Day: 14 August 2023

Prices of 21-karat gold, the highest demand at local market, stood at JD39 per gramme, as purchasing price, against JD37.30 as selling price, an official said Saturday. The price of 24-karat and 18-karat gold amounted to JD46 and JD34.60 respectively, according to the Jordan Jewelers Association’s daily bulletin. Gold prices in global markets on Monday reached $1,913 per ounce, according to the bulletin.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Three people died and twelve others were injured when a minibus crashed in Azraq area, according to the Public Security Directorate’s (PSD) spokesperson. “The injured were received first aid at the scene and transferred to Zarqa Public Hospital, and were listed in good and moderate conditions, while the deceased were transferred to forensic medicine,” the PSD spokesperson said Monday in a statement.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Tourism revenue amounted to $782.1 million in July 2023, a19.4 per cent increase compared to the same period of last year, according to the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) data released on Monday. According to the data, tourism revenue increased by 50.1 per cent during the first seven months of this year, to reach $4.238 billion, driven by the increase in the number of tourists, which reached 3,720,200 tourists, with a growth rate of 51.3 per cent. This increase was a result of the increase in the number of overnight tourists, reaching about 3.085 million, with a growth rate of 47 per cent, while the number of one-day tourists reached about 635,000 with a growth rate of 76.2 per cent. The data also showed an increase in tourism spending abroad in July 2023 by 13.1 per cent, compared to the same month last year, to reach $ 241 million. Tourism spending abroad in the first seven months of 2023 increased by 37.9 per cent, to record $1.147 billion.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The total area of licensed buildings in the first half of 2023 increased by 18 per cent, reaching 4.52 million square meters, compared to 3.83 million square meters in 2022, according to monthly report of the Department of Statistics (DoS) released Monday. The total number of building licenses issued in the Kingdom increased by 4.6 per cent to 11,645 licenses in the first half of 2023, compared to 11,137 licenses issued during the same period last year. The area of housing buildings totaled 3.81 million square meters in the first half of 2023, compared to 3.16 million square meters in the same period last year, an increase of 20.6 per cent, the DoS said. The DoS stated in its report that the total area of buildings licensed for non-residential purposes amounted to about 703,000 square meters, compared to about 664,000 square meters during the same period last year, an increase by 5.9 per cent. Licensed buildings for housing in the first half of 2023 comprised 84.4 per cent of the total area of licensed buildings, while the total area of buildings licensed for non-residential purposes amounted to 15.6 per cent, according to the DoS. The central region of the Kingdom accounted for 67 per cent of the total area of licensed buildings, while the north recorded 24.5 per cent and the south witnessed 8.5 per cent, according to the DoS. At a monthly level, data showed that the number of building permits in June reached 1,859, while the area of licensed buildings reached 805,000 square meters, compared with 875,000 square meters during the same month of 2022, registering a drop of 8 per cent.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Cabinet on Sunday has endorsed the electoral constituency by-law for 2023. The by-law is continuation of a series of legislations to regulate the political modernization system, and given the issuance of the Election Law for the House of Representatives No. (4) of 2022, which required issuing a system that defines electoral constituencies according to the provisions of this law in terms of geography, and determines the number of seats for each. The law shall determine seats allocated to Christians, Circassians, and Chechens within the electoral districts in all the governorates of the Kingdom, and determining these seats within the electoral districts therein, including the electoral districts of the northern, central, and southern badias, and the number of seats in them. According to the law, the Kingdom shall be divided into eighteen local electoral districts and one general electoral district at the level of the Kingdom, and all (138) seats will be allocated to them. According to the open list proportional system, (97) of the seats are allotted to the local constituencies and nd 41 seats for the general list allocated for political parties and partisan alliances.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Israeli occupation soldiers last night seized the car of a disabled Palestinian man when he arrived at an army checkpoint south of Ramallah, according to the car owner Shadi Daraghmeh, 32, from Qalandia refugee camp. He said the soldiers stopped him at a checkpoint near the camp between Ramallah and Jerusalem as he was returning from Jericho and forced him to get out of the car despite his movement disability. The soldiers held him for several hours and mistreated him before they decided to seize his car made specially for the disabled and left him in his wheelchair until someone came to pick him up. Daraghmeh, who spent two years in Israeli jails for his resistance of the occupation and was released in 2016, said his car was totally legal and there was no justification for the soldiers to seize it.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

A Palestinian resident was forced to demolish his own house in the neighborhood of Musrara, in occupied Jerusalem, citing unpermitted construction as a pretext, according to the house owner, Mohammed al-Qaq. The owner said that he was forced today to demolish his house, where he lived with his family since the year 2014, or else the Israeli municipality will demolish it and obligate him to pay the exorbitant costs. Using the pretext of building without a permit, which is rarely granted to Palestinians in the occupied city, the Israeli municipality has condemned hundreds of Palestinian-owned houses as part of a policy aimed to restrict Palestinian expansion and number in occupied Jerusalem. At the same time, the municipality and government build tens of thousands of housing units in illegal settlements in East Jerusalem for Jews to offset the demographic balance in favor of the Jewish settlers in the occupied city.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh met with the Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yamada Kenji at his office in Ramallah, where they discussed the political file, the Israeli occupation’s violations, in addition to promoting bilateral relations between the two countries. Shtayyeh praised Japan’s firm stance against settlement activities and its support of the Palestinian people’s rights. He also praised the support provided by Japan to Palestine, which intersects with national priorities and includes various fields, including its sustained support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The prime minister called on Japan to fully recognize the state of Palestine in order to protect the two-state solution, considering any cooperation with Israel in the region without ending its occupation and halting its violations and breach of international law and respect for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, as a prize for its occupation.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

Palestinian residents in the village of Yatma to the south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, fended off today evening an attack by Israeli settlers against children in the village of Al-Sawyah, south of Nablus, according to local sources. Sources told WAFA correspondent that residents managed to fend off an attack against a number of Palestinian children who were chased after by the settlers at the entrance of the said village. No injuries were reported.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA

The Acting Governor of Taiz, Ahmed Amin Al-Masawi, laid today,Monday, the foundation stone for the project to build Al-Sumoud Center for Community Education, Literacy and Adult Education in Al-Hawban – Al-Asrar Isolation in Al-Ta’ziyyah District.

The cost of the project, funded by the Social Fund for Development, is 135 thousand euros, a grant from the German government.

Al-Masawi stressed the importance of educational projects to combat illiteracy and educate adults for those who missed the education train.

Director of the Literacy Agency branch, Fikri Dibwan stressed the importance of eradicating illiteracy and strengthening the roles assigned to relevant authorities in that vital field.

He indicated that the center to be established would consist of training departments for life skills and handicrafts such as sewing and embroidery, which would contribute to improving the standard of living for students ,their families , empowering them economically and socially.

Source: Yemen News Agency