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AMMAN — Social Development Minister Reem Abu Hassan on Wednesday met with her Palestinian counterpart Ibrahim Al Shaer, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The two ministers discussed bilateral cooperation, particularly under the memorandum of understanding they signed in 2012. 

AMMAN — Foreign Ministry Secretary General Mohammad Tayseer Bani Yaseen on Wednesday met with Cypriot Foreign Affairs Ministry Permanent Secretary Alexandros N. Zenon, and discussed bilateral relations and the latest regional developments, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. They discussed bilateral cooperation in political, cultural, economic and tourism fields.

AMMAN — Public Security Department (PSD) Director Maj. Gen. Atef Saudi on Wednesday met with Saudi Ambassador to Jordan Prince Khalid Bin Faisal Al Saud and discussed enhancing security cooperation, a PSD statement said.

Saudi said the two countries are cooperating to combat crime and drug dealing. The ambassador commended the high-level performance of PSD personnel in Jordan. 

AMMAN — Jordan Interpol this week turned over an Egyptian wanted by the Egyptian judiciary, a Public Security Department (PSD) statement said on Wednesday.

In another case, a Bahraini was handed to his country’s authorities for allegedly committing several crimes there, the PSD statement said, adding that a Syrian was handed to the Lebanese authorities for reportedly writing a bad cheque of 80,000 euros.

AMMAN — The jobs of butchering animals or selling them at shops are now classified as “hazardous” professions, Social Security Corporation (SSC) Spokesperson Musa Sbeihi said on Wednesday.

He noted that the Greater Amman Municipality slaughterhouses and any facilities that employ butchers and meat sellers should supply the SSC with a list of their names and should also pay an additional 1 per cent for the social security subscription of one in accordance with the law.

AMMAN — Authorities have apprehended a group of people in Ajloun Governorate, some 70km northwest of the capital, who allegedly uprooted centennial olive trees for trade purposes, an official at the Ministry of Agriculture said on Wednesday.

"Officials from the Ajloun Agriculture Directorate and other agencies referred the violators for legal action. They uprooted 13 olive trees which are over 100 years old," the ministry's spokesperson, Nimer Haddadin, said.

The circumference of each tree is over three metres, Haddadin said, highlighting that the trees were uprooted from Arjan area, which is rich with centennial olive trees.

"The trees as well as the vehicle carrying them were seized and confiscated. The Forestry Department will replant the trees, which, if planted properly have a 100 per cent chance of living," he told The Jordan Times.

The trees are sold for hefty amounts of money and were likely to be sold to hotels or companies for landscaping purposes, Haddadin noted.

"Those centennial olive trees are locally referred to as Roman olive trees, because some of them are over 1,500 years old. They are a cultural legacy and people must protect them," he underscored.

The official said laws and regulations prohibit the uprooting of centennial fruit trees, which can only happen by obtaining official approval from the ministry.

Ajloun Governorate contains 140,000 dunums of forests that cover 34 per cent of its total area.

Earlier this month, the ministry said 479 trees were chopped down illegally in February, and the violators were caught and referred for legal action. 

A total of 1,982 violations on forest lands have been registered since 2002, when an agriculture law was drafted with penalties on those who allocate, designate, sell or barter forest lands, according to the ministry.

Forestry lands amount to 1.5 million dunums, of which 250,000 dunums are bare, 400,000 dunums are natural forests, 500,000 dunums are planted forests and 350,000 are nature reserves, according to the ministry's figures.

Under environmental regulations, those who cut down forest trees without a licence face a three-month prison term, a JD100 fine for each tree chopped down from state-owned land and a JD50 fine for each one from private land. In addition, their equipment is confiscated.

AMMAN — As US-Jordanian strategic cooperation is on the rise, the size of the US embassy in Amman will increase to become similar to that of America’s embassy in Berlin by the end of 2018, US officials said Wednesday.

A $153 million project is currently under way to expand the embassy headquarters, and when the scheme is completed by the end of 2018, the size of the premises will reach 15,000 square metres, according to US officials.

“This project is an indication of US commitment to strengthen its partnership with Jordan,” Henry Wooster, deputy chief of mission at the US embassy, said at a meeting with reporters.

Wooster added that the current size of the embassy is not adequate compared with the size of partnership and collaboration with Jordan.

The expansion project has created several jobs for Jordanians, he said, adding that out of 160 workers on site, around 140 are Jordanians, and their number will increase to 300 during the implementation period.

The expansion will house the USAID and the consular offices, Aziz Younes, Overseas Building Operations project director, told reporters.

The number of seats at the waiting area at the consular section will increase from around 100 to 183 as there has been a steady rise in the number of visa applicants, according to Younes.

The architecture of the new project combines Jordanian and American aspects, he said, noting that the building will be designed to ensure the optimal use of energy and lighting.

The diplomats said US assistance to Jordan is growing, which necessitates expanding the premises for staff.

USAID’s programme in Jordan is the second largest in the world. It devoted $629 million in assistance to the Kingdom in 2015 alone, according to figures released by the US embassy.

This is part of a 60-year partnership that has put roughly $9 billion towards Jordan’s development goals since 1952, the embassy said. 

AMMAN — An official on Wednesday said a government committee constantly reviews death row cases in order to make recommendations regarding the eventual decisions in due time.

Commenting on local media reports that a government committee has examined 80 cases and decided to refer 13 names convicted of “committing horrific crimes” to be executed soon, the source said no decision has been taken yet.

“There are government committees that are constantly studying these files to make recommendations, but no decision has been taken against anyone yet,” the source told The Jordan Times.

In January, Human Rights Watch criticised Jordan for the execution of 13 people, including two Iraqis, in December 2014 and February 2015.

The latest government figure for people on death row in Jordan stood at 109. But human rights activists recently said that the number has since declined after several family members of death row inmates made settlements with the victims’ families.

Once a victim’s family makes a settlement with the family of the convicted inmate, the punishment of any crime drops to a lesser sentence depending on what the court rules.

Officials could not be reached to specify the current number of inmates on death row in Jordan.

In December 2014, shortly after the government reactivated the death penalty by executing 11 people on the same day, officials defended the step by saying that Jordan was not the only country in the world that applies the death penalty, noting that many highly democratic countries do so, such as the US and Japan.

The government was heavily criticised by international organisations and several diplomatic missions over the executions, which occurred almost nine years after the death penalty was initially frozen.

 Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani told The Jordan Times at the time that the country applied a de facto moratorium on capital punishment in 2006 to study its implications on security and society.

Once a death sentence is upheld by the Court of Cassation, the case is sent to the Cabinet for endorsement and a Royal Decree should be issued to approve the execution.

AMMAN — An eight-year-old girl, who was reportedly shot by her father before he committed suicide late Sunday night, died on Wednesday, official sources said.

The child, who was brain dead, was reportedly shot with her mother and two siblings, aged 13 and 5, by her 42-year-old father while at his in-laws' home in Rujm Al Shami area in south Amman.

The 32-year-old mother died in the shooting incident, while the three children were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were listed in critical condition.

The five-year-old died on Monday.

“There is only one child left in hospital. Her situation is critical,” a senior official source told The Jordan Times.

The couple was going through marital problems, and the woman returned to her family’s home and wanted a divorce, official sources have said.

On Sunday night, the sources said, the husband went to his in-laws house “claiming that he wanted to grant his wife a divorce and wanted her to give him the family book”.

The husband took the family book from his wife then grabbed a gun and shot her once in the chest because she insisted on the divorce, the sources told The Jordan Times.

The husband then reportedly chased his children and “shot them at close range in the head and face then placed the gun in his mouth and shot himself”, a judicial source said.

AMMAN — The Water Ministry and the German Development Bank (KfW) on Wednesday signed a financing agreement for the “Irrigation in the Jordan Valley” project. 

The scheme is fully funded by the EU through a grant of around 6 million euros (some JD4.7 million), according to a statement released by the KfW and the EU.

Water Minister Hazem Nasser and Sawsan Aruri, KfW deputy director, signed the deal.

“This project will finance a pipeline for reclaimed water to support farmers in the Northern Jordan Valley to safely and effectively use reclaimed water for irrigation purposes,” the statement said. 

“This will be achieved by transferring bulk reclaimed water from two sources to farm turnouts: The first source will be reclaimed water from the Greater Irbid area in the north of the project area, the second is reclaimed water from the Greater Amman area that flows through the Zarqa River in the south of the project area,” it added. 

The water is currently conveyed from the Zarqa River to the north through the “Zarqa Carrier III”, but the carrier does not reach the northernmost area of the Jordan Valley.

The investment entails the construction of a 9km pipeline for reclaimed water with a diameter of about 600mm between Turnout 24 of the King Abdullah Canal and the current end point of the Zarqa Carrier III in the south at Turnout 33. 

“The pipeline will allow a better use of reclaimed water by carrying [it] from the north to the central Jordan Valley in winter and... from King Talal Reservoir further to the north in summer [bidirectional use],” the statement said, adding that the foreseen measures will be implemented by the Jordan Valley Authority with the KfW’s support.