Local

AMMAN — The Criminal Court has sentenced five men to two-and-a-half year prison terms after convicting them of attempted murder.

The court first sentenced the men to five-year prison terms for the attempted murder of a 23-year-old man in Zarqa last July.

But the court decided to halve the prison terms because the victim, also a defendant in the case, dropped charges against them.

The 23-year-old defendant also received a three-year prison term that was reduced to one year for attacking one of the other defendants with a sharp object, the court ruled. 

Court papers said a few days before the incident the victim was sitting with his fiancée when she received a “suspicious phone call” on her mobile.

“The victim answered the phone and the caller was a man,” the court said, adding that they had an argument because the caller asked the victim to leave his fiancée because he wanted to marry her.

The two men agreed to meet in an area in Zarqa, some 22km east of Amman, where they engaged in a fight along with the four other defendants, which involved knives and sharp objects, and left several of them injured, the court said.

The tribunal comprised judges Zuhair Atiyat, Hani Saeed and Amjad Kurdi.

The verdict, which was issued earlier this month, is subject to appeal by the defendants and the Cassation Court.

AMMAN — MPs on Sunday endorsed the draft amendments to the Higher Education and Scientific Research Law, increasing financial allocations for scientific research in academic institutions.

Higher Education Minister Amin Mahmoud commended the decision. 

“Scientific research in Jordan and other Arab countries suffers from very low funding,” he said at Sunday’s Lower House session.

“We need to ensure more support for this sector, as Western countries allocate huge amounts of money to facilitate scientific research,” Mahmoud added.

Under the amended law, 1 per cent of the net profit of public shareholding companies will be allocated to fund scientific research activities.

The Income and Sales Tax Department will be responsible for collecting the money and transferring it to the Scientific Research Support Fund. 

Meanwhile, the Lower House referred the draft public-private sector partnership law to the Economic and Investment Committee for further examination before discussing it under the Dome.

The bill is aimed at enabling the private sector to participate effectively in the development of the country, in addition to leading efforts to establish small- and medium-sized projects to create more jobs for Jordanians.

It is a major component of the government’s economic reform agenda, according to officials.

MPs also referred the draft Arabic protection law to the education and culture committee.

The law is aimed at safeguarding the language against “slang and foreign terms”, in official agencies and state-run educational and media institutions.

The bill stipulates that no teacher or instructor shall be employed by an educational institution without passing an Arabic proficiency test. 

Under the draft, Arabic will be strictly used as “the language of talks, negotiations, memorandums and correspondence with other governments and international institutions, organisations and bodies”.

Violators of the law will be fined JD1,000-3,000.

Also on Sunday, dozens of physicians gathered outside Parliament to protest against what they described as the “unfair” detention of their colleague Nayef Lafi.

They called on MPs to pressure the government to release him, claiming that he was detained for “political reasons”.

Lafi and Ibrahim Kharabsheh were detained after entering Parliament carrying leaflets that reportedly promote the outlawed Islamic Liberation Party.

AMMAN — A simple question that an orphan boy could not answer four years ago pushed young volunteer Fatma Amin to launch an initiative offering education and life skills to orphans in the Kingdom.

“We were on a field trip with about 30 orphans as volunteers for the Jordan Volunteers organisation, when one of us noticed a phrase in English saying ‘I love Jordan’ on the child’s hand and asked him what it said,” Amin said. 

“Surprisingly enough, the seventh grader could not read those three words, so we thought it would be a good idea to provide academic support to those kids,” she told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

At present, the “Educating Orphans” initiative offers lessons to 18 children, with around 70 volunteers teaching them mathematics, Arabic and English, in addition to training them on life skills such as future planning.

The initiative, headquartered in Sweifieh, receives applications from orphan children, who then have to sit for exams to evaluate their academic levels and group them according to their performance.

A file is updated for each student on a continuous basis, and some are tutored individually, according to the initiative’s founder. 

“English is taught in an entertaining way,” Amin said. “Students shouldn’t be intimidated by the fact that they’re being introduced to another language [and] another culture.”

Getting rid of negative vibes and replacing them with positive energy is one of the aims of the initiative, out of the belief that “with positive energy comes creativity and productivity,” the 27-year-old volunteer added.

Musa, an 11-year-old beneficiary, said the extra maths lessons he has been receiving will help him pursue his dream.

“I have always received low grades in maths, but I want to be an architect when I grow up, so in the past months — thanks to the extra lessons here — I have been excelling and I got an 84 average in maths,” Musa added.

Volunteer Mohannad Abu Darwish, who teaches maths to 18 children, said he has been working with a 13-year-old named Mahdi, who had a negative attitude at first and was introverted.

“But with the assistance of the volunteers, Mahdi is now one of the most sociable children in the centre,” Abu Darwish said.

“When the child loves you, you feel like you made a difference and touched someone’s life; it’s the most wonderful feeling,” he added.

Children from various parts of the Kingdom benefit from the activities of “Educating Orphans”, according to Alia Horani, who teaches Arabic through the initiative. 

“They all come wanting to know more,” she said.

English teacher Haifa Abu Al Ata said working with the orphans enriches the volunteers’ lives. “Giving is the most beautiful thing you can ever do in your lifetime. Giving your time and effort to see them smile is just priceless.”

AMMAN — Oasis500, an Amman-based investment company that supports entrepreneurs, is organising a global initiative that aims to identify and reward aspiring entrepreneurs who are developing promising technologies that tackle urban challenges.

Under the Omraan initiative, winning start-ups will secure an investment of $30,000 worth of seed funding by Oasis500 and an opportunity to accelerate their idea in Amman over 100 days, Omar Al Sharif, Oasis500 marketing manager, told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

Acceleration will involve coaching and mentoring from the Oasis500 team, industry experts, and a group of 300 local and international mentors, many of whom work in Silicon Valley. 

The 100 days of acceleration and investment will be followed by six to nine months of incubation in Amman or any other partner city, according to the initiative’s website www.omraan.me, where start-ups can submit applications.

“Start-ups with ideas for technological projects that address urban challenges such as pollution, limited energy resources, traffic jams and others, are invited to take part in the initiative,” Sharif said.

“The initiative seeks to encourage start-ups to focus on addressing urban challenges facing cities in light of the rapidly — urbanised Middle East region,” he added.

Starting in June, the winning start-ups will be announced, Sharif said, adding that there is no limit on the number of winners.

“As long as we receive pioneering ideas, we will continue to support them.”

The initiative is implemented in cooperation with the New Cities Foundation, the Greater Amman Municipality and the King Abdullah II Fund for Development.

Those wishing to apply will have to submit an idea online; applicants will be required to send a short statement explaining their idea, the technology and its urban application to the Omraan website.

If the idea meets the selection criteria, applicants will be required to do a final pitch presentation via Skype/phone to the judges.

AMMAN — The Arab Women Parliamentary Conference, which concluded on Saturday, selected Jordan as the headquarters of the Arab Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Violence Against Women.

Participants, who represented several Arab countries, elected Jordanian MP Wafaa Bani Mustafa as coalition president, MP Majida Nweishi from Egypt as vice president and Jordanian MP Insaf Khawaldeh as rapporteur.

AMMAN — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff Gen. Mashal Al Zaben on Sunday met with the US Special Envoy to Syria Daniel Rubinstein.

Discussions covered bilateral ties and means to enhance cooperation.

AMMAN — The Association of Queen Rania Al Abdullah Award for Excellence in Education (QRAE) announced the launch of the first cycle of the School Counsellor’s Award in the public sector for 2014, according to a QRAE statement released Sunday.

The award is the third under the association’s umbrella, stemming from a “strategic” objective to “expand horizontally to recognise distinguished educators”.

The QRAE also launched the ninth cycle for the Distinguished Teacher Award, and announced the commencement of the application phase for both awards, which will end on April 24.

“The launch of the School Counsellor’s Award aims to promote and reinforce school counsellors in Jordanian society and to recognise their key role in supporting students…” the statement quoted QRAE Director Lubna Touqan as saying.

The public can nominate teachers and/or counsellors by filling an online form available on http://goo.gl/7BlvRb.

AMMAN — Media professionals on Sunday called for holding a national conference to draw up a strategy to defend journalists and enhance the independence of the Jordan Press Association (JPA).

At a meeting organised by the Centre for Defending the Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ), journalists called for expanding the association’s membership umbrella and drafting laws that protect its members from being targeted for their personal opinions.

CDFJ President Nidal Mansour urged the JPA to adopt a supportive programme to protect and defend journalists.

Mansour added that the association has faced difficulties in past decades because of the absence of a proper institutional structure that guarantees its independence.

AMMAN — The Cabinet on Sunday endorsed a draft law on the independence of the judiciary.

During a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, the Council of Ministers also endorsed a draft law on judicial administration, and the two bills were sent to the Lower House.

AMMAN — The Ministry of Interior on Sunday dismissed as baseless reports carried by some media outlets that Interior Minister Hussein Majali granted three (five-year) temporary passports for Syrians.

A ministry statement said only the Cabinet has the authority to issue temporary passports, while the interior minister’s role is limited to making recommendations in this regard to the Council of Ministers.