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AMMAN — The Criminal Investigation Department’s intellectual property protection division on Thursday warned against dealing with social media outlets that promote counterfeit medicines and sexual enhancement drugs.

Division employees found a social media page that sells such fake products, and identified the people behind it, a Public Security Department (PSD) statement said.

In coordination with the Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA), security personnel arrested five suspects found in possession of 5,000 sexual enhancement pills, creams and weight-loss products.

JFDA examined the products and determined that they are banned from circulation. The suspects were referred to court, the PSD added.

AMMAN — Unlike many of his peers, 19-year-old Salahaldeen Abu-Alshaikh can look up at the sky and rightfully claim a minor planet as his own — at least in name.

Abu-Alshaikh's performance in the 2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his mathematical sciences project in Phoenix, Arizona, where he clinched second place, has prompted NASA to give his name to a minor planet.

Voicing his pride in the achievement, the King Hussein Foundation's (KHF) Jubilee School graduate said he was happy to earn this recognition after major support from his family and school.

Abu-Alshaikh, who was 15 years old when he started working on the project, said it took him a whole year. 

"The freedom I got from my family and the school to finish doing what I like made this project come to life," he said at a meeting with reporters on Thursday.

"I presented my research at the University of Jordan and they gave me full mark and let me go to the Intel fair in the US in 2013," the 19-year-old recalled.

Millions of students submit their work to this competition and every country chooses the best nine to 10 students, he said, adding that the total number of students reached 1,500 coming from 71 countries.  

"I competed with really successful students... and the category of applied mathematics was the toughest." 

Abu Alshaikh said he was speechless when he was named second place winner. 

"I stood up, did not believe what happened, and I looked back and the Jordanian delegates were joyously dancing," he added with a smile, noting that he was proud to represent his school and country.

School Principal Suha Jouaneh said if a nation wants to have a generation that can face this century's challenges, it needs to teach them in an innovative way. 

"Scientific research at the school is obligatory and it is a weekly class for students. Because of our support for scientific research, students annually submit between 30 and 35 projects and around three to four students take part in this [Intel] competition," she told The Jordan Times.

Hana Shaheen, the executive director of the KHF, said Abu-Alshaikh is a source of pride for the foundation.  

"We are proud of Salah and we think that he is one of the future leaders of this country," she added.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday asserted Jordan’s commitment to strengthening its cooperation with EU countries, within the framework of Jordan’s “advanced status” partnership.

At a meeting with EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn at Al Husseiniya Palace, the King thanked the EU for supporting the Kingdom’s development and reform programmes, according to a Royal Court statement.

His Majesty underscored the key role of the EU in supporting efforts to arrive at solutions for regional challenges, with the crisis in Syria, the war on terrorism and efforts to revive Middle East peace negotiations first and foremost.

He highlighted the burdens borne by the Kingdom as a result of hosting around 1.3 million Syrian refugees and the increasing pressures placed on the country’s resources, as a result.

In this regard, the King stressed the importance of the donor conference that will be held in London next week in assisting the government in dealing with the repercussions of the Syrian crisis, and in supporting development projects that may enable the country to deal with mounting pressures. 

His Majesty noted that Jordan has provided Syrian refugees with services beyond its own capabilities, stressing that it is high time that the international community, the EU, regional and international organisations and different countries provide the needed support for the Kingdom.

Hahn lauded EU — Jordanian relations, pointing out that opportunities and circumstances are currently available for supporting the country, whose stability is part of regional stability, through the London donor conference.  

He noted that the conference will foster the economic ties between the EU and Jordan, which he said should be supported in confronting the various challenges, as it represents a model country in the region.

At a separate meeting with Shinichi Kitaoka, president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Thursday, the King underscored the importance of expanding cooperation between Jordanian institutions and JICA, building on strategic Jordanian-Japanese relations. 

His Majesty expressed his appreciation of Japan’s continued support through JICA — one of the foremost international donors to the Kingdom — in empowering it to carry out development projects and training programmes for young people and for women.

King Abdullah also called for increasing support for Jordan in dealing with the issue of Syrian refugees.

JICA’s president stressed the agency’s commitment to expanding its programmes in support of Jordan to achieve its development goals, expressing his appreciation of the Kingdom’s efforts in dealing with the issue of Syrian refugees and supporting counterterrorism efforts.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, and Planning and International Cooperation Minister Imad Fakhoury also met separately with the EU commissioner and discussed issues related to the Syrian refugee crisis, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The conference seeks to provide solutions to the problem of Syrian refugees and to assist host countries.

AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) personnel found 25,000 narcotic pills hidden in a medical device that was supposed to be shipped to a neighbouring country recently, the Public Security Department said on Wednesday in a statement. 

AND agents arrested the two suspects involved, who were caught delivering the device to the shipping company. 

The two suspects confessed to attempting to smuggle the pills and were referred to the State Security Court prosecutor general, the PSD said.

AMMAN — The depression that brought snow and heavy rain to Jordan this week channelled more than 16.5 million cubic metres (mcm) of water into the Kingdom's dams, according to the Water Ministry.

The dams now hold 54.24 per cent (176.52mcm) of their total capacity of 325mcm, Water Ministry Assistant Secretary General Adnan Zu'bi said.

A depression and a very cold polar front started affecting the country on Saturday, bringing heavy rain and snowfall to many areas. 

"Rainfall since the start of the season in October constituted 65.1 per cent of the Kingdom's long-term annual average of rainfall of 8 billion cubic metres. The country received 5338.8mcm [or around 5.34 billion cubic metres] of rain since the start of the wet season," Zu'bi said. 

During this time last year, the dams held 165mcm, according to the ministry.

"The recent rain is an indication of a good wet season. It will help increase the quality of the stored water at the dams, recharge the aquifers and improve natural pastures," Water Minister Hazem Nasser said  in a statement e-mailed to The Jordan times.

Dams are located across the Kingdom while there are more than 143 large ponds to collect floodwater in the desert and over 25 sand dams, according to the ministry.

The Kingdom’s 10 major dams are: King Talal, Wadi Al Arab, Sharhabil, Kafrein, Wadi Shuaib, Karameh, Tannour, Waleh, Mujib and Wihdeh.

Although expensive to build, dams are vital for the Kingdom to secure its water needs, according to experts.

Plans are under way to raise the capacity of the country's dams by 25 per cent to reach 400mcm by the year 2025, according to the ministry, which said that its goal will be achieved by building more dams and raising the walls of already existing ones, including Waleh Dam in Madaba Governorate.

AMMAN — Coverage of third generation (3G) mobile services in Jordan stands at 98 per cent, while 98 per cent of Jordanians have access to mobile phones at home, according to the World Bank's Digital Adoption Index (DAI).

The index, which was compiled for its recently released "World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends", measures the depth and breadth of adoption of digital technologies in 171 countries. 

It indicated that 35 per cent of Jordanians have Internet access at home, while average download speed in the country is 3,862 kilobits per second (kbps).

The DAI is the composite of three sub-indices: business (based on the percentage of businesses with websites, the number of secure servers per million residents, download speed, and 3G coverage in the country), people (based on mobile access at home and Internet access at home), and government (based on core administrative systems, online public services, and digital identification).

Jordan scored 0.55 on the DAI on a scale of 0 to 1, with 1 being the maximum. It recorded its highest score on the people sub-index, at 0.68, followed by government at 0.60 and business at 0.37.

The Kingdom scored 0.52 for the availability of online public services.

Jordan was ranked ahead of several other Arab countries, such as Lebanon, which had a DAI score of 0.50, and Iraq, which scored 0.46.

While 94 per cent of homes in Lebanon have mobile phones and 57 per cent have Internet access, coverage of 3G services is lower than in Jordan at 61 per cent and download speed is 2,597kbps. In terms of availability of online public services, Lebanon scored 0.35. 

In Iraq, 3G coverage reached 89 per cent, while download speed is higher than in the Kingdom at 4,542kbps.

The report showed that the proportion of the population with Internet access at home in Iraq stands at 43 per cent, while the ratio with mobile access at home is 99 per cent. The availability of online public services in Iraq is 0.20.

The highest-ranking Arab country in the index was the UAE, which scored 0.77 overall, with 99 per cent of the population having mobile access at home and 87 per cent Internet access.

Download speed is 17,226kbps in the UAE, while 73 per cent of businesses have websites and 3G coverage is 99 per cent, according to the report, which showed that availability of online public services in the UAE scored 0.88.

Other Gulf Cooperation Council countries also performed strongly on the index, with Bahrain scoring 0.74, followed by Qatar at 0.69, Saudi Arabia at 0.66, Oman at 0.64, and Kuwait at 0.62. 

The report showed that 3G coverage in Egypt, which had an overall score of 0.55, stands at 99 per cent, while download speed is 2,553kbps. 

Twenty three per cent of Egyptians have Internet access at home, while 94 per cent have mobile access. In terms of availability of online public services, Egypt scored 0.59.

AMMAN – The prices of fuel products for February are expected to drop by 8 to 15 per cent, President of the Gas Station Owners Association (GSOA) Fahed Al Fayez said on Wednesday.

Fayez said the drop in the price of crude Brent oil on the international market during January compared with December should lead to the expected decrease locally.

A government pricing committee meets monthly to adjust prices in a manner that corresponds to changes in oil prices on the international market.

Prices of oil derivatives in the local market are calculated based on international prices of oil, with the addition of other costs such as shipment, handling and taxes.

The prices of diesel and kerosene are expected to witness a 15 per cent drop, Fayez told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The GSOA president also said that the prices of 90-octane and 95-octane gasoline are expected to go down by 8 to 10 per cent. He noted that his expectations could carry a margin of error of 1 to 2 per cent.

One litre of unleaded 90-octane gasoline is currently sold at JD0.520, while a litre of unleaded 95-octane gasoline costs JD0.680. 

Diesel and kerosene are sold at JD0.360 per litre instead of JD0.400.

The price of a 12-kilogramme gas cylinder, used for cooking and in winter for heating purposes, is JD7.

Head of the Lower House Energy Committee MP Raed Khalaileh agreed that the prices of fuel products are likely to go down, but he did not expect the drop to be that substantial, without giving a specific percentage.

Khalaileh said the drop in Brent oil prices on the international market has reached to around 13 per cent, but that is not enough to accurately predict the expected drop locally, since many other elements are taken into consideration during the calculation.

"There will most likely be a decrease, and the government pricing committee will meet on Sunday to decide on the new prices," the lawmaker told The Jordan Times.

AMMAN — Consumers bought around 80 million bread loaves before and during the snowstorm, a quantity “sufficient for 25 million people”, but much of it is expected to go to waste, according to the Bakery Owners Association.

Association President Abdul Ilah Hamawi said on Wednesday that most of the consumers are expected to “throw away” the bread they bought, as the snowstorm was not as severe as expected.

Countering this phenomenon, the “Bread for Education” initiative, which started in 2013, aims at providing students at public schools with stationery, clothes, shoes, books and financial aid, using the money collected from selling leftover bread to fodder traders, said Abedal Rahman Zghoul, who launched the project.

His interests in the environmental and educational sectors were combined in an attempt to offer help indirectly to school and university students.

“We worked on generating a project that would provide income to the less-privileged students without them asking for help,” Zghoul told The Jordan Times. 

Over a period of six months, 24 neighbourhoods in three governorates received support by the initiative, he said.

Residents from targeted neighbourhoods are asked by volunteers to keep their leftover bread in a place where it will not decay, and volunteers pass by every Saturday to collect the bags.

The volunteers are trained to prevent the leftover bread from being exposed to water so that it does not decompose. Initiative members then contact fodder traders to take the bread in exchange for money.

“Students feel that they are contributing to something — transforming unutilised items to a source of income,” Zghoul said.

He noted that bread is “thrown everywhere” and is a “symbol of decent living” that can be used to provide for the disadvantaged in different areas of the Kingdom. 

The idea of “Bread for Education” originated from the local community, he said, “aiming to reinforce the traditions and values carried out by previous generations.” 

The project started in two schools at first, with 25 students and five teachers from each school participating as volunteers, he said, adding that the bread collected amounted to between 10 and 15kg.

Since its launch, “Bread for Education” has provided scholarships for around 365 students, with a total number of 20 schools around the Kingdom participating and benefiting from the money exchanged for extra bread.

Around 2,000 students have also benefited, with more than 250 teachers participating from schools around the country, the 26-year-old said, adding that the initiative targets students in Zarqa, Ajloun and Amman. 

The group’s main difficulty is transportation between villages and neighbourhoods, given that volunteers use bicycles to move about, which is more time-consuming, “especially in harsh weather conditions”, he noted.

However, the group has been aided by contributors, who donated an amount of money that enabled the volunteers to buy their own machine to grind bread instead of sending it to a mill, according to Zghoul.

“Bread for Education started as a campaign, then became an initiative and is currently more like an organisation — thanks to the people who helped us,” he said. 

The initiative was recognised and awarded by many national and international organisations, including the 2015 Voluntary Work Award in Algeria and several entrepreneurship awards in the Kingdom.  

Zghoul was also recognised as a youth ambassador by the Arab Thought Foundation in the UAE.

“The good thing about the initiative is that it has also expanded into neighbourhoods where Palestinian and Syrian refugees reside,” he said, concluding that “education is a right for all”.  

Anyone interested in participating in the initiative can reach the founder and volunteers through their Facebook page “Bread for Education Initiative”, or contact them directly at 0788047623 and 0799778199, or via e-mail: bread.help@hotmail.com. 

AMMAN — A video of a child selling magazines in the cold weather was widely circulated this week on social media websites, and the government said Wednesday it is looking into his situation.

In the video (https://www.youtube.com watch?v=zdYNXqbp

HZI), captured by Faris Khalifah, the boy says he is from Kamaliyeh area near Amman’s Sweileh and is selling magazines, each for JD1, to be able to buy kerosene for his family.

He also says that his father divorced his mother and now he and his siblings live with her in a rented apartment.

In the video, Khalifah offers the child JD5 without taking any magazines, but the boy refuses charity and forcibly puts five magazines in Khalifah’s vehicle while saying that he is in a hurry because his feet are cold and he wants to sell all the magazines to go home.

The Social Development Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement urging the public to help locate the boy, Spokesperson Fawaz Ratrout told The Jordan Times over the phone.

He said that after half-an-hour of issuing the announcement, a citizen called and told the ministry he saw the boy at a cafe in west Amman.

Ministry personnel found the boy, whom Fawaz refused to reveal any information about, except that he is in a good condition and that the ministry is studying his situation.

According to the International Labour Organisation, the Kingdom in 2011 adopted a National Framework to Combat Child Labour to improve the nation’s legislative environment.

This framework lays out the various roles and responsibilities of ministries to identify child labourers, remove them from work, and provide them with appropriate education and social services.

Jordan also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which obligates governments to protect children from work that is not conducive to their development or that intervenes with their fundamental rights, such as the right to education.

Articles 73, 74, 75 and 76 of the Labour Law ban the employment of children under the age of 16 and set limits on the employment of minors between the ages of 16 and 18.

AMMAN — Authorities are investigating reported human trafficking offences committed against dozens of labourers in a garment factory in Irbid, a security source said Wednesday. 

Located in Al Hassan Industrial Estate, the plant in question has been under inspection for about two weeks after the alleged illegal practices were brought to the attention of the Public Security Department’s (PSD) Anti- Human Trafficking Unit by Tamkeen Fields for Aid, a civil society organisation. 

“Investigations maintained that the violations might border on human trafficking,” a source from the Anti-Human Trafficking unit told The Jordan Times on condition of anonymity. 

Over 100 labourers of the factory were reportedly held in “unhygienic” and “overcrowded” rooms, with 10 workers crammed in each room. 

The workers were allegedly subjected to forced labour, beating, arbitrary lay-offs and humiliation at the hands of the facility’s owner and one of his directors, both of whom are non-Jordanians, according to the source. 

“The workers, who include Jordanians, Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis, lived in unsanitary and unsuitable housing and were forced to work for very long hours without getting paid fairly,” the source noted. 

As an example of inhumane practices, one of the female workers was beaten in front of other employees for “staying long in the toilet”. 

The file is now in the hands of Ramtha Attorney General Badr Abu Dalu, said the PSD source, who noted that the factory owner and director were arrested last Wednesday but were released on bail pending further investigation.

Tamkeen interviewed the workers and heard their complaints after receiving information that three of the labourers were arbitrarily laid off when they protested against their conditions. 

“After hearing the workers’ testimonies and inspecting the place they lived in, we reported their case to the PSD Anti-Human Trafficking department,” Tamkeen Director Linda Kalash told The Jordan Times. 

Kalash added that the director of the factory took the passports of 38 Indian and Bangladeshi workers four months ago on the pretext that he wants to issue work permits for them, but he has been in possession of the documents ever since. 

“Some of the female workers were subjected to physical abuse by the factory owner,” a Tamkeen report said. 

“The factory holds their salaries until the 10th of each month, which harms them and their families back in their countries. The workers... had to stay and accept these really bad circumstances, because they knew that if they went back to their countries, it [would] be impossible for them to find jobs there,” the report added.

“The housing did not have a kitchen; the workers are not allowed to have any sick leaves, whatever the severity of the sickness,” it said.

“The workers were also not medically checked since they started work,” she said. 

Kalash called for activating inspections in industrial zones, where labourers still fall prey to human trafficking.

The PSD source noted that the sensitivity of the issue prompted the police to cooperate with legal and human rights experts during investigations. 

The Kingdom has ratified several international agreements related to human trafficking, such as the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially in Women and Children, which is part of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime.

In addition, Jordan has adopted a national strategy to combat human trafficking, which focuses on prevention, protection, law enforcement and international cooperation to eradicate the phenomenon.