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AMMAN — A Danish parliamentary delegation from the immigration, integration and housing committee visited Jordan between March 7 and 11, according to an embassy statement released Sunday.

The delegates met with Lower House First Deputy Speaker Mustafa Amawi, and Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury. “Our cooperation is not only about fighting terrorism and helping refugees, it is also about trade.

For the time being, a trade delegation from Denmark is planning to visit Jordan in late May in order to discuss how we can strengthen trade between our two countries,” the statement quoted Martin Henriksen, chair of the committee, as saying.

The delegation also visited the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq and met with organisations such as ActionAid Denmark, the Danish Refugee Council, UNHCR and UNDP to learn about their work in the camp, the statement said. 

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday held separate meetings with Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, a Royal Court statement said. 

The meetings were part of a series of encounters held in January this year and April last year with leaders and representatives from around the world, including African countries, which were known as "Aqaba meetings" aimed at consolidating the global front against terrorism. 

His Majesty and Jahjaga agreed to sign an agreement of mutual legal assistance to fight crime.

During the Aqaba meetings in January, the Monarch met with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

He discussed means to enhance consultation and coordination in counterterrorism efforts on the basis of a comprehensive approach that sees terrorism as a global threat not restricted to Syria and Iraq. 

During meetings with senior US, Asian and Canadian officials as well as representatives of international organisations in January, His Majesty has also underlined the trans-border nature of the danger of terrorist groups.

Moreover, the King has met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Tanzania Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga and senior officials from Kenya and Uganda.

AMMAN — King’s Military Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen. Mashal Al Zaben on Saturday left for the US for a brief visit where he will preside over the Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army delegation, participating in the meetings of the higher Jordanian-US military cooperation committee.

In the US, Zaben is also scheduled to hold meetings with high ranking US military officers to discuss joint cooperation between the armies of the two countries, in addition to the latest regional and internal developments.

Jordan receives one of the largest amounts of foreign military financing in the world with Congress appropriating $450 million for the fiscal year 2016, US Ambassador to Jordan Alice G. Wells has recently said.

AMMAN — Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power International said on Saturday it acquired 70 per cent of Sunrise Solar Energy Psc, which is developing a 50-megawatt solar power plant in Mafraq Governorate, a statement by the Saudi company said.

The value of the deal was not revealed, but experts estimate that a plant of such capacity is worth more than $200 million.

The project, which is expected to be completed in August 2017, will offer electricity at JD0.043 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

The average household retail price of a kilowatt, according to the current tariff is JD0.131.

The project will be located at Al Hussein Bin Talal Development Zone in Mafraq, which will also house two other renewable energy power plants, each of which has the same capacity of Sunrise.

The environment-friendly project is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emission by 2.3 million tonnes, company executives have said.

In December 2015, the government and Saudi company, ACWA Power, signed an agreement to revamp Al Hussein Thermal Power Station at a capacity of 485 megawatts and a $500 million investment.

Jordan, which currently imports 97 per cent of its energy needs annually, has signed several agreements for renewable energy projects. According to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, several projects are implemented or under implementation, and by 2020, Jordan will have solar- and wind-power projects with a total capacity of 1,600 megawatts.

Currently, renewable energy contributes to 3-4 per cent of the national electricity grid and the figure is scheduled to reach 10 per cent by 2020. 

In Jordan, the annual daily average of solar irradiance ranges between 5-7 kWh/m2, which is almost twice the ratio in Germany, which by mid-2015 generated 34 per cent of its electricity via renewable energy projects. The wind speed in some areas in Jordan can reach up to 10 metres per second.

AMMAN — A glass boat driver, who on Friday allegedly hit a pedal boat, causing the death of a 10-year-old girl, was in police custody on Saturday pending further investigations, official sources said.

The child was with her mother on a pedal boat in the port city of Aqaba when they were hit by the glass boat, Public Security Department Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi said.

“The child died immediately, while the mother was injured,” the police official told The Jordan Times.

The mother was taken to a nearby hospital by Civil Defence Department (CDD) rescue teams, a CDD official said.

“The mother was fine but she suffered a nervous breakdown after she witnessed the accident and saw her daughter die before her eyes,” the CDD official told The Jordan Times.

Sartawi added that the incident is still under investigation.

“The glass boat driver is still in custody and the case will go to court once we finish our investigation," he added.

AMMAN­ — The Criminal Court prosecutor on Saturday charged an Irbid couple with the manslaughter of a 33-year-old Bangladeshi domestic helper over the weekend, official sources said.

The victim, who was not identified, was rushed to hospital after her employers claimed she was found unconscious in the bathroom, a senior official source said.

She was declared dead on arrival. Attending physicians at the hospital noticed that there were bruises on her body and alerted the authorities, the official told The Jordan Times.

The body was sent to the Irbid National Institute of Forensic Medicine for an autopsy, and government physicians detected several old and new bruises on different parts of her body, a senior medical source said.

“But the fatal blow was detected on her head, which caused internal bleeding that led to her death,” the medical source told The Jordan Times.

The couple was immediately summoned by Criminal Court Prosecutor Qahtan Qawaqzeh, and the two confessed to beating up the woman regularly because “she was not good at house work and was not clean”.

The husband told Qawaqzeh that he would regularly beat up the woman with his hands and a wooden stick to “push her to do her work”.

The wife, who is three-months pregnant, also confessed to beating up the woman with an iron bar to “encourage her to perform well in house work and become cleaner”, according to the senior official.

The couple claimed that they had beaten up the victim on Thursday and that “she went to the bathroom to take a shower and sleep there. They left her there and on Friday went to check on her and found her unconscious”, the official source added.

The two suspects told investigators they did not check on her for two days because they “knew that she loved to sleep a lot and that they heard her at one time snoring”, the official source added.

Officials at the Bangladeshi embassy in Amman could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

The victim had been working for the suspects, who have three daughters all under five years old, for the past year-and-a-half, according to the senior source.

Both suspects were ordered detained by Qawaqzeh for 15 days at correctional and rehabilitation facilities pending further investigation.

AMMAN — US Vice President Joe Biden on Friday left Jordan, concluding a two-day visit during which he held talks with His Majesty King Abdullah, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Biden's visit to Jordan was part of a regional tour that also included the United Arab Emirates, the West Bank and Israel.

At the start of his tour in the UAE last Monday, Biden vowed that the US and its allies would “squeeze the heart” of Daesh and destroy it, according to The Associated Press.

“We have to squeeze the heart of Daesh in Iraq and Syria so they can’t continue to pump their poison in the region and around the world,” Biden said in the UAE.

Talks between the King and Biden covered bilateral relations, the latest regional developments and international anti-terror efforts.

King Abdullah, the Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF), and Biden also attended a joint military drill implemented by the JAF Quick Reaction Forces and US forces.

US Second Lady Jill Biden also paid a field visit to the Zaatari Refugee Camp and an elementary school for girls in the northeastern Mafraq Governorate, where she met with refugees, officials and students, and listened to their concerns.

She commended Jordan's humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees. 

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah, the Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army, and Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Friday attended the conclusion of the joint military exercise "Thunder of the North" in the Gulf kingdom, along with other Arab and Muslim leaders.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, Qatari Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Kuwaiti Emir Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also attended the conclusion of the drill.

His Majesty, who returned home later on Friday, also attended a lunch banquet that King Salman held for the attending leaders and delegations, and performed Friday prayer at the Hospitality Mosque in the King Khalid Military City, a Royal Court statement said. 

Twenty countries, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, Sudan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait participated in the exercise, which started last month in the area of Hafar Al Batin, in northern Saudi Arabia.

The drill aimed at training the participating forces on joint strategic operations, unifying concepts and carrying out conventional and unconventional military operations against terror and radicalism, the statement said.    

In December 2015, Saudi Arabia established an "anti-terrorism" Islamic coalition consisting of 34 Arab, African and Asian countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, Turkey, Malaysia and Pakistan.

AMMAN — It will be relatively warm on Sunday in most regions of the Kingdom, and warmer in the Jordan Valley and Aqaba, with temperatures 6^oC to 7^oC degrees above their annual average, according to the Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD).

Starting from noon, several areas in the Kingdom are expected to witness dusty weather, especially in the southern and eastern regions, with a chance of showers in some areas in the afternoon and southeasterly moderate to brisk winds.

Temperatures in east Amman are forecast to range between a high of 23°C during the day, dropping to 13°C at night, while mercury levels in the western parts of the capital will range between a high of 22°C in the day and 12°C at night.

On Monday, the Kingdom is forecast to be affected by a cold air mass that will bring a substantial decrease in temperatures.

Rain is forecast in most areas, with heavy rain accompanied by thunder and lightning expected in the morning along with easterly gusty winds, the JMD added.

At night, chances for rainfall are expected to weaken with a possibility of fog formation in high mountainous areas.

A high of 16°C is expected for east Amman and a low of 9°C, while temperatures in the west are forecast to range between a high of 14°C during the day, dropping to 7°C at night.

A further slight drop in temperature is expected on Tuesday with relatively cold weather, partially cloudy skies and a chance of showers in the northern and central regions, the JMD said, expecting easterly brisk winds with some strong blows to prevail.

In east Amman, temperatures are forecast to range between a high of 13°C and a low of 7°C, while mercury levels in west Amman will mark a high of 11°C and a low of 6°C.

AMMAN — Jordan has been recognised as the second best tourism destination in the Arab region for German visitors, according to the Go Asia/Go Arabia group.

The Kingdom was voted by travel and business professionals via goasia.de, a leading German tourism website. 

The Jordan Tourism Board’s (JTB) Europe-targeted campaign to promote Jordan as a tourist destination was also acknowledged as the best destination campaign in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa regions in 2015.

The campaign, carried out in partnership with Expedia Media Solutions and Travelocity websites, sought to introduce German, French and British travellers to a variety of attractions in the country which include but are not limited to Petra.

The campaign’s slogan “Discover Jordan… Petra is just the beginning”, in addition to images and a video of Jordan’s sites resulted in a 35 per cent increase in the number of visitors and a 43 per cent increase in hotel reservations compared to the year 2014, according to official figures.

Tourism Minister Nayef Al Fayez and JTB Managing Director Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat on Thursday attended the award ceremony held on the sidelines of the International Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin, which concludes on Sunday.

Fayez highlighted the success of the board’s promotional campaigns in increasing the number of visitors, describing the award as “an international recognition” of Jordan’s tourism assets.

He added on Saturday that Jordan’s participation in the exhibition was “very important” as part of the efforts to return the influx of tourists to its normal rates, and to clarify the image of the Kingdom as a tourist destination, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Arabiyat highlighted the diversity of tourism attractions in Jordan, adding that “strategic partnerships” enhanced the efforts to expose Jordan’s historical, religious and adventure sites, despite regional unrest.

The ITB brought together participants from some 120 countries, where they had a chance to communicate and build partnerships.

A number of Jordanian tour operators participating in the exhibition signed cooperation agreements with counterparts from several countries to boost the influx of tourists into Jordan, Petra reported.