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AMMAN — HRH Prince Mohammad, His Majesty King Abdullah’s personal representative, celebrates his birthday on Friday.

Born on October 2, 1940, Prince Mohammad was educated at the Islamic Scientific College and pursued his higher studies in Switzerland and Britain.

He also studied at the Military College in Baghdad between 1956 and 1957, later joining the Special Royal Guards before becoming the late King Hussein’s military adviser.

The prince assumed several posts, serving as Crown Prince from 1952 until 1962.

In 1970, a Royal Decree was issued appointing him as head of the tribal leaders council and in 1973 he was named as the King’s personal representative.

Prince Mohammad chaired the higher tourism committee several times, and served as Regent on numerous occasions while the King was abroad.

He holds the honorary rank of field marshal in the Jordan Armed Forces and has received several medals from Jordan and abroad.

In addition to mastering Arabic, English and French, the prince understands German and Turkish.

Prince Mohammad married Princess Taghrid in 1981 and has two sons from a previous marriage, Their Royal Highnesses Prince Talal, the King’s special adviser, and Prince Ghazi, chief adviser to the King for religious and cultural affairs and the King’s personal envoy.

AMMAN — Facebook users on Thursday mocked the government’s reduction of gasoline prices by merely about five fils per litre. 

On Wednesday, the government reduced the price of one litre of unleaded 90-octane gasoline from JD0.560 to JD0.555 and one litre of unleaded 95-octane gasoline from JD0.725 to JD0.720. The drop of five fils was equivalent to a tarifa, a coin that was discontinued in Jordan decades ago.

“The good thing about the government’s decision is that it has reminded Jordanians of something from our heritage. Still, it would have been better not to have reduced gasoline prices at all rather than this insignificant change,” Ahmad Faraijeh said in a post on his Facebook timeline on Thursday.

Alaa Halawe joked on Facebook on Thursday that the slight drop “shows the government’s deep understanding of our difficult economic conditions”.

Others believed that the drop was very slight because the government appeared to be making plans to increase prices of fuel derivatives in winter.

“I think the drop this time was meaningless because it was the last one. It is meant to prepare us for an  increase in prices as winter approaches,” Islam Darakjeh suggested in a post on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the government also introduced a slight increase in prices of some fuel types.

The price of one litre of diesel and kerosene will rise to JD0.410 from JD0.405.

Under the new pricing list, the price of the 12-kilogramme gas cylinder, used for cooking and heating, will fall to JD7 from JD7.25.

Prices of oil derivatives in the local market are calculated monthly based on international oil prices, taking into account additional costs such as shipment, handling and taxes.

AMMAN — The Jordan Media Institute (JMI) on Thursday announced the winners of the Human Rights Reporting Awards for print and online media.

The award seeks to expand public dialogue on human rights and encourage deeper understanding of this issue among journalists, said JMI’s dean, Bassem Tweisi, adding that the award aims at honing participants’ reporting and data journalism skills.

He noted that the region’s political transformation process has been accompanied by socioeconomic and cultural challenges that created an “urgent need” to raise the quality of media coverage. 

Out of the 10 works submitted in the print category, the JMI selected an investigative report by Al Ghad daily’s Nadine Nimri on children born to unidentified parents.

Nimri said that her report, one of a three-part series, discussed the challenges confronted by children with unidentified parents, among which are the absence of a family environment and the burden of social stigma. 

Although many readers disputed the need to discuss this topic in the media, Nimri wanted to “humanise” the suffering of infants who, when left on the street, face higher risk of death and disability.

Ezzedine Natour, from the Community Media Network’s Ammannet.net, won the online prize for his report titled “Death penalty after imprisonment… two punishments for a single crime”, defeating eight other submissions for the category.

He said his report challenges the argument that implementing capital punishment reduces crime rates. 

Both winners cited difficulty in accessing information from official authorities.

Evaluation criteria for the awards included the level of difficulty in obtaining information, effective use of the news format, including clarity and narrative, scope of research, the extent of action generated by the news coverage, creativity, originality and use of innovative reporting tools, such as data journalism.

Participating reports, submitted either in Arabic or English from August 1, 2014 until September 7, 2015, addressed the rights of children, women and refugees, as well as economic rights, human trafficking and other issues.

The competition was part of a two-year partnership between JMI and Canada’s Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) under the project “Expanding Public Dialogue on Human Rights Issues”, supported by the U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative and the UN Democracy Fund.  

The project featured 15 workshops on human rights reporting and the use of data journalism tools to run major investigations on human rights issues, with the participation of 235 journalists, journalism students and representatives of civil society organisations, Tweisi said.

AMMAN — A tender to build and operate the Amman-Zarqa Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project will be floated in three months and actual work will begin by 2016, Transport Minister Lina Shbeeb told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

The project will be implemented by a number of contractors and is expected to be complete by 2018, according to the minister. 

The total cost of the plan is estimated at around JD110 million, Shbeeb said, adding it will provide work opportunities for IT experts, drivers and maintenance workers.

The project will contribute to reducing traffic jams between the two cities, decrease the number of vehicles on the Amman-Zarqa highway and therefore minimise gas emissions, The Jordan News Agency, Petra quoted Zarqa Mayor Imad Momani as saying on Thursday.

The Amman-Zarqa BRT will have four phases for road construction, a tender to build stations, and another for the creation of a control room with an integrated transport system for the bus, Shbeeb said, adding that each trip will last for 23 minutes. 

The project's stations will include two departure terminals, one in Amman and one in Zarqa, and stops along the route including one at the Military College Bridge in Zarqa, near the Pepsi Bridge on the Amman-Zarqa highway, and one at the Ruseifa Bridge, the minister said.

In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, Shbeeb said around 4,200 passengers are expected to benefit from the Amman-Zarqa BRT during peak hours, though it may take time for Jordanians to shift from using their own vehicles to the bus service..

AMMAN — Chinese Ambassador to Jordan Gao Yusheng on Wednesday said His Majesty King Abdullah’s recent visit to China opened new horizons of bilateral cooperation for the near future.

At a reception held to mark the 66th anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, he said that Jordanian-Chinese relations realised many achievements since inception in 1977, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The diplomat added that Jordan’s participation in the 2015 China-Arab States Expo acquainted the Chinese people with Jordan’s status as an oasis of peace and security within a war-torn region.

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Thursday chaired a board meeting of the National Centre for Security and Crisis Management to discuss the centre’s annual budget.

After it is finalised, the centre’s budget will need to be approved by the Council of Ministers to be included in the state budget for the first time since the centre became operative on April 1, 2015.

AMMAN — HRH Prince Mired, president of the Higher Council for the Affairs of Persons with Disabilities, on Thursday stressed the important role of the Education Ministry in providing essential services and educational programmes for persons with disabilities.

At a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat, Prince Mired lauded workers’ efforts and their ongoing cooperation with the council in this regard.

Thneibat highlighted the ministry’s commitment to preparing schools and their facilities in a manner that guarantees the smooth entry and exit of students with disabilities. He also briefed the prince on the ministry’s programmes for this bracket.

AMMAN — Foreign Ministry Secretary General Mohammad Tayseer Bani Yassin on Thursday received a delegation from the Japanese Houses of Councillors and Representatives and discussed bilateral cooperation and the latest regional developments.

Bani Yassin acquainted the delegates with the difficulties faced by Jordan in its efforts to provide necessary services for more than 1.4 million Syrian refugees amid scarce resources and pressure on host community infrastructure, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

He also expressed the government’s appreciation for the financial and technical assistance offered by Japan to help the Kingdom implement development programmes. The Japanese delegates described the visit as an “important” opportunity to exchange views.

AMMAN — The health and interior ministries on Thursday received six vehicles presented by the South Korean government intended to help Jordan in its efforts to serve Syrian refugees.

The vehicles included three buses for the Interior Ministry as well as two ambulances and a bus for the Health Ministry.

At the ceremony held to present the donations, attended by Interior Minister Salameh Hammad and Health Minister Ali Hiasat, Hammad thanked the Korean government for its commitment to support the Kingdom’s humanitarian projects and said the vehicles will be used to serve the refugees.

AMMAN — The Greek embassy will distribute school stationery to 200 children in Amman, among them Syrian and Iraqi refugees as well as Jordanian children in need, a statement by the embassy on Thursday said.

The donations will take place on Sunday and are offered in cooperation with the Middle East Council of Churches. The gifts form part of Greece’s efforts to support children in need, highlight the importance of education, and prevent Syrian and Iraqi youth from becoming a “lost generation”, according to the statement.