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TAFILEH — Workers at the electricity distribution company in Tafileh went on strike on Tuesday, demanding higher salaries.

The workers said the strike will not lead to any power cuts or disruptions but strikers will refrain from performing financial and administrative duties.

AMMAN — Minister of Labour and Tourism Nidal Katamine on Tuesday met with Malaysia’s Minister of Tourism Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and discussed ways to boost bilateral tourism cooperation.

Katamine highlighted the country’s diversified tourism product, highlighting religious tourism, the country’s moderate climate, and its stability and security.

A total of 25,000 Malaysians visited the Kingdom last year while the figure stood at 8,500 during the first quarter of this year.

The Malaysian official expressed his country’s interest in boosting tourism exchange programmes between Jordan and his country.

SALT — Balqa Health Department Director Khaled Hiyari on Tuesday said no Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus related-cases had been recorded in Balqa Governorate.

Two patients exhibiting severe flu symptoms were admitted to Al Hussein Hospital in Salt and they were initially isolated as a precautionary measure, but they were declared free of the disease when their lab results were negative for MERS, Hiyari added.

Jordan registered its fifth MERS coronavirus-related fatality on Sunday while health authorities called on the public to take necessary precautions since there is still no medication for the virus.

AMMAN — HRH Princess Sumaya, president of the Royal Scientific Society (RSS), on Tuesday underlined that realising sustainability requires creativity in managing natural resources.

Speaking at the opening of the second international conference on sustainability in design and innovation at Al Zaytoonah University of Jordan, the princess noted that the RSS has been tasked with assessing new buildings in terms of their adherence to the green building code.

Participants at the event discussed issues related to water networks, solid waste management, ICT and road safety, among other topics.

AMMAN –– Jordan's ambassador to Libya Fawaz Aitan, who was kidnapped by an armed group mid April by armed an armed group, was freed and returned home on Tuesday.

Aitan arrived at Marka Airport around 10:00am and greeted by HRH Prince Feisal, the Regent, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in addition to family members and a large number of Jordanians.

According to Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Khalid Kalaldeh, Aitan was released as part of a swap deal for Libyan prisoner Mohammad Dersi to Libyan authorities.

Dersi was serving a life sentence imprisonment in Jordan for plotting to carry out a bombing attack against Queen Alia International Airport in 2006.

Kalaldeh told The Jordan Times that Dersi will spend his imprisonment term in Libyan prisons.

 The release of the Jordanian diplomat comes just days after Libya said it had ratified an extradition agreement with Jordan.

Judeh is scheduled to hold a press conference later on the day to brief journalists on further details of the release of the envoy.  

AMMAN –– Jordanian ambassador to Libya Fawaz Aitan, who was kidnapped by armed groups in Tripoli mid April, was freed on Tuesday, the government said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh said that the diplomat is in good health and on his way to the Kingdom.

A family member told The Jordan Times that the flight carrying Aitan from Libya will arrive at Marka Airport in Amman at 10:00am.

ZARQA — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Monday laid the foundation stone for a project to reconstruct and develop the Azraq-Omari road, funded by Saudi Arabia.

The 110-kilometre road, financed through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) at a cost of $270 million, has over the years been the scene of fatal accidents involving Jordanians and Saudi nationals, Ensour said.

The accidents have been blamed mainly on the bad condition of the highway.

During the ceremony, the premier voiced Jordan’s appreciation of Saudi Arabia’s support, which is part of the deals signed between the two countries under the first phase of Riyadh’s grant to the Kingdom within its contribution to the Gulf Cooperation Council’s $5 billion grant.

These funds are earmarked to serve projects in several sectors, including healthcare, education, water and transport.

Public Works Minister Sami Halaseh said the scheme is deemed as one of the most important projects implemented by the ministry, noting that it will be executed by a coalition of Jordanian and Saudi contractors.

Ten agreements, worth $890 million, have been signed between Jordan and the Gulf kingdom so far, while preparations are under way in cooperation with the SFD to fund the second phase of Saudi Arabia’s grant, according to Planning Minister Ibrahim Saif.

AMMAN — The government has received a request from the Syrian embassy in Amman for allowing its nationals in the Kingdom to vote in the upcoming presidential elections, Government Spokesperson Mohammad Momani said on Monday.

“We are considering this request,” Momani told The Jordan Times without further elaboration on whether Jordan is leaning towards approval or rejection.

According to the latest official figures, around 1.3 million Syrians reside in Jordan.

Over 600,000 of them are registered as refugees, while the rest are not registered as some of them came to the country before the start of crisis in their homeland.

The upcoming Syrian presidential elections are slated for June 3, according to international news agencies, while Syrians residing abroad will cast their votes at their country’s embassies on May 28.

Currently, three candidates are running for the elections, including incumbent President Bashar Assad.

The other two are Maher Hajjar and Hassan Abdullah Al Nouri.

Activists say over 150,000 have been killed so far in the Syrian civil war, which started with anti-regime protests in 2011.

AMMAN — Television producer Ismail Kutkut passed away in Cairo on Sunday after a long battle with a terminal disease.

During his career, Kutkut worked on several TV shows produced in both Cairo and Amman, especially historical dramas and biographies, such as “King Farouq”, “Laila Murad” and “Asmahan”.

AMMAN — An emergency plan should be in place to deal with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, for which there is no vaccine or medication to treat patients, a medical expert said on Monday.

In the case of MERS, when the fatality rate reaches 50 per cent of the registered cases, accompanied with the unavailability of medication, all concerned parties should work together and take the necessary precautions, Fawzi Hammouri, president of the Private Hospitals Association (PHA), told The Jordan Times.

Nine cases of MERS have been detected in the Kingdom since 2012, when the first case was registered, while the number of deaths reached five, three of them this year, according to Health Ministry figures.

Hammouri said the country’s private hospitals are exerting all efforts to control the spread of the virus, adding that all hospitals should have trained medics to deal with patients diagnosed with the disease.

He said the Health Ministry “should allow” the private sector to conduct diagnostic tests for the virus, noting that only the ministry’s central laboratories are currently allowed to conduct the tests and they are overcrowded.

In a statement sent to The Jordan Times on Monday, Health Minister Ali Hiasat reiterated that there will be no medical checkups for visitors at border crossings or airports, arguing that this procedure is “inefficient”.

But Hammouri said screenings should be “adopted” at border crossings and airports, as was the case a few years ago during an outbreak of the H1N1 virus, commonly known as swine flu.

Most of the Jordanians who were diagnosed with MERS in the country contracted the infection from non-Jordanian patients, the PHA president pointed out.

Thus, travellers coming to Jordan from countries that have a high number of MERS cases should be screened upon entry, Hammouri said.

Hiasat said the Kingdom has not adopted such measures because the World Health Organisation (WHO) did not recommend them.

MERS has now killed 147 people out of 491 infected in Saudi Arabia since it first appeared in 2012, with cases in the Gulf kingdom accounting for the vast majority registered globally, Agence France-Presse reported.

MERS is considered a deadlier but less-transmissible cousin of the SARS virus that appeared in Asia in 2003 and infected 8,273 people, 9 per cent of whom died.

Like SARS, it appears to cause a lung infection, with patients suffering coughing, breathing difficulties and high temperature. But MERS differs in that it also causes rapid kidney failure, according to AFP

Amid rising concerns over MERS’ spread, WHO is preparing for an emergency meeting to discuss the virus — the fifth time the UN health agency’s emergency committee has met about the mystery coronavirus.