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AMMAN –– Downtown Amman’s Hashemite Square and the Roman Theatre will host a reading festival this month that aims to instil a culture of reading in the capital. 

The three-day festival, titled “Our Mother Amman… A City that Reads", is scheduled to open on April 24. 

Co-organised by the Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) and Uzbakiyet Amman, the festival will exhibit around 40,000 new and used books.

In addition, cultural and artistic events will be held at the nearby Roman Theatre, according to Samer Kheir, GAM’s Cultural Department director. 

Amman Mayor Aqel Biltaji and representatives from Uzbakiyet Amman met earlier this week to discuss arrangements for the festival, Uzbakiyeh Director General Hussein Yassein told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The festival will be open for book lovers between 9am and 9pm throughout the three days.

“Used books will be sold for between JD0.10 to JD2 after a discount of up to 70 per cent, while the maximum price of new books will be around JD7, which is 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than market prices,” Yassein added.

There will be Arabic and English books covering various fields such as culture, geography and philosophy.

Yassein said the cultural and artistic events include traditional storytelling, better known as Al Hakawati, poetry recitals and street theatre.

“The festival will try to form a huge human chain of at least 1,000 people reading books, titled ‘Each Carries a Book,’” he added.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Wednesday endorsed the draft amendments to the Jordan Press Association (JPA) Law after deliberating the bill for four sessions, during which MPs added new provisions and changed others.

The draft amendments stipulate certain new methods for electing members of the JPA council, under which the president’s deputy henceforth will be elected directly from the general assembly.

Previously, the person for this post was selected from members of the JPA council.

The changes to the JPA law come just two weeks before the association is to hold elections to select new members for its council. 

However, these amendments will not affect these polls as the bill must first go to the Senate to be discussed and approved before being sent to His Majesty King Abdullah for ratification, after which it will be published in the Official Gazette, when it will go into effect. 

The JPA elections are slated for April 25, hence the old version of the law will remain in effect and govern the polls, according to parliamentarians.

The new bill regulated several issues relating to the elections of the JPA council and the means to protect the profession from anyone who tries to damage its reputation, in addition to investing the association’s funds.

The draft amendments also detailed the activities the association will carry out, including training and educational events.

In Tuesday’s session, the Lower House defined the eligibility of any individual aspiring to become a member of the Jordan Press Association, limiting the journalism profession to holders of bachelor’s degrees.

MPs endorsed a provision in the legislation under which holders of high school diplomas can no longer become JPA members. 

Excluded from this stipulation are journalists who have been practising the profession for at least eight years and can prove it, as well as photojournalists.

Under the new amendments, MPs also decided to extend the training period for holders of media and journalism diplomas to three years from two years in the current version of the bill.

According to the endorsed draft, spokespersons in government agencies will not have the right to join the JPA at all.

At the end of the session, some MPs called for reopening for further discussions provisions that focus on the definition of a journalist and of a press institution, but the majority of deputies voted against the motion.

AMMAN – Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat on Wednesday said the ministry is going to prepare a classification system for private schools, dividing them into categories in accordance with specific criteria related to the learning environment, resources, teaching staff and performance levels.

During a meeting with principals of private schools, he said the new system will be drawn up in cooperation with education specialists from the private sector.

AMMAN – Border guards received 727 Syrians over the past 24 hours who entered Jordan through various crossing points.

Children, women and the elderly represented the majority of the arrivals, several of whom were injured and unwell.

First aid was administered for those who needed immediate assistance, while patients with critical medical conditions were taken to the nearest hospitals.

Arrangements were made to transfer the refugees to the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq.

AMMAN – Abdullah Freij, director general of the Development and Employment Fund (DEF), on Wednesday said that the 2014 funding budget for small- and medium-sized enterprises has increased by 100 per cent compared with last year.

During a visit to the municipalities of Sabha and Dafyaneh in the Mafraq Governorate, Freij also added that out of the JD3.5 million allocated to the Badia region, JD1.7 million is geared towards implementing job-generating projects.

He also presented a briefing on the fund's plans, which include loans of JD1,000-JD2,000 for household and woman empowerment projects, while loans of up to JD75,000 will be given to entrepreneurs that can provide significant goods or services and whose projects can create up to five jobs.

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday sentenced a man toa seven-and-a-half year prison term, and fined him JD500, after convicting him of fraud in connection with the 2008 brokerage firms case.

In addition, the defendant is also required to reimburse the remaining JD278,000 (of the JD800,000) he took from the 87 victims.

SANA — Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi on Wednesday commended ties between Yemen and the Kingdom.

During a meeting with Jordanian Ambassador to Yemen Suleiman Ghweiri, Hadi praised Jordan’s international stance towards Yemen.

AMMAN – The Cabinet on Wednesday approved a recommendation by an ad hoc committee to cover retirees of public independent agencies under the civil health insurance.

Retirees who have completed their civil service before December 2013 will be eligible for the coverage.

Also during the session, headed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, the Council of Ministers endorsed the current expenditures of local charity organisations for 2014, which, as recommended by the services and social affairs committee, should not exceed JD350,000. 

AMMAN – A workshop on combating human trafficking began in Amman on Tuesday in a bid to boost the ability to recognise cases of human trafficking and exploitation at a work environment and to provide better protection for migrant workers.

Organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in cooperation with the Labour Ministry, the three-day workshop seeks to assist governments and NGOs in order to eliminate such problems.

Labour Ministry Secretary Hamadah Abu Nejmeh said the workshop, financed by the EU,  is an opportunity to exchange information and learn about negative cases that can be confronted and dealt with in the best interests of the society.

AMMAN – The State Security Court (SSC) on Tuesday sentenced two suspects in a case dubbed as “circulars of Hezb Al Tahrir (Liberation Party)” to one year of imprisonment and commuted the sentence to three months after it pronounced a verdict of guilty, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

The two suspects were reportedly arrested in March while waiting to meet with lawmakers to express their concerns over draft amendments to the Anti-Terrorism Law.

They were referred to trial on charges of “illegal actions that threaten the political regime” and “membership of an illegal organisation” one week after they were arrested outside Parliament.

The Islamic Liberation Party is a regional political movement calling for the restoration of the Islamic caliphate.

It is outlawed in Jordan due to its calls for abolishing Arab governments and monarchies.