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AMMAN — Anti-Narcotics Department (AND) agents arrested 12 suspected drug dealers and seized a large amount of narcotics in several raids last week, a Public Security Department statement said Sunday.

AND also detained 15 suspected drug addicts and confiscated nine kilogrammes of synthetic cannabis, 6.5kg of hashish, 16,000 narcotic pills, 330 grammes of heroin and some marijuana, the statement said.

The raids were conducted in several governorates, including Maan, Balqa and Mafraq.

AMMAN — The Association of Queen Rania Al Abdullah Award for Excellence in Education (QRAEE) has signed a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Social Development, a QRAEE statement issued Sunday said.

According to the agreement, the Social Development Ministry will benefit from the experiences of “distinguished” educators in teaching the children of Al Hussein Social Foundation for Orphans, helping them develop both educationally and academically.

Social Development Minister Reem Abu Hassan and QRAEE Executive Director Lubna Touqan signed the agreement, which stipulates that the association nominate “distinguished teachers” to provide specially designed reinforcement programmes for the children of Al Hussein Social Foundation for Orphans.

AMMAN — One man died and 22 people were injured on Sunday in four separate traffic accidents in Karak, Amman and Zarqa, according to the Civil Defence Department.

In Karak, a vehicle overturned in the Sultani area, leading to the death of one man and the injury of six people from the same family.

The injured are being treated at Karak Public Hospital, where some of them are in critical condition.

In Amman, six were injured in a two-vehicle collision in the Muqabalein area, while in Zarqa, a two-vehicle collision and a car that overturned led to injuring 10 people.

The injured were taken to Prince Feisal Hospital where they were listed in fair condition.

AMMAN — With the double aim of offering activities for Jordanians to enjoy the summer and encouraging them to buy local products, the Made in Jordan festival opened Friday in the capital.

Held at Expo Land on the airport road, the festival, which runs until September 5, features products by Jordanian companies and handicraft artists and books by local authors from across the Kingdom.

“The main goal is to hold a festival for Jordanians, not for tourists. We want Jordanians to see their country’s products,” the festival’s director, Lana Saqqa, told The Jordan Times at the opening ceremony.

She noted that the initiative came from Jordan and Amman chambers of commerce in a bid to boost the tourism and commercial sectors.

“This is the first time we are holding a festival that encompasses so many local productive sectors,” Saqqa noted, adding that the festival features more than 1,000 participants.

At the festival’s opening ceremony, Trade Minister Maha Ali said the event reflects the private sector’s keenness on contributing to the development of the Kingdom and highlighting the progress it has achieved in all fields, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Representatives of the local commercial sector interviewed by The Jordan Times commended the initiative to hold the festival, which is open every day from 5pm until midnight. 

Hassan Smadi, of Hamoudeh Industrial and Trading EST, said the festival will provide the company with a suitable marketing venue. 

“The most important thing for us is not making a good profit, but promoting our products and gaining more clients,” he said.

Zaid Qaisi, a marketing officer at Zalloum Group, said the event is a chance for Jordanians to know more about local products, many of which are exported to other countries.

Handicraft producers are also taking advantage of the festival by presenting their finest products at its outdoor section. 

Tamam Yasouri, who came from Balqa, is among these artists. 

“It is a good destination for talented Jordanians to present their products and let more people know about their talent,” she told The Jordan Times.

Fatha Abu Saimeh, one of the festival’s visitors, said he had not known about many of showcased products, stressing that the event has given him a better idea about the role of local industries. 

The “Jordan-centric” atmosphere of the event attracted Abu Naser and his three children. 

“It is really important that organisers should not always think about tourists. They have to think about their people as well and hold activities for the local community,” he said.

AMMAN — Some 30,000 Jordanian children between the ages of six and 15 are school dropouts, according to Ahmad Qablan, senior programmes manager at Queen Rania Teacher Academy.

Qablan, who is also associate professor at the Hashemite University, was citing official figures.

Speaking at a seminar organised Thursday by the Jordan Society for Scientific Research, he said UNESCO puts the number of dropouts at 180,000, counting Jordanian and non-Jordanian children.

More than 60,000 Syrian refugee children are out of school, Qablan added.

Citing a study he conducted on the issue, Qablan said 41 per cent of children under the age of five years who are supposed to be in kindergarten are not enrolled in these levels, which is dangerous because they are “very important”.

Therefore, he called for improving education quality and transportation to schools and making kindergarten levels obligatory.

Qablan said family problems, high divorce rates, and parents’ focus on work and neglecting their children are all factors that lead to children dropping out of school.

He added that some dropouts are people with disabilities who do not go to school due to lack of accessibility.

The academic criticised how schools merge students with disabilities with other students when there are no specialised teachers qualified to deal with them.

He said only 5 per cent of the gross domestic product is spent on education, which is not enough.

Education must be developed in a way that makes schools attractive for students, Qablan said, calling for introducing a parallel education system for those who grew up without enrolling in schools.

DUBAI — Disagreements between the legislative and the executive powers are healthy, according to Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh.

In an interview with Al Arabiya satellite channel's Point of Order programme, broadcast on Friday and Saturday, Tarawneh said the government satys the new elections law is ready, stressing that the currently enacted one-person, one-vote formula is not conducive for political life. 

He dismissed claims that there are pressures to keep that formula. 

For years, the House has included activists and representatives from different political parties and associations, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group which has been in Jordan for more than 70 years, Tarawneh noted. 

In light of the Kingdom's Jordanian and Arab identity, the speaker said the country has been able to deal with different crises and absorb people from diverse backgrounds.

He noted that anyone who has a Jordanian passport and a national number is a Jordanian citizen. 

Tarawneh added that there are no political prisoners in Jordanian jails, noting that state institutions are working to ensure that the military war on terrorism is being waged in parallel with an ideological war through school curricula.

In reply to a question on the issue of Syrian refugees, he said Jordan's Hashemite values entail not turning down anyone in need, adding that the country has been handling the various and increasing burdens resulting from hosting Syrian refugees. 

According to official figures, around 600,000 people are registered as Syrian refugees in the Kingdom.  

The Lower House speaker said the Jordanian-Syrian border is only protected from the Jordanian side, adding that the country has received no more than one-third of the refugees' needs of assistance; nevertheless, it continues to undertake its humanitarian duties.

Turning to economic conditions, Tarwaneh said the huge influx of Syrian refugees into Jordan has weighed heavily on the state budget. 

"If Jordan will not say no to brothers seeking refuge, the international community should provide it with the assistance required to shoulder this responsibility," he added.

AMMAN — Almost half of complaints about telecom services in the first half of this year in Jordan were related to the Internet, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC).

Between January and June this year, the state-run TRC received 1,089 complaints compared with 1,181 complaints for the same period of the previous year, the commission said in response to questions by The Jordan Times.

The TRC said of the total complaints about telecom services during the first half of this year, 509 complaints were about Internet-related issues. 

About half, or 244 of the complaints about the Internet, were related to wireless services, 203 complaints were about ADSL services, 23 complaints were about Third Generation services and 10 complaints were about Internet quality, among others, according to the TRC figures.

Some Internet users said Saturday one of the main issues they face is disruption in services.

“I have a Fourth Generation subscription with one of the telecom companies. When I subscribed to their Internet service, they told me their service is without equal and that I would get the speed we agreed on. But unfortunately, there are disruptions in the service and I don't get what I paid for,” Mervat Marouf, a teacher, told The Jordan Times.

She called for following up on the services companies offer to users "as sometimes the advertisements are not accurate".

Ahmad El Sheikh, a salesman, agreed.

“I changed my 3G subscription from one telecom operator to another earlier this year. But nothing much changed. I still face some issues with the Internet, mostly related to speed. I live in Shafa Badran and the coverage is not perfect,” Sheikh said.

“It is very annoying when you're using the Internet and the speed is so slow… I never tried to complain because I guess it would take a long time,” he added. 

By the end of March this year, Internet penetration stood at 76 per cent, with some 5.9 million users, compared to 75 per cent at the end of 2014, according to the TRC

TRC said mobile penetration reached 147 per cent at the end of March, with 11.5 million active mobile subscriptions, 10.6 million of which are prepaid.

AMMAN — Two new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus-related infection have been registered in Jordan, raising the number of those infected with the disease since the start of the year to four, the Health Ministry said Saturday.

On Thursday a man in his sixties, who works in Saudi Arabia and recently entered the Kingdom, died after being diagnosed with MERS coronavirus, said Health Ministry Spokesperson Hatem Azruie.

“The man had been in critical condition. The three other cases are still being treated and two of them are in critical condition,” he told The Jordan Times.

Among the critical cases is a 78-year-old man who suffers from leukaemia, while a woman in her forties, who was infected due to contact with a family member diagnosed with the virus, is in “good condition”, said Mohammad Abdullat, director of the ministry’s communicable diseases control department.

The cases raise the number of coronavirus-related infections registered in the Kingdom since 2012 to 16, the year when the first case was recorded.

Two cases were registered in 2012, 10 in 2014 and four in 2015 so far, according to the ministry’s figures. 

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause a range of illnesses in humans, from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). 

The global SARS epidemic in 2002 killed nearly 800 people.

MERS is a strain of coronavirus that was first identified in 2012 in Saudi Arabia.

It is believed to have originated in camels. 

Following the confirmation of the new coronavirus cases, the Anti-Pandemic National Committee (APNC) decided Saturday to form a panel from the Health Ministry that is entrusted with visiting all hospitals to make sure they apply infection-control measures and take samples from those infected with acute respiratory-related diseases, particularly coronavirus, according to Azruie.

During a meeting, the committee pledged to continue its treatment plan for MERS patients according to the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and initiate a therapy search committee that represents all medical sectors in Jordan. 

The APNC, which includes representatives of the Royal Medical Services, university hospitals and the private sector, is “following sound measures to deal with the coronavirus”, said the ministry’s secretary general, Daifallah Lozi.

“The ministry is equipped with qualified cadres who are trained on the early detection of the virus and are capable of taking the necessary precautionary measures to eliminate its outbreak,” he said in a statement received by The Jordan Times. 

He added that the ministry is “actively” recording acute respiratory diseases across the Kingdom through accredited hospitals and healthcare centres throughout the year in search for any virus, especially coronavirus. 

The ministry has called on public and private hospitals to abide by infection control measures and report any severe respiratory diseases to it, Lozi noted. 

Abdullat explained the measures Jordan is implementing are in cooperation with WHO in relation to the epidemiological surveillance and sentinel surveillance system for severe acute respiratory infections.  

“In a sentinel surveillance system, hospitals and healthcare centres agree to report all cases of one or more condition. In 2012, the ministry asked for WHO’s collaboration and sent samples to the Centre for Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases (NAMRU-3) in Egypt to assist in the laboratory investigation,” he said over the phone. 

The NAMRU-3 team informed the health ministry that all samples had tested negative for known coronaviruses and other respiratory viruses.

In October 2012, after the discovery of the MERS coronavirus, the ministry sent stored samples to NAMRU-3 and in November, the centre provided laboratory results that confirmed two cases of infection. 

The disease does not spread quickly and its symptoms are similar to respiratory illnesses and include fever, coughing, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.

Participants at the APNC meeting, who included WHO representative in Jordan Maria Cristina Profili, discussed the details of a pamphlet that will be soon prepared to raise pilgrims’ awareness on MERS and the precautionary measures they should follow for safety.

AMMAN — A 26-year-old man was in police custody on Saturday in connection with the attempted murder of his female relative earlier in the day in an Amman suburb on claims of family honour, official sources said.

The 22-year-old victim was rushed to a hospital in Amman at 4am suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest, allegedly by the suspect, a senior judicial source said.

The suspect turned himself in to hospital security claiming to have shot his relative “to cleanse his family’s honour”, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

Initial questioning of the victim, who remains hospitalised in fair condition, indicated that the suspect allegedly accompanied her to a furnished apartment where he “sexually assaulted her then shot her”.

The suspect, however, claimed that he saw the victim in the street in the “company of some men and shot her to defend his family’s honour then took her to hospital”, the judicial source added.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Omar Hiari ordered that the victim be examined for sexual assault, the judicial source explained.

National Institute of Forensic Medicine pathologist Zeid Azzeh examined the victim and took swabs for further analysis, a medical source said.

The pathologist determined that one bullet struck the victim in the face and “it ricocheted and struck her chest”, the medical source told The Jordan Times.

“It is hard to examine the woman because of her injury and she is expected to be sent to the Family Protection Centre for examination to determine if she was sexually assaulted,” the medical source added.

Meanwhile, Hiari is expected to charge the suspect with attempted murder, the judicial source said.

The prosecutor is scheduled to question the suspect and the victim’s family on Sunday to learn more about the incident, the judicial source explained.

AMMAN — Three people were charged on Saturday in connection with the murder and attempted murder of two of their relatives during a wedding in the Dleil area over the weekend, official sources said.

The three suspects were invited to a wedding by their relatives on Thursday when arguments ensued with the two victims over certain technicalities regarding the wedding’s venue, a senior judicial source said.

The following day, the arguments continued after the suspects arrived late to the zaffeh, the traditional dance and procession ahead of the main wedding reception, and were involved in a major brawl in which switchblades, wooden sticks and rocks were used, the judicial source explained.

“One person was immediately killed while the second was rushed to a nearby hospital and was admitted to the intensive care unit,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

A postmortem examination conducted on the victim indicated that he received a fatal stab wound to the heart, a medical source told The Jordan Times.

He also received several stab wounds to his face and head, the medical source added.

Criminal Court Prosecutor Omar Hiari charged one suspect with manslaughter and attempted manslaughter and two other suspects were charged with complicity in manslaughter and attempted manslaughter, the judicial source said.