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AMMAN – Border Guards on Wednesday foiled an infiltration attempt by a person who was trying to cross from Jordan into a neighbouring country, an official source at the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army said Thursday.

Border Guards executed rules of engagement followed in such cases, arrested the suspects and referred them to the concerned authorities, the source added.

Also on Thursday, the army said Border Guards received 303 Syrian refugees during the previous 24 hours.

The troops transferred the refugees to shelters and camps, and Royal Medical Services personnel treated the injured, according to an army statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

AMMAN – Eleven people were injured in various accidents across the Kingdom, according to a Civil Defence Department (CDD) statement on Thursday. Four people were injured in Aqaba when their vehicle hit a utility pole.

CDD personnel administered first aid to the wounded and rushed them to Prince Hashem Hospital where they were listed in fair condition.

Also four people were injured in a two-vehicle collision in Zarqa and were reported in fair condition. Meanwhile, 21-year-old man was hit by a car in Karak,140km south of Amman.

In Salt, the CDD extinguished a fire that broke out in an apartment in the town, which resulted in the injury of one person that was taken to Salt Hospital where he was listed in fair condition.

Also on Thursday, a woman suffered shortness of breath after inhaling smokes coming from a fire at a neighbouring shop, CDD rushed her to Jerash Hospital and she was listed in fair condition.

In Amman, firefighters extinguished a fire in a food and spices factory and prevented it from spreading to nearby areas, no injuries were reported.

AMMAN — Jordan’s Interpol office in Amman apprehended six people in the Kingdom in March that were wanted internationally, the Public Security Department’s (PSD) media centre announced on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Interpol’s Amman office received last month information from other offices that they arrested nine people wanted by Jordanian authorities, according to a PSD statement.

Those who were detained in Jordan included an Iraqi wanted by his country’s authorities, four Jordanians wanted in Arab countries for financial crimes and a fifth, a Jordanian, was locally wanted after leaving the Kingdom and was arrested upon returning to the country.

The nine wanted people apprehended by foreign Interpol offices included two Lebanese, who were arrested in Lebanon, and a Jordanian who was arrested in the UAE, the PSD said. 

AMMAN — The Criminal Investigation Department’s intellectual property protection division personnel have arrested a suspect who had created a fake account on a social media website and used it to commit fraud through pretending he discovered a treatment for cancer, the Public Security Department (PSD) said Thursday.

In cooperation with the Jordan Food and Drug Administration, security personnel seized the item whose nature and production materials are unknown.

The suspect, who is wanted for eight cases, confessed to committing the crime with an accomplice who admitted to preparing the chemical compound for fraud purposes.

In another case, the division’s personnel seized 2,000 packs of medications  and cosmetics in a perfumery in Amman, according to a PSD statement.

AMMAN — Jordan Bar Association’s (JBA) Zarqa branch has volunteered to represent thousands of the town’s Jannaa neighbourhood who recently received judicial warnings to vacate their homes. 

According to Abdullah Al Zaben, head of the Jannaa neighbourhood committee, around 400 housing units, where 10,000-15,000 people live without any proof of landownership, were requested by landlords to vacate their homes or pay rent. 

Zaben noted that a gathering for residents, Zarqa branch of JBA and the Municipality of Zarqa was held Tuesday to discuss developments in the case, adding that the lawyers volunteered to represent the families after they received vacation notices by the original owners of the land plots on which they set up their houses. 

According to Zaben, the issue of the neighbourhood, which lies some 22km east of Amman, dates back to 1949 and 1950, after a wave of Palestinians took refuge in Zarqa, and initially resided in Zarqa camp set up by UNRWA. 

But due to growing population in the camp, housing expansion reached empty lands in the adjacent Jannaa, which became a de facto extension of the refugee camp, he told The Jordan Times Wednesday over the phone.

He said the municipality owns part of the land, while a large part of the property is owned by the Amman-based White Beds (Al Asirra Al Baydaa) Society home for the elderly.

The rest, according to Zarqa Mayor Emad Momani, is owned by heirs of Bahaa Eldin Shishani and the Housing and Urban Development Corporation, in addition to the state.

Momani said the land sale occurred “outside the legal framework of the Department of Lands and Survey”; nonetheless, the municipality has provided residents with water and electricity services out of its “humanitarian” duty, especially that the majority of the residents are financially challenged.

The evacuation notices were sent by the Shishani family, who own nearly 29 dunums, Zaben said, adding that the households threatened to leave do not have proof of landownership. 

Lawyer Laith Shamayleh, who legally represents the majority of Shishani’s heirs, said in previous remarks to The Jordan Times that his clients have the legal right to sue the residents for violating their property and to demand the “rent value of similar property”, noting that the majority of the population started living there during the 1950s and 1960s.

Shamayleh added that services provided to the residents have contributed to their increase, blaming some government agencies for treating them as property owners and taxing them accordingly.

But the lawyer said his clients are willing to negotiate the “rent value of similar property” with officials who have no personal interest in the issue, noting that some of the residents own businesses and shops.

Zaben and Momani are hopeful that a solution to the problem may come from authorities.

 “If this issue is not solved by the state as soon as possible, it may have impact on social stability of thousands of people,” Zaben said, adding that the committee that represents the residents will start to contact officials, lawmakers and the owners of the plot in a bid to prevent eviction. 

According to Zaben, Jannaa neighbourhood is home to around 30,000 people currently.

AMMAN — The first Jordan Dive Show kicked off on Thursday in Amman with the participation of more than 20 dive centres based in Aqaba, showcasing their services and scuba courses for beginner and advanced divers alike. 

The exhibition, which continues through Saturday, aims at acquainting Jordanians and tourists with the beauties of Aqaba bay, said Abdullah Momani, head of the Aqaba Diving Association (ADA).

"The 27km long bay the Kingdom possesses of the Red Sea is home to more than 500 species of corals and over 600 of coloured fish," Momani said, citing scientific studies carried out by the University of Jordan.  

The ADA was established in March, 2010 to develop the diving sport in Jordan and protect the marine environment in Aqaba, 330km south of Amman, noted the president, adding the association participated in several international tourist events to promote Jordan as a world tourist destination.

At the event, supported by the USAID's Local Enterprise Support project (LENS), he noted that diving in Aqaba started in the early 1970's and has been developing ever since until it became an income-generating profession for many Aqaba families.

The three-day fair, the second ever dive show to be organised in the Middle East after Dubai, is being hosted at the Grand Hyatt Hotel/Zara Expo and is open to the general public of all ages with free entry.

Director of the Economic Development and Energy Office at USAID/Jordan Russ Bauer said the agency's Global Enterprise Support project is designed to empower local communities to implement collaborative economic development initiatives.

USAID has worked with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and ADA to identify opportunities for adventure tourism, Bauer said, adding that scuba diving is one industry that plays an important role in generating local economic growth.

"Divers support jobs and salaries for dive companies, and employees at local hotels, restaurants, transportation operators and retail shops; and based on a LENS analysis, each JD1 spent on scuba diving activities, JD27 is generated for other businesses, which hire 1,000 people in Aqaba," he highlighted.

Tourism Minister Nayef Al Fayez said the ministry is keen to enhance its partnership with the private sector and to cooperate in drawing the 2016-2020 national strategy for tourism, especially in light of decreasing contribution of tourism revenues to the GDP, which dropped by 13 per cent last year, compared to 2014.

Fayez also highlighted the diving industry which can provide foreign tourists "a unique experience in a unique place" all year round.

AMMAN — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) concluded a four-day conference on Thursday covering the health care at detention and correctional centres. 

ICRC in corporation with Jordan's Public Security Department and the Ministry of Health organised the third regional conference, attended by 24 prison authority representatives and health-care professionals working in such facilities from across the region.

The conference provided a forum for the participants to discuss issues that lie at the core of their work, including medical ethics and the role of doctors in places of detention, security constraints, inmates on hunger strikes and the effect of prolonged solitary confinement. 

ICRC specialists shared their expertise and explained the challenges faced by officials and healthcare personnel working in places of detention. 

“The ICRC is committed to continuing to work closely with the Jordanian authorities in support of their efforts to deliver the best possible medical care in places of detention,” Frédéric Fournier, head of the ICRC delegation in Jordan, said.

According to Raed Aburabi, who coordinates the ICRC's health activities in Jordan, “decent health care in detention facilities in any country can only be achieved through collaboration between the detaining authority and the ministry of health”. 

He added that the conference’s regional perspective had allowed the participants to discuss the challenges, experiences and solutions in different countries with a view to improving access to health care for people deprived of their liberty. 

The ICRC visits detainees worldwide to monitor their conditions and treatment. The committee also works closely with the detaining authorities and medical personnel in various countries to improve health-related services in detention facilities.

AMMAN — SADAQA organisation plans to develop a business case report on the financial benefits of establishing daycare facilities at the workplace as means to enhance women's participation in the labour market.

The study, which will be the first of its kind in Jordan, seeks to prove in figures that establishing daycare facilities at the places of work increases business revenues, said Lara Ayoub, Sadaqa core team member, noting that the move will give momentum to the organisation's stance when addressing concerned public agencies, employers and workers.

Under a new partnership agreement signed Thursday with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), SADAQA will work to further promote the establishment of crèches in the workplace through technical support to private educational institutions, which is one of five fields the campaign works to develop.

The partnership will also award companies that have already complied with the law and currently provide more parent friendly environment for their staff, according to Ayoub.

Woemen’s participation in the labour force in Jordan is still "very low", according to ILO's regional specialist on gender equality, Emanuela Pozzan, who cited the lack of childcare facilities as a major reason why women do not enter or remain in the workforce.

Elaborating, she said woman enter the labour force at a young age, along with their fellow male workers, but women "get stuck very quickly" along the way and are therefore not able to move up the employment ladder.

Some women are able to "slowly" get through, and some get discouraged and are more likely to leave the job, especially those in the age bracket 35 to 40. 

Very few women manage to move up the employment pyramid to occupy management positions, she said. 

Although some women leave the workforce to start their own businesses, many of them go back home to take care of their families, Pozzan noted, citing the absence of “well-developed structural social support services offering quality domestic and family care”.

Meanwhile, she commended SADAQA's work in promoting Article 72 of the Labour Law, which, according to Pozzan, is extremely important in family-work balance, yet needs to be amended to include the rights of male workers for child facilities at the work place.

Randa Naffa, co-founder of SAQADA, said the partnership, which is funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Amman, will give the organisation a boost to continue advocating the full compliance with Article 72, which calls for the provision of daycares in the workplace, and help companies realise the importance of such facilities.

ILO consultant, Reem Aslan, highlighted the importance of developing a referential research of the situation in the Kingdom, noting that there are studies that depict how women entering the workforce increase the gross domestic product of the country, but Jordan still does not have concrete studies.

"We have seen numbers like JD13,000 a year per each women entering the workforce but the studies available are not detailed enough," she said, noting that there are no studies on daycare facilities. 

There are currently over 50 childcare facilities at workplaces in the Kingdom, with 24 of which established in cooperation with SADAQA, according to the activists. 

AMMAN – King’s Military Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen. Mishal Al Zaben on Thursday received a US House of Representatives delegation chaired by Deputy Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), the House speaker, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

During the meeting, attended by HRH Prince Feisal and several senior army officers, Zaben and the delegates discussed latest regional and international developments, and cooperation between the two countries.

AMMAN — The Jordan Media Commission on Thursday granted broadcast licence to Talal Abu-Ghazaleh radio station for economy and education TAGBC.FM to cover Amman and Maan.

The commission’s Director General Amjad Qadi said the new radio station will have a developmental and economic role.