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AMMAN — Their Highnesses Prince Mired and Princess Dina Mired, director of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF), on Monday attended a charity gala at the house of Samer Kawar, the honorary consul of the Republic of San Marino to support the KHCF and the King Hussein Cancer Centre.

The celebration was organised by the Honorary Consulate of San Marino and the Jordan-San Marino Friendship Association, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Princess Dina thanked the honorary consulate and the friendship association for their efforts to support the KHCF and the KHCC’s “noble message”. Kawar said supporting the foundation and centre is a national duty in light of their important role in treating cancer.

AMMAN — Irbid’s Bani Obeid Education Directorate on Monday recommended that a student who allegedly attacked a principal and teacher be banned from public and private schools.

The 12th grade student at Zaha Iddin Hmoud School reportedly attacked the teacher in the classroom and punched him before the principal intervened and was assaulted as well.

Other teachers intervened and called the police, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Irbid police on Monday referred the student to the prosecutor general, according to Petra.

Bani Obeid Education Director Fawaz Tamimi said Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat telephoned the principal and teacher and checked on their health condition. 

AMMAN — Amman Mayor Aqel Biltaji and Paphos Mayor Phedon Phedonos on Monday discussed bilateral relations between Amman and the Cypriot city and ways to enhance them at the municipal, cultural and tourist levels.

Both sides discussed signing a twinning agreement between the two cities to enhance cooperation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Phedonos stressed his keenness on developing cooperation between the two cities, highlighting the importance of connecting Amman with Pafos through a Royal Jordanian flight that can also serve Romania, Croatia and Bulgaria.

AMMAN — The Public Security Department on Monday announced the working hours for the Jordan Valley and Wadi Araba border crossings for passengers and cargo October 14 to 16.

Both crossings will be closed to passengers and cargo movement from Wednesday at noon until Friday 8am, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

AMMAN — Public Security Department (PSD) Director Maj. Gen. Atef Saudi on Monday met with the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) council, headed by JTA President Hussam Masheh, a PSD statement said.

They discussed cooperation to limit assaults on teaching and administrative cadres at schools and ways to deal with such cases in their legal and social frames.

Saudi said assaulting teachers, dropping out of schools, and loitering in front of schools are negative behaviours that need to be studied in order to be solved.

Masheh and the council commended the PSD’s efforts in resolving cases by involving teachers and students with professionalism and efficiency.

AMMAN — Professional associations on Monday called for Arab and Islamic nations that are members of the UN and its Security Council to support Jordan’s stance in defending Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The associations called for an urgent international movement at the UN to boycott Israel for its recurrent assaults on Al Aqsa, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

They urged these countries to express rejection of plans to divide Al Aqsa Mosque complex. In messages sent to the embassies of UN member states, President of the Professional Associations Council and the Jordan Engineers Association Majid Tabaa stressed Jordan’s role in defending the mosque, defined as the entire Al Haram Al Sharif compound (or the noble sanctuary whose area is estimated at 144 dunums).

AMMAN — Students and activists from the University of Jordan (UJ) launched a campaign on Sunday against “privatising” public universities and “commercialising” campuses.

The “Baouha” (they have sold it out) campaign criticises the “privatisation” of university grounds and aims to raise awareness among students regarding the hike of tuition fees, according to organisers. 

Mohammad Dmour, one of the organisers who is also a member of UJ’s student union, said the movement is one of many to protest licensing international business chains, beverage and water companies to sell their products on campus.

Many students from the Arab Renewal Bloc and independent parties joined the campaign on its first day, according to Dmour.

Organisers added that for the past four years, international companies and restaurants have been “competing” over promoting their “not-so-educational” services among students.

“This has been going on since the 1990’s,” said Alaa Hajjeh, a UJ student and activist.

“In 2012, [the university administration] announced a decision that students should pay tuition fees before enrolling… in 2014, tuition fees were hiked, and now in 2015 restaurant chains opened branches on campus,” the 24-year-old added.

“It goes against the goal that universities were established for,” he said.

Students said the “crisis” public universities are facing is due to the reduction of financial aid from the government. 

In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, a UJ official said the university used to receive around JD12 million from the government and the support recently amounts to JD1 million.

“This whole problem would be solved if the government goes back to supporting public universities again,” Hajjeh said. 

For his part, UJ Vice President for Investment Affairs Ghaleb Sweis told The Jordan Times the restaurant chains that have opened branches on campus, such as Burger King and Papa John’s, have been in Jordan for a long time.

“The decision to open these branches at UJ was due to the big number of foreigners on campus and the high demand on fast food indoors,” he added.

Sweis noted that almost 50,000 students are enrolled at UJ, in addition to around 10,000 foreigners and visitors that the campus receives daily.

“We want to provide services to our students… many Jordanians like to go to such restaurants, and around 45 per cent of their customers are international students,” he said. 

He added that many other businesses have been on campus since 2003 and students did not complain about “commercialising” the campus.

UJ, Sweis said, receives only JD70,000 annually for renting venues for the restaurants, adding that the arrangement provides job opportunities for students after their classes.

“How can the university survive if it were to stay on a fixed income with constantly increasing expenses?” he asked.

AMMAN – Sahar Tannerah’s admiration for Korean culture encouraged her to attend the 10th Korean Film Festival in Amman, which started on Sunday. 

The 20-year-old Jordanian likes several aspects of Korean culture displayed in their movies, which attracted her to the festival, she told The Jordan Times before the beginning of the first screening. 

She added that she particularly appreciates the respect that Koreans show for each other.

Tannerah was among many Jordanians who attended the first day of the annual Korean Film Festival, which is held as part of Korean Cultural Week at Al Hussein Cultural Centre in Amman and runs until Tuesday. 

Three movies — “As One”, “How to Steal A Dog” and “Welcome to Dongmakgol” — are on the festival’s schedule this year.

“As One”, the first movie screened on Sunday, dramatises an alliance between North and South Korean women’s table tennis teams, which prepared to play as a single unit in the World Table Tennis Championships held in 1991, according to the festival’s organisers.

“How to Steal a Dog”, which was screened on Monday, depicts a 10-year-old Korean girl’s attempt to steal a dog from an elderly rich lady and return it in exchange for a reward big enough to buy her struggling family a house.

The final film, “Welcome to Dongmakgol”, which will be screened on Tuesday at 6pm, centres on a US Navy pilot who crash lands his plane in a remote village in Korea that has remained ignorant of modern technology and history.

Korean Ambassador to Jordan Choi Hong-ghi said in a statement that since Korea is observing the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean Peninsula, two of the films shown this year, “As One” and “Welcome to Dongmakgol”, reflect this theme.  

“This is an annual event and... part of our cultural activities in Jordan. Culture has a vital role to promot bilateral relations, and cultural exchange between the two countries has witnessed very good development these days,” he told The Jordan Times in an interview.  

The Korean diplomat expressed hope that through these cultural activities, people from different countries can enhance their understanding of one another and contribute to closing gaps between the two nations.

Reflecting on the popularity of Korean culture among the Jordanian community, he said: “I am very pleased to see this kind of phenomenon in Jordan... Through mutual understanding between the two cultures, the two nations can understand each other much better and can be friends very easily.”

Sarah Shoubaki, another member of the audience, said she is a big fan of Korean series and she wanted to see what Korean movies are like. 

“I am also interested in directing and producing and this festival can help me find more information about these fields,” the 20-year-old added. 

Ahed Tannerah, who studies Korean and German at university, said watching these movies increased her understanding of the Korean language. 

The Korean cultural week will also include a Korean speech contest at the University of Jordan on Tuesday and a performance by Korean folklore music ensemble Coreyah at Al Hussein Cultural Centre on Wednesday.   

Rooted in Korean traditional music, Coreyah combines different ethnic musical traditions such as African, Brazilian and Middle Eastern with modern styles such as jazz and rock, according to a statement from the organisers.

AMMAN — With the situation of women deemed to be the most challenging for the development of Arab countries, corporate social responsibility (CSR) should be utilised as a tool to change the status quo, experts said on Monday.

A regional forum on CSR opened in Amman on Monday with the aim of coming up with a roadmap towards improving women’s participation in all walks of life.

The forum also seeks to identify roadblocks hindering women’s full integration into society, including restrictive laws and societal norms.

“Implementing corporate social responsibility policies has become a very significant strategy for creating positive change for people and the environment, and a valuable tool to reach equality in society and the workplace,” said HRH Princess Basma during the forum’s opening ceremony.

She cited the UN Global Compact, an initiative that encourages the private sector to implement sustainable and responsible social policies that has been signed by participants from 170 countries, according to the compact’s website.

Participants at the two-day gathering, organised by the Arab Women’s Council (AWC) and the Arab Organisation for Social Responsibility (AOSR), are discussing research papers on women’s empowerment in the ICT sector, women’s economic role, and Arab governments’ measures to improve the situation of women.

“The social problems of our current era, especially in developing countries, including the Arab world, have amplified the burden on women. There is no doubt that empowering women leads to better living conditions for individuals and a better reality for countries as a whole,” said AWC President Lina Moukarzel.

Mohammed Al Adwan, ambassador of Arab cooperation at the AOSR, called for utilising knowledge, faith and research in order to access modernisation and development.

A member of the AWC board of trustees, Judge Taghreed Hikmat, urged participants to exchange their experiences and knowledge of practical ways to employ CSR to support women.

During the opening ceremony, Mouna Elias Haraoui, founder and president of the Chronic Care Centre in Lebanon, and Adnan Yousif, CEO of Al Baraka Banking Group, highlighted their experiences in social, humanitarian and development work.

AMMAN — Royal Border Guard units on Sunday morning foiled an infiltration attempt by a person who wanted to cross from Jordan into a neighbouring country, an official source from the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army said on Monday.

Rules of engagement observed under such conditions were implemented, and the man was apprehended and referred to the relevant authorities, said the source, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.