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AMMAN — The Energy and Mineral Resources Regulatory Commission (EMRC) on Tuesday suspended silica sand mining rights in several areas in Aqaba, and started searching for alternative isolated areas for excavations.

The EMRC also suspended work in mining fields found in violation of mining rights conditions. The commission granted the violators a grace period of two to three weeks to rectify working conditions and to avert the revocation of their mining rights.

The decisions were taken after inspection tours in several areas of the south, conducted by EMRC Chief Commissioner Farouq Hiyari and other commission officials, Hiyari said on Tuesday. 

AMMAN — The Jordan Bar Association (JBA) on Tuesday held a one-hour work stoppage in courts across the Kingdom in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The move, according to JBA President Samir Khirfan, is a protest against the official stance of Arab and Islamic nations and their governments, which is limited to “shy denouncements that are not suitable to the intensity of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians and holy sites”.

There are not enough responses to the “ugly Israeli crimes” against civilians, the association leader told The Jordan Times over phone, giving the example of burning down the house of the Dawabsheh family, causing death a one-and-a-half-year-old child as well as his parents.

“The JBA demands an immediate call for an Arab League meeting that cancels previous decisions that consider peace with Israel as a strategic option,” he said, adding that Israel does not respect such decisions.
He added that the work stoppage, which took place from 11am until noon, demanded the expulsion of Israeli ambassadors from Arab states and to recall their ambassadors in Tel Aviv.

Freeing Ahmad Daqamseh, who is serving a life sentence for killing seven Israeli schoolgirls in March 1997, was also among the demands, as Israel “does not prosecute murderers of Palestinian children and civilians”.

The work stoppage, which witnessed the participation of hundreds of lawyers, also seeks to draw the public’s attention to injustices against the Palestinians, according to Khirfan.

Responding to whether Jordanian lawyers can file lawsuits against Israel, he said the association has conducted several studies on the effectiveness of such moves, adding that a state must file lawsuits against aggressors on its citizens.

Khirfan added that the Palestinian Authority may not make such move out of fear that it could hinder its peace negotiations with Israel.

“Jordan’s investigations into the murder of Jordanian Judge Raed Zuaiter, whom Israeli authorities killed at the Jordan River crossing point last March, are currently inactive, while waiting for the result of the never-ending Israeli investigations,” he noted.

The association’s Palestine Committee is studying the idea of officially communicating with the UN and international organisations that could be of influence regarding the current situation, the lawyer added.

Jordan has condemned the recurrent Israeli crimes against Palestinian civilians and violations of the sanctity of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, as well as the killing of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank and Gaza.

Officials have said that all options are being considered by Jordan to hold Israel accountable over the escalations in the occupied territories.

AMMAN — There are only between 4,000 to 5,000 households in the Kingdom that use renewable energy, Arab Renewable Energy Commission Secretary General Mohammad Taani said on Tuesday.

Renewable energy, he noted, is not fully utilised in Jordan due to the public’s lack of awareness of its advantages.

“It is definitely not the expected number. Jordanians do not have enough information on this type of energy,” Taani said.

The renewable energy expert argued that there is miscommunication between power providers and renewable energy companies in the process of offering households sufficient power supply. 

“Power providers often see those companies as their competitors; thus, fewer people are interested in using renewable energy as they sense some obstacles in service provision,” Taani said.

He stressed the importance of engaging a third party to “link” between electricity providers and the companies in order to have a better chance to provide improved service to subscribers. 

“A third balanced party should intervene to regulate the process and manage it carefully,” Taani added.

He said there are around 500 renewable energy-providing companies around Jordan, which is “one of the problems” that endanger the future of renewable energy in the country. 

“These companies should be reduced to [no more than] 100, as they mislead and cause miscommunication between the consumer and the power provider,” Taani told The Jordan Times.

He added that most consumers of renewable energy reside in the capital, while the rest are equally spread around the governorates. 

Jordan has one of the highest annual daily averages of solar irradiance in the world, with around 330 days of sunshine per year. The Kingdom also has significant amounts of untapped wind energy, with wind speeds as high as 7.5 metres per second and up to 11.5 metres per second in hilly areas, according to experts.

AMMAN — The Jordan Museum on Tuesday evening opened a nine-day exhibition of photographs of the Kingdom and other countries in the region taken by Alois Musil, a late 19th and early 20th century Czech explorer.

The exhibition, organised in cooperation with the Czech embassy in Amman, moves chronologically through photos from Musil’s first journey in what was then the West Bank of the Jordan River to his travels in Sinai, Gaza and the Negev, following him through Jordan, Syria, Iraq and, finally, Saudi Arabia. 

The scholar was the first European to visit the desert castle of Qasayr Amra, 85km northeast of Amman, in 1898, “discovering” it and documenting it a few years later, convincing the scientific community of its importance. 

Over the course of his travel through the Middle East, Musil also became very close with a number of bedouin tribes, becoming co-leader of two. 

Musil’s photographs “constitute the highly original diary of a scholar who, first and foremost, was intent on documenting his explorations... [his] photographic archive is an authentic wellspring of images lacking neither ambience nor documentary value,” the exhibition material said.

In addition to his own photography, Musil contributed reproductions of illustrations, inscriptions and photographs, cartography of unmapped areas, and his historical and cultural understanding of life in the Middle East to his era’s scholarship on the region. 

The explorer’s experiences and observations “are collected in more than 70 books and over 1,400 specialist and popular articles”, according to exhibition organisers.

He went on to play a pivotal role in establishing the Oriental Institute in Prague.

Musil’s photographs showcase numerous elements of Middle Eastern life at the time, from landscapes and oases to castles and local farmers, as well as a shot of the Treasury in Petra before the restoration of its columns. 

The exhibition, which brings to life the history of the Kingdom and the region as a whole, runs until October 29 at the Jordan Museum. 

AMMAN — A total of 108 murders have been committed in the Kingdom until the end of September this year and, among them, 107 cases have been solved, an unnamed source from the Interior Ministry was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as saying on Tuesday.

All the 8,300 drug crimes committed since the beginning of 2015 have been solved, the source said, adding that 18,145 crimes of various types were committed since the beginning of this year.

Of this total 15,809 were solved, according to the source, who noted that the crime detection rate has reached nearly 87 per cent, up from 83 per cent for the same period last year. 

AMMAN — Gendarmerie Department Director Brig. Gen. Hussein Hawatmeh on Tuesday received a delegation of accredited military attaches in Amman, and commended the bilateral relations between the Kingdom and their respective countries.

Hawatmeh said regional and international events pose security challenges that require joint cooperation in the best interest of all parties, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The delegates praised the “advanced level” of the department, expressing hope for more cooperation with equivalent departments in their countries.

The attaches also toured the diplomatic security directorate and were briefed on the services it presents for diplomatic missions to Jordan, Petra added.

AMMAN — Hundreds of participants have joined the Jordan Olympic Committee-supported Five Rings Challenge, resulting in plans to turn it into a long-term project, a statement from the JOC media service said Tuesday.

The initiative, which encourages the Kingdom’s youth to embrace sports and healthy activity, is held every Saturday morning at Al Hussein Park and invites participants between the ages of 18-30 to attend and discover sports in new and fun ways, according to the media service.

Developed by a group of volunteers in the JOC’s Knowledge, Training and Education Department, “the challenge sees the volunteers engage with other young men and women to learn, play and have fun with sport during a two hour session,” the statement said.

Narin Hajtass, the department’s manager, said that to date more than 350 young people have participated, adding that “it is a new approach to promoting sport and healthy activity among this important age group and follows the lead from the Association of National Olympic Committees [which] wants to create a new strategy to engage with the youth”. 

Hajtass also emphasised the benefits of the programme being run by volunteers, saying that it “encourages volunteerism as well as positioning sports as fun and social” while young people are simultaneously benefiting and enjoying themselves because they are not being taught by people with a professional sporting background.

The programme ties directly to the JOC’s vision of sports as playing a key role in the lives of all Jordanians, the JOC official said.

According to the official website, the five challenges test both mental and physical agility over two hours and consist of: warm up exercises, football, basketball, volleyball and Olympic values. 

Participants are divided into four groups who spend 20 minutes on each challenge before moving onto the next one.

AMMAN — The Madaba health directorate halted pumping from the Waleh wells on Tuesday because the water was found to be contaminated, according to Mohammad Shawabkeh from the Madaba health directorate.

Shawabkeh said microscopic test results showed the wells’ water was contaminated as it was found in violation of the required water quality specifications, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported from Madaba. 

AMMAN — Jordan Media Institute (JMI) announced on Tuesday the launch of a Child Rights Media Award in cooperation with UNICEF and the European Union.

The award, based on the theme “Learning for all”, is focused on the importance of education rights, bringing attention to children’s issues at a time of regional conflict, the JMI said in a statement.

The judging panel encourages story submissions that reflect individual initiatives, with a preference for “character-led” stories that include the voices of children and those directly affected, the statement said.

The award is open for print and online written media. The stories, in Arabic or English, should be between 700 and 1,000 words long and should have been published between 2014 and 2015. All stories should be submitted with a short biography of the journalist to childrightsmediajo@gmail.com by November 8.

AMMAN — Elders and tribal leaders from Petra District on Tuesday signed an honour pact stipulating not to fire gunshots at social occasions.

The pact, signed within the “Don’t Kill Me with Your Happiness” initiative, was launched during a symposium organised by the Petra Police Department in cooperation with the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority (PDTRA).

PDTRA Chief Commissioner Mohammad Nawafleh said festive firing shows the recklessness of the shooter and combating this phenomenon is the responsibility of all components of society, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.