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AMMAN — Former MP Saleh Wreikat passed away on Thursday at the age of 74.

He will be laid to rest after Friday prayers at the Abu Nseir cemetery.

Acting Lower House speaker Ahmad Safadi paid tribute to the former deputy.

AMMAN — The US Embassy in Amman will be closed on Sunday in observance of Memorial Day.

 The embassy will resume normal operating hours on Monday, it said in a statement.

Memorial Day celebrations began after the US Civil War (1861-1865), when communities and veterans’ organisations decorated the graves of soldiers killed in that war.

After World War I, the day was expanded to honour those who have died in all American wars, the statement said.

In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday to be commemorated on the last Monday in May.

AMMAN — Upon recommendation of the Planning Ministry, the Council of Ministers on Thursday approved the allocation of JD29,000 for a technical study on faulty construction of buildings in the Mallaha area in the Deir Alla District.

The Planning Ministry will carry out the study, in coordination with the Royal Scientific Society.

NORTHERN GHOR — National Aid Fund (NAF) President Basma Ishaqat on Thursday called on beneficiaries to register for vocational training courses offered by the fund in cooperation with the Vocational Training Corporation.

At the opening of a new NAF branch, Ishaqat said the fund will cover training expenses, social security subscription for two years and disburse JD40 to each trainee.

AMMAN — Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee President Hazem Qashou, on Thursday met with Iranian chargé d’affaires to Jordan Ahmad Husseini and stressed the Kingdom’s keenness on boosting bilateral ties.

Qashou briefed Husseini on the Syrian crisis’ economic repercussions on Jordan, stressing the Kingdom’s support for a political solution.

Husseini said Iran and Jordan share the same stance and opinion regarding the Palestinian issue and the Syrian crisis.

AMMAN — UNRWA on Thursday commended the efforts of Tkiyet Um Ali and the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organisation in supporting Palestinian refugees in Gaza.

In a statement, the agency noted that the two Jordanian organisations presented assistance to UNRWA in Gaza in May, which included a convoy of three aid trucks laden with frozen meat to be distributed to around 50,000 refugees in the coastal enclave.

AMMAN — Border guards received 608 Syrian refugees during the past 48 hours, the Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) said on Thursday.

The arrivals entered through non-official points along the northern border.

The JAF statement said the refugees included injured people and patients in need of urgent medical assistance.

AMMAN — Former minister Farid Aksheh died on Thursday.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour paid tribute to the late Aksheh and expressed condolences to his family.

Born in Karak in 1921, Aksheh served in many leading positions, including as minister of social development and labour in 1967 and health minister in 1972 and 1973.

AMMAN — The Muslim Brotherhood opened talks late Wednesday between its liberal and conservative factions over a realignment in leadership of its political arm to heal a growing split over the dismissal of three veteran members last month.

As part of negotiations over the return of leading liberal figures Rheil Gharaibeh, Jamal Dheisat and Nabil Kofahi to the movement, Islamist leaders opened discussions on ceding leading positions in the movement’s Islamic Action Front (IAF) to the liberal wing.

According to sources close to the proceedings, former senator and veteran leader Abdul Latif Arabiyat, who was tasked by the Brotherhood’s conservative leadership to reach out to the trio, has offered to cede the position of IAF secretary general and executive council to members of the liberal wing.

Under the discussions, the Brotherhood’s conservative faction — which currently dominates the group’s central leadership — will stand down for next month’s internal elections to allow liberal favourite Salem Falahat to run for the post uncontested.

As of late Thursday, it was unclear whether the offer was welcomed by the expelled members, who had previously called for an overhaul in the Brotherhood’s central leadership, not just its political arm.

The Brotherhood’s internal court had decided to expel the three men over their involvement in the establishment of the National Building Initiative (Zamzam) on the grounds that the coalition may stand as a rival political movement to the group.

Zamzam founders have remained steadfast in their refusal to return to the movement until it undertakes transparent, democratic internal reforms, maintaining that their initiative does not pose a threat to the movement. 

In internal polls that concluded earlier this week conservatives extended their dominance over the IAF shura council, snaring over 40 of its 70 seats that were up for election. 

Outgoing IAF Secretary General Hamzah Mansour and shura council president Ali Abu Sukkar are known “moderates” who maintained close ties with the liberal and conservative factions. 

AMMAN — Ukrainians residing in Jordan will head to their country’s embassy in Amman next week to vote for their next president, the Ukrainian ambassador said on Thursday.

There are 400 Ukrainians in Jordan, and tens of them have already registered to vote in the polls, slated for May 25, Ambassador Sergey Pasko said in an interview with The Jordan Times.

“Twenty-one candidates will vie for the presidency,” the envoy said, adding that the second round of the elections might take place next month.

Pasko voiced hope that the elections will restore security to his country.

He noted that the unrest over the past few months in both Ukraine and countries neighbouring Jordan, especially in Syria, had affected bilateral trade, with the trade volume dropping from $150 million in the first quarter of 2013 to $101 million in the same period this year.

“It is not possible to use Syrian territory to transport goods,” the ambassador noted, adding that the bilateral trade volume stood at $426 million in 2013.

Stressing that regaining security is important, Pasko said there are 3,500 Jordanian students studying in Ukraine and almost half of them have returned to Jordan due to the current situation there.

In eastern Ukraine, pro-Russia insurgents attacked a military checkpoint Thursday, killing at least 11 troops and wounding some 33 others in the deadliest raid yet in weeks of fighting, The Associated Press reported.

Ukraine’s acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in televised comments blamed Russia for backing the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which have declared independence from the government in Kiev.

“Thursday’s carnage casts a shadow over Ukraine’s upcoming presidential vote on Sunday, which separatists in the east have pledged to derail,” AP said. 

Authorities in Kiev see the vote as a chance to defuse tensions and stabilise the country, but they have admitted it will be impossible to stage the vote in some eastern areas where election officials and voters have faced intimidation and sometimes death threats from the rebels, the agency reported

Ukraine said it will deploy 55,000 police and 20,000 volunteers to try to ensure security on polling day, according to Agence France-Presse.