Local

AMMAN — The Public Security Department (PSD) said Wednesday it has been receiving complaints by young women saying they have been contacted by men who pretend to be seeking their hands in marriage but end up blackmailing them instead.

PSD Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sartawi told The Jordan Times that these cases are common on social media. 

“The department of cybercrimes has received complaints about a man who contacts women with the false excuse of seeking marriage,” he said. 

After the woman talks to him, he starts threatening to use that against her and demands an amount of money to keep quiet, according to Sartawi, noting that the scam usually involves two men.

A victim of a similar crime who spoke to The Jordan Times on condition of anonymity said she received a phone call when she was at work sometime last week.

“An old man called me on my personal number and said he wanted my parents’ numbers to discuss a marriage proposal,” she said.

The 26-year-old added that the man “seemed friendly” over the phone and she gave him her parents’ contact details.

“After talking to my father, they requested to visit us… they seem really nice and polite over the phone that you want to meet them right away,” she said.

But after the woman accepts to talk to the young man, allegedly the son of the old man who initiates contact, he starts threatening to ruin her reputation and demands a sum of money, the woman said.

“I paid him JD500 because he threatened to create a scandal where I work,” she said.

“Some of these people even record phone calls to blackmail women.”

Out of hundreds of victims, the number of young women who report their cases is “low”, Sartawi said, adding that many women “prefer not to speak out about this out of fear”. 

He urged the public to be cautious when using social media networks and to avoid dealing with anonymous persons, noting that many suspects contact women of all ages, including underage girls. 

AMMAN — Jordan is in the process of adopting a new mediation law and establishing an independent mediation centre where the parties to a lawsuit can meet with a neutral third party in an effort to settle the case outside court, according to Justice Minister Bassam Talhouni.

Talhouni said the draft mediation law was referred to Parliament after being approved by the Cabinet recently and will apply to commercial cases, whether between individuals or between institutions.

“Not all cases are required to be handled in court, and this is how the idea came,” he told The Jordan Times over the phone in a recent interview, adding that the third-party mediators at the centre will be either former judges or lawyers with experience in conflict resolution.

The minister explained that an agreement reached between the two parties in such cases would be written up as an applicable “verdict”.

If one of the parties is not satisfied with the result of mediation, they can proceed to court, he added.

The planned mediation centre, according to the minister, will have branches across the Kingdom. It will be supported by the Jordan Businessmen Association, the Association of Banks in Jordan and the Private Hospitals Association, which will submit the names of proposed mediators to the government for approval.

As part of the country’s preparations to found this centre, the Kingdom will benefit from a training programme supported by UNDP in mid-February, followed by an information session and discussion presented by experts from the Singapore mediation centre and the Singapore ministry of law, drawing on Singapore’s distinguished experience in mediation, according to Talhouni.

The UNDP training programme on mediation and alternative dispute resolutions (ADRs) will target 30 selected practitioners from different sectors, including judges, lawyers, bankers, members of the chambers of commerce and industry, insurance professionals, and civil society representatives, according to the UN agency.

“The discussion will focus on success and best practices in the area of mediation and alternative dispute resolutions in Singapore. This is in an effort to learn from comparative experiences while Jordan is under way developing new mediation legislation and an independent mediation centre in the Kingdom,” said a UNDP statement sent to The Jordan Times.

UNDP Jordan said it is supporting the Ministry of Justice and the court system in Jordan by increasing access to justice through legal advice and boosting courts’ ability of processing cases quickly, which will improve the delivery of courts’ services and contribute to positive perceptions of their effectiveness. 

The project implemented by the UNDP is also working with the ministry to enhance existing mechanisms for mediation and ADRs, with the aim of reducing the case load on the court system and expediting the justice process for cases that require speedy adjudication.

AMMAN — Italian Ambassador to Jordan Giovanni Brauzzi on Wednesday reiterated his country’s strong commitment to supporting Jordan and its education system in facing “the unprecedented burden arising from the Syrian crisis”.

At a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat, Brauzzi said Italy had already allocated funds for 2016 to support Jordan’s education sector, enabling some 7,000 students to access education, according to a statement released by the embassy.

In addition, at the London donor conference held last week, Italy also pledged $150 million for Jordan and Lebanon between 2016 and 2018. With this support, Italy will be able to cover some 10 per cent of the immediate need to accommodate around 200,000 students in Jordan, the statement said.

AMMAN — HRH Prince Feisal, president of the King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence (KACE) board of trustees, chaired a board meeting on Wednesday.

KACE Executive Director Yasera Ghosheh highlighted the centre’s plan for 2016-2018, which was endorsed at the meeting, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. Participants also discussed several recommendations related to KACE’s awards. 

Founded in January 2006, KACE seeks to promote the culture of excellence in public and private sector entities to increase Jordan’s international competitiveness.

AMMAN — King’s Military Adviser and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen. Mashal Al Zaben on Wednesday left the Kingdom on a visit to Belgium, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

During the visit, Zaben is scheduled to participate in the first meeting of the ministers of defence of the international coalition to combat the Daesh terrorist group in Brussels.

Zaben is also scheduled to discuss the current situation in the region and international efforts to combat terrorism with the attending defence ministers. 

AMMAN — The Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) on Wednesday won an award for best government service application in the tourism industry across the Arab world.

JTB Managing Director Abed Al Razzaq Arabiyat received the award on the last day of the fourth annual World Government Summit in Dubai, according to a JTB statement.

“This award is a result of our hard and continuous work keeping up with this fast-paced and inventive field,” the statement quoted Arabiyat as saying. The mobile application is currently available in English and French for Android and iOS with new languages to be launched soon.

AMMAN — Senate President Faisal Fayez on Wednesday said that the tough conditions facing the Arab world require a political and economic strategy for joint cooperation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

In an interview with Sky News Arabia on the sidelines of his participation at the 2016 World Government Summit in the United Arab Emirates, Fayez said economic development and offering jobs to young people is the toughest challenge facing many Arab countries, including Jordan, and an economic strategy between the Kingdom and the Gulf countries could enable Jordan to face economic challenges emerging from the crises in the region.

He highlighted the importance of the summit that discusses the issues of health, education and e-governments.

AMMAN — A total of 479 trees were chopped down illegally last month, according to the Agriculture Ministry, which said the violators were caught and referred for legal action.

Figures indicate that illegal logging cases and wildfires have dropped compared to the same period last year, Issa Shobaki, the ministry's assistant secretary general for forestry and pastures, said on Wednesday in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

"Fifty-one illegal logging cases were registered during January," Shobaki noted.

Meanwhile, Nimer Haddadin, the ministry's spokesperson, said the area of land affected by the illegal logging cases stood at three dunums, mainly in the north of the country.

Haddadin underscored that the ministry is pressing ahead with its plan to restore forest lands and remove violations, which include cultivations, quarries and construction.

During the past month, three quarries operating without a licence on forest lands were shut down, he said, adding that the ministry has also removed two violations on state-owned lands.

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.

The ministry has said it plans to remove all violations on terrains registered as forest lands, whether covered with forest trees or not. 

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 — Rama Touqan's ambition to major in medicine did not end even after enrolling in the University of Jordan's (UJ) faculty of dentistry.

After passing the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) with a score of 96.5 per cent last year, Touqan was disappointed to know that her grade would not allow her to pursue medicine.

"I applied to study dentistry and got accepted, but the idea of not pursuing what I have always wanted kept haunting me," the 18-year-old student told The Jordan Times over the phone on Wednesday.

Touqan's passion for medicine, which she developed over the years, inspired by television shows like "Grey's Anatomy", led to an unlikely move — re-sitting for the Tawjihi.

"With the encouragement of my family, I decided to retake two Tawjihi exams. I chose courses I got the least marks in during my first Tawjihi round," said the Amman resident.

Although the latest Tawjihi winter session coincided with her university exams, Touqan passed with flying colours, and was named by the Education Ministry as the highest achieving student in the Tawjihi's scientific stream, with a score of 97.7 per cent.

"I saw my score online before the Education Ministry's press conference. I was very happy, but the real surprise came when I heard my name on TV," said Touqan, who noted that she sat for one of the Tawjihi exams on the same day of a university test.

"I kept my plans a secret. I worked hard in silence." 

A morning radio show was hosting Touqan on Tuesday to talk about her story when UJ President Ekhleif Tarawneh called to announce the good news — she was accepted at the university's faculty of medicine.

"It was a moment of great joy," she recounted.

Touqan, who was hoping to receive a scholarship, is planning to specialise in oncology.

AMMAN — The value of exports by beneficiaries of the Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) between 2012 and 2014 exceeded JD121 million, a study on JEDCO's performance revealed on Wednesday.

JEDCO CEO Hana Uraidi said the study, dubbed "Service impact evaluation", showed that 1,056 of the 1,100 projects the corporation financed in the past six years are successful and still running, constituting 96 per cent of the total projects.

"Fifty two per cent of the total projects financed by the corporation were able to penetrate new markets," Uraidi said, citing the findings of the review, which was carried out by a specialised consultation company.

Between 2012 and 2014, JEDCO beneficiaries achieved JD18 million in profits from their projects, the CEO told reporters.

The survey also showed an increase in the production volume, and an improvement in quality and competitiveness, she added.

"These increases positively affected the national economy, contributing around JD19 million to the Treasury and boosting income tax revenues by JD2.7 during the same period," Uraidi highlighted.

Some 47 per cent of JEDCO beneficiaries (517 people), said the assistance they acquired increased their revenues by JD2.5 for each JD1, she added.

Over the last six years, the CEO noted, European grants funded around 65 per cent of the corporation's work at a total amount of 75 million euros.

JEDCO is currently studying 92 projects whose owners applied to receive loans, she said, adding that the corporation plans to provide financial support to 30 projects at a total of JD10 million in 2016.

As for the Governorate Development Fund (GDF) affiliated with JEDCO, Uraidi said it has supported 125 industrial and service projects across the Kingdom since its establishment in 2011, 106 schemes of which were new and the other 19 had already been operating.

"The total finances of the GDF to the 125 projects reached JD60.476 million, with an investment volume of JD129.605 million, and these projects are expected to generate 3,704 jobs," she added.