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AMMAN — Egyptian Ambassador to Jordan Khaled Tharwat, head of the Egyptian elections committee in Amman, said the run-off polls in Jordan have concluded and announced the results.

He said 843 votes were registered in Amman and Aqaba during the two-day runoff elections. The ambassador urged Egyptians residing in the Kingdom to take part in the second phase of the elections, slated for November 21 and 22.

AMMAN — The 2015 national population census will officially begin on November 21 and last for 10 days, Department of Statistics (DoS) Director Qasem Zu’bi said Wednesday.

The DoS is almost done with training its census takers, Zu’bi told the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

He urged the public to check the IDs of researchers, which were given to them for the purposes of the population census, and stressed the importance of cooperating with them to perform their national duty and make the census a success.

AMMAN — The Lower House Education Committee on Wednesday met with Higher Education Minister Labib Khadra, the ministry’s secretary general, Hani Dmour, and several presidents of Jordanian universities.

MP Bassam Btoush, who chaired the meeting, said it discussed a draft to resolve the financial crises facing public universities ahead of sending it to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour and the Higher Education Ministry, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Btoush called for reconsidering some university majors and study plans, noting that part of the solution includes improving human resources. Dmour said the draft includes a summary of the financial situation of universities, noting that what students pay covers only 30 per cent of education costs.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday received a letter from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi expressing Egypt’s appreciation for the King’s efforts in serving Arab causes, first and foremost the Palestinian cause and protecting Islamic sites in Jerusalem.

In the letter, Sisi lauded Jordan’s role in reaching political solutions for the crises witnessed in several Arab countries in a manner that maintains their unity and safeguards the accomplishments of their people.

The Egyptian president also commended the Kingdom’s role in hosting refugees, according to a Royal Court statement.

Sisi emphasised the distinguished ties between both nations and their mutual commitment to preserving the interests of the Arab and the Islamic world.

He also expressed appreciation for His Majesty’s support for Egypt under different circumstances, noting that this boosts the morale of the nation and its people.

Jordan has been placing pressure on Israel to maintain the status quo in Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv has declared its commitment to this, while agreeing to a Jordanian proposal to provide 24-hour video coverage of all sites at Al Haram Al Sharif.

AMMAN — Authorities have recently banned exports of olive fruits to some markets, including Israel, a government official confirmed Monday.  

The official explained that the decision was taken on grounds of protecting the interests of farmers as it is more feasible for them to have their produce pressed and sold as oil than exported for pickling purposes. 

Due to high temperatures and several heatwaves and dusty conditions witnessed around the Kingdom this year, farmers waited until after mid-October to start harvesting olives, which means the fruits became riper and had higher oil concentrations, the official, who requested anonymity, said.

“It is not recommended to export olives containing high amounts of oil," he told The Jordan Times.

Traditionally, farmers wait for the first rains to clean the olives before pressing but this year, the trees were too dusty even to pick for exporting, let alone that it is not healthy for them to harvest the produce when the fruit is coated with a thick layer of dust.

The best period of harvesting olive for pickling is the beginning of October, according to the official, who added that the produce is usually exported to Israel, Gulf and other Arab countries. 

He added that in recent years, Israel has been one of the Kingdom's main olive and olive oil markets.

Fayyad Zyoud, chairman of the Jordan Olive Products Exporters Association, has previously stated that the production of olives this year amounted to 220,000-230,000 tonnes, of which around 60,000 tonnes are exported as fruit. 

Despite the difficult weather conditions, this year's olive production saw an increase of 25 to 30 per cent compared to previous years, according to Zyoud.

With more than 20 million trees across the Kingdom, Jordan is listed among the top 10 olive producing countries in the world.

AMMAN — The death toll from the "huge" fire at the Jordan Customs Department (JCD) yards in the Abu Alanda area, southern Amman, was decreased to seven following a recount by the pathology department on Tuesday, official sources said.

Civil Defence Department (CDD) Media Director Brig. Gen. Farid Sharaa told The Jordan Times that “there was some confusion yesterday when our rescue teams placed the bodies in bags to send them for autopsy”.

“Many bodies were burnt beyond recognition while others were torn off and this is what caused the confusion in the count,” Sharaa told The Jordan Times.

The CDD official said on Tuesday that pathologists at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine confirmed that the number of dead were seven, including two Jordanians and five Egyptians.

The CDD official said that the ad hoc committee tasked with investigating the incident did not come out with results.

The task force was formed upon orders from Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, who arrived at the accident scene and met with senior security officials.

“It will take the committee some time to determine the cause of the incident,” Sharaa added.

A senior official source told The Jordan Times on Tuesday that employees who are enrolled in the Social Security Department will be compensated.

“The container is most probably insured.  This will also cover any damages for the deceased and injured,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, added.

An officer at the media office of the CDD said the fire erupted after two containers of fireworks exploded, adding that the dead and the injured were workers at the yards and were Jordanian and Egyptian.

The CDD officer told The Jordan Times over the phone that several vehicles parked at the yardwere damaged by the fire.

Sharaa said more than 40 fire engines, ambulances and rescue vehicles and 150 individuals from the CDD, the customs department and the police took part in the five-hour operation to extinguish the fires and evacuate the dead and injured to nearby hospitals.

Khalid Shobaki, an employee at MAl Trans Company at the JCD said at around 3:15pm he heard a loud explosion while he was in his office.

“All the employees rushed out of the building quickly to check the matter and we saw thick smoke and fire from a parking lot inside the customs department,” Shobaki, who has been working for the company, located inside the JCD premises, said.

“Two containers and dozens of cars parked in the area were totally burnt or destroyed,” Shobaki told The Jordan Times.

The Jordanian casualties included the driver of the trailer that was supposed to drive the fire works back to Aqaba and Captain Suhail Fares of the JCD who was stationed there.

“Captain Fares was loved by everyone here and was known for his good deeds and respect for everyone. He will surely be missed,” Shobaki said.

Importing fireworks was banned by the government in 2009, except for those brought into the country by public agencies for national festivities.

But a government official told The Jordan Times on Monday that the containers were seized by customs officers several weeks ago and were stored at the yards before being re-exported to Nigeria. 

Referring to the fire’s causes, Assaf said the way the container burned can only be explained as the result of “carelessness” by the unloading workers, stressing that the storage location was far away from any source that could have led to the fire, a statement issued by the JCD said.

He said that JCD would get rid of other seized containers of fireworks as soon as possible to avoid similar accidents in the future.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram arrived in Jordan on Tuesday to follow up on the incident and discuss compensation for the Egyptian victims’ families with Jordanian officials.

She met with Minister of Labour Nidal Katamine, who is also the chairperson of the Social Security Corporation (SSC).  

Katamine expressed his condolences over the death of the Egyptian nationals and wished a speedy recovery for the injured, according to an SSC statement.

SSC Director General Nadia Rawabdeh said the corporation discovered that three of the dead and two of the injured were  not registered with the SSC.

She stressed the SSC would immediately follow up on their cases with the companies hiring them to check on the applicability of the Social Security Law to their case, noting that if their companies did not register them with the SSC, the corporation would register them retroactively.

Death and  injury pensions would be disbursed to the heirs of the dead employees’ families covering 75 per cent of their salaries, with the addition of JD40 according to the Social Security Law, Rawabdeh announced, adding that the SSC would also pay JD500 for each death case as funeral expenses. 

As for the injured, she noted they will be fully covered with treatment expenses, and will receive 75 per cent of their daily wages for each day during their recovery period until their health conditions improve, the statement added.  

For her part, Makram expressed sympathies with the families of Jordanians killed in the accident, and wished the injured a speedy recovery, thanking Katamine and Rawabdeh for their response to the incident. 

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah strongly denounced a suicide terrorist attack targeting Al Mashhad Mosque in the southern Saudi Arabian city of Najran that killed and injured a number of civilians, according to a Royal Court statement. 

In a cable sent to Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, King Abdullah expressed his sympathies over the incident and his solidarity with Saudi Arabia, wishing the injured a speedy recovery.

AMMAN — Border Guards on Monday night destroyed a pickup vehicle spotted speeding towards the Jordanian border from Syria, an official source from the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army said.

Border Guards dealt with the vehicle in accordance with the rules of engagement, resulting in the destruction of the vehicle and injury to two infiltrators on board, the source was quoted as saying by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

Border Guards found 717,000 narcotic pills in the vehicle and referred them to the concerned agencies, the source said.

The army has been on maximum alert since the start of the Syrian civil war five years ago to prevent terrorists from threatening the country’s security, frequently warning that it will respond on the spot to such infiltration attempts.

On Tuesday afternoon, border guards foiled another drug trafficking attempt by two cars coming from Syria, making this the third drug trafficking interception in the last two days, another military source told Petra. 

The cars were destroyed and the seized drugs were sent to the concerned agencies, with more details to be released at a later date, the source added.

Border Guards also received 94 Syrian refugees in the past 48 hours and transferred them to shelters and camps set up for this purpose, an army source told Petra Tuesday. Royal Medical Services cadres provided essential healthcare services and medication to the sick and injured, the source added. 

AMMAN — The Kingdom is neither a mediator nor an observer in the Palestinian issue; all matters related to a Palestinian final solution are linked to Jordanian interests, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh said Tuesday.

The remarks were made during a high-profile meeting of senior officials at the UN and its specialised agencies to discuss the agencies’ contributions to regional issues, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The minister highlighted the centrality of the Palestinian cause as the core conflict in the region, adding that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been ongoing for a long time.

Violence in the region will continue unless a comprehensive solution to the conflict is reached, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital, Judeh said.

He also stressed the importance of reaching a political solution to the Syrian conflict that guarantees the safety, security and unity of the state with the participation of all components of the Syrian people as stipulated in the Geneva I resolutions.

The minister also reviewed the latest developments in the region, including Iraq, Libya and Yemen, referring to the need for political solutions and dialogue to guarantee the safety and stability of these countries, Petra reported.

Judeh praised the efforts of various UN agencies to ensure a better future for new generations and reach development and peace. He also emphasised their humanitarian role regarding the refugee crisis in the region, expressing Jordan's keenness to continue cooperation and coordination with the organisation.  

Also on Tuesday, Judeh met with a number of UN representatives on a variety of issues.

In a discussion with UN Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey D. Feltman, he reviewed international efforts to combat extremism and terrorism and stressed the Kingdom’s position at the forefront of these efforts.

They also discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian arena and the installation of surveillance cameras at Al Haram Al Sharif to document Israeli assaults, Petra reported.

The minister also met with Stephan De Mistura, the UN secretary general’s special envoy for Syria, and reviewed the latest developments in the country and efforts exerted to contain the crisis.

Judeh convened with the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed and reviewed developments in Yemen, with the deputy prime minister stressing Jordan’s support for the Yemeni people and for all efforts aimed at realising peace and security in the country.

Hervé Ladsous, the UN undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations, highlighted the importance of cooperation between Jordan and the UN in terms of peacekeeping forces in his meeting with Judeh, according to Petra.

AMMAN — Zarqa Public Security Department personnel have arrested a suspect allegedly involved in a February incident in which a man was found dead on a main road and registered as the victim of a hit-and-run incident, the PSD said Tuesday.

The case was changed from a hit-and-run incident to murder at the beginning of this month after new information came to light, suggesting that a person involved in a dispute with the victim was the last to see him before his death, the PSD said in a statement.

Detectives retraced the victim’s last steps and interviewed several people. The result of the investigation led to the suspect.

Although the suspect strongly denied having been involved in the crime, evidence and witness testimonies proved the opposite, the PSD added.

Faced with the collected evidence, the suspect confessed to hitting the victim on the head on account of a financial dispute and then running him over with a huge vehicle so that the case would likely be classified as a hit-and-run, according to the statement.

The case was referred to the specialised prosecutor general and the suspect was charged with murder.