the National Union and the Islamic Centric Party — on Thursday said they joined forces to form a coalition of 50 MPs.

House Speaker Atef Tarawneh, a member of Watan bloc, said the formation of the first parliamentary coalition in the 17th Parliament is a major achievement, urging the government to maintain coordination and partnership with the alliance.

Deputy Khaled Bakkar, the coalition’s coordinator, said the group will elect a secretary general and form a politburo and a higher committee, urging other MPs to form similar coalitions to enhance the House’s contribution to the reform drive.

The new coalition seeks to move political work to Parliament, in line with its role as an incubator of national dialogue.

MOSCOW — Jordan’s Ambassador to Russia Ziad Majali on Thursday presented his credentials to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During the ceremony, Putin noted that Russia looks to implement joint ventures with Jordan in the area of technical military cooperation and energy, saying that his country maintains “intensive” communications with His Majesty King Abdullah to this effect.

The Russian president also stressed his country’s willingness to exert all its efforts to ensure the success of the peace conference on Syria, slated to be held on January 22 in Switzerland.

MANAMA — Bahrain appreciates Jordan’s support and its constructive role in serving the Arab and Muslim nations, King Hamad Bin Issa Al Khalifa said on Thursday.

At a meeting with Interior Minister Hussein Majali, who is currently visiting the Gulf kingdom to attend the 2014 Bahrain International Airshow, King Hamad commended the cooperation between Amman and Manama, especially in the area of security, praising the Kingdom’s “honourable positions” towards Bahrain.

Majali conveyed His Majesty King Abdullah’s greetings to the Bahraini king and wishes of health and happiness for the people of Bahrain.

King Hamad reviewed ways to enhance Bahraini-Jordanian collaboration and discussed a number of issues, including the latest regional and international developments.

AMMAN — Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah, Royal Court Chief Fayez Tarawneh on Thursday met with Yasutoshi Nishimura, vice-minister of the cabinet office of Japan, and discussed means to enhance bilateral relations, as well as regional developments, especially the peace process and the situation in Syria.

Nishimura conveyed a message from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the King, congratulating him on Jordan’s election to the Security Council non-permanent seat and commending the Kingdom’s democratisation process.

The message also carried Japan’s appreciation of Jordan’s humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees.

Tarawneh reiterated Jordan’s stance on the Syrian crisis, which calls for a peaceful solution that can bring an end to the suffering of the Syrian people and safeguard the territorial unity of their country.

Discussions also covered efforts to achieve peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis on the basis of the two-state solution.

AMMAN — The ICT Association of Jordan (int@j) has announced the launch of a council of ICT experts to help companies grow and support those with business ideas to turn them into income-generating projects.

The “Blue Ocean Council”, which includes a wide array of experts in the field, will help individuals start their ventures, assess their feasibility and develop a business plan, int@j Chairman Jawad Abbassi said at a gathering this week to review achievements and successes in the sector in 2013.

“The council seeks to help small companies deal with the challenges they face,” Abbassi added, stressing the importance of the ICT sector, which annually contributes about 14 per cent to the country’s gross domestic product.

According to int@j figures, some 52 ICT firms closed in 2011 due to several challenges, while 48 companies shut down their offices in 2012.

“We seek to help existing companies and even individuals with ideas for start-ups to better understand the market so that they do not end up going out of business,” Abbassi said.

The council is dedicated to providing technical and professional advisory services to individual entrepreneurs and companies in the ICT sector aiming at the development and management of new intellectual property and competitive ICT products/services, through ensuring originality, exportability, scalability and innovation, according to an int@j statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

“The council seeks to build and enable access to large specialised networks of business experts and mentors in various areas,” the association said.

During the event, Abbassi reviewed several achievements in the sector in 2013 and highlighted some of the challenges.

The association will start collecting data on the ICT sector’s revenues and exports starting February, he said, adding that the results are expected to be ready by early March.

Abbassi said int@j will focus on enhancing and increasing Jordan’s ICT exports in 2014.

The association is planning to open offices in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the US to help connect Jordanian businesses in the fields with partners and peers in these countries and to increase the Kingdom’s share in projects implemented in these countries.

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) and Special Forces agents conducted a raid on two marijuana farms in Balqa at dawn on Thursday, seizing one tonne of the illegal drug, official sources said.

AND agents were acting on a tip they received about several farms growing marijuana in Balqa Governorate, some 35km northwest of Amman, a senior AND official said.

“No one was at the farms during the raids, and it was a clean operation,” the official told The Jordan Times.

He added that agents are searching for two suspects believed to be involved in the marijuana farming operation.

“We know who they are and it is a matter of time before we arrest them,” he stressed.

The State Security Court prosecution has been notified about the incident to “take legal action against the farm owners”, the official added.

Thirteen people were arrested on Thursday in a police raid on nine marijuana farms and houses in Balqa Governorate.

In a similar raid earlier this month, agents stormed nine farms and houses, also in Balqa, arresting 13 suspects and seizing 200 kilogrammes of marijuana seedlings.

At the time, an AND official told The Jordan Times that the raids were planned.

“Our campaigns are ongoing against farms and houses in this area, because we know that people regularly plant marijuana here,” the official said, adding that one way to closely monitor these houses is via air surveillance.

“We take aerial photos of farms and houses then analyse them to determine what kind of seedlings are being planted in each area,” he explained.

In remarks to the media on Saturday, AND Director Col. Sami Askar said 8,945 suspects were involved in around 6,504 drug cases last year, adding that the authorities seized over 22 million Captagon pills, 444 kilogrammes of hashish and 5,007 kilos of marijuana in 2013.

According to AND statistics, 154 kilogrammes of marijuana were seized in 2011, 106 kilogrammes in 2010 and 30 kilogrammes in 2009.

AMMAN — Some 250 underprivileged families in the western suburbs of the capital received blankets, winter clothes and foodstuff on Thursday under an initiative that seeks to instil the spirit of volunteerism and social work among school students.

The assistance, donated by students at Al Hassad Tarbawi School through the National Goodwill Campaign, was delivered to beneficiaries at their homes.

The initiative is part of the campaign’s partnership with the private sector, according to the organisers.

“This initiative will be the beginning of new cooperation projects with other educational institutions,” HRH Princess Basma, president of the campaign’s higher committee, said on Thursday.

“We look forward to establishing more partnerships with the private sector to continue carrying out the goodwill campaign’s activities with utmost success,” the princess added. 

During a ceremony to honour organisers of the initiative, she called on the local community to support the campaign and its various activities.

The National Goodwill Campaign, launched by the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development in 1991, provided support worth JD1.8 million to more than 20,000 people during 2012 and 2013 and continues to be synonymous with support for the poor and the marginalised.

At the end of Thursday’s ceremony, Princess Basma honoured the donors and listened to a briefing on the school’s social work activities.

AMMAN — In defiance of the popular belief that Jordanians are too serious to laugh out loud, a gathering of 400 people were in stitches as a panel of four local satirists pondered the question: “How do Jordanians laugh?” 

Jordanians are not a serious nation, and they have proved to be quite humorous, Ad Dustour columnist Yousef Ghishan, the session’s moderator, said.

“The evidence that proves my claim is the daily comments that Jordanians make on ongoing regional and local issues. I have been following their comments on the latest blizzard and I found that they have become very funny,” Ghishan said at the discussion on Monday, organised by the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. 

For panellist Musa Hijazin, a veteran local comedian, the government is what motivates Jordanians to laugh, turning each individual into a satirist.

The actor’s performance in the political satire “Alaan fahimtkum” or “Now I Understand You” has made him increasingly popular among Jordanians.

The play, which was performed for a year-and-a-half, was written by satirist and Al Rai columnist Ahmed Hassan Al Zoubi, another panellist at the discussion.

“Jordanians don’t laugh at clowns; they do have a real appreciation of constructive comedy, as they think it provides an outlet for them,” Zoubi said. 

“Jordanians have actually become excessively funny and humorous in the last three years; MPs have even started to write satirical pieces, while all Jordanians are laughing at their performance in the House,” he added jokingly.

For young cartoonist Omar Abdallat, frustration also plays a part in nurturing comedic talents.

“Because of my low academic achievement in maths, the teacher told me that I was a hopeless case and advised me to pursue a career that does not involve any intellectual activity,” said Abdallat, who produces animation videos for the Amman-based Kharabeesh network.

“In that creativity-nurturing setting, my artistic talent emerged.” 

After the discussion, parts of Hijazin, Zoubi and Abdallat’s plays and sketches were screened to laughter and applause.

AMMAN — Two children died and a third suffered smoke inhalation in a fire that broke out in a house in the capital’s Jabal Marikh suburb at noon on Thursday, official sources said.

The victims, two boys aged three and four years, died of smoke inhalation during the blaze that destroyed their entire apartment, located on the third floor, a Civil Defence Department (CDD) official said.

A 16-year-old girl also suffered smoke inhalation but was listed in good condition, the CDD official told The Jordan Times.

“The children were playing around a kerosene heater when it overturned and caused a fire,” the official explained.

The fire spread through the entire 120-square-metre home, he added.

A second source told The Jordan Times that the victims’ family had left the house for a short period to run errands and had locked the door.

“This prevented the children from escaping from the burning house,” the second source said.

Firefighters broke the lock, pulled the children out and “administered first aid to them, but it was too late”, according to the source.

“They were already dead by the time we arrived at hospital,” he added.

This is the second heater accident to claim the lives of children in less than a week.

On Sunday, a gas leakage from a heater caused a fire that claimed the lives of two children under the age of 10 in the town of Bireen in Zarqa Governorate.

CDD personnel treated five other family members for smoke inhalation.