The Jordanian government has sought to further develop the Bethany Beyond the Jordan baptism site in an effort to boost the tourism sector and the broader economy. But striking the right balance between economic, religious, political, and environmental considerations won't be easy.
Tamweelcom, a Jordanian microfinance company backed by Citigroup and development banks, has brought cases against more than 1,200 women for nonpayment of debt.
A respected lawyer, she focused on the victims of domestic violence and also worked hard to change discriminatory laws. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
The Jordanian Army said that soldiers fired on suspected smugglers as they tried to cross the border under cover of a snowstorm. Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
AMMAN, Jordan - Thousands of protesters in Jordan, Israel's eastern neighbor, marched toward the border on Friday morning, chanting slogans in solidarity with the Palestinians and waving Palestinian flags as Jordanian riot police surrounded them. "We are here. Either we go down, or they will have to carry us back," they chanted, videos posted to social media showed.
AMMAN, Jordan - Sixteen people accused of a plot to foment unrest in Jordan this month were released from custody on Thursday pending further investigation, a military judge announced, marking a new chapter in an unusually turbulent episode in the normally placid kingdom.
New York Times
The standoff between King Abdullah II and his half brother, Prince Hamzah, wasn't just palace intrigue. It hinted at Saudi meddling and highlighted wider tensions within Jordan's complex society. AMMAN, Jordan - The prince and the general paced the garden outside the prince's palace, locked in a deep argument.
The government has accused King Abdullah II's half brother, Prince Hamzah, of undermining national security, and arrested several of his associates. AMMAN, Jordan - King Abdullah II of Jordan broke his silence Wednesday night over the unusually public rift with his half brother, Prince Hamzah, justifying the steps he had taken to curb his brother's contact with the outside world, while asserting that the prince's "sedition has been nipped in the bud."
A royal rift laid bare. Key figures arrested. Rumors of a failed coup attempt. An intense bout of palace intrigue has knocked Jordan's image as a reliable bulwark in a turbulent part of the world. AMMAN, Jordan - The kingdom of Jordan has long been considered an oasis of relative stability in the Middle East.
The royal house said King Abdullah II and his estranged half brother, Prince Hamzah, had agreed to mediation measures, easing worries about a destabilizing family feud.
Those arrested included a member of the royal family anda longtime confidant of King Abdullah II. In a dramatic video, the country's former crown prince says he has been silenced.
"As long as women are absent from the labor market, they are absent from the public sphere," one advocate said. AMMAN, Jordan - Marwa Alomari's compassionate and patient style made her a popular English teacher, filling her classes in Irbid, Jordan, with eager students and her off hours with private tutoring.
The country's royal family said Prince Hamzah had now pledged his loyalty to King Abdullah II. The government banned news outlets and social media users from discussing the rare public show of conflict.
Jordan, which was commended worldwide for its early efforts to counter the pandemic, has now become one of the hardest-hit countries in the region, along with Lebanon and Iran. The country has averaged more than 5,000 coronavirus cases a day in the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database.
In Jordan, an unregulated microloan industry offers easy money. But with no way to repay loans, many women end up buried in debt, or in prison. RUSSEIFA, Jordan - Five years ago, Amira Hawamdeh took out a loan for $423 to buy buttons and yarn to make purses and sweaters, and winter blankets to sell to her neighbors.
Nuclear energy diplomacy is a game of relationships. This is especially true in the Middle East, where governments face water scarcity, political and economic challenges but increasingly underreported energy scarcity. Civil nuclear offers Middle East governments an avenue to solving energy insecurity through new geopolitical partnerships that will change the political dynamics of the region for decades to come.
The Neediest Cases Fund MAFRAQ, Jordan - Zina Satouf remembers seeing shadows in the street and nearly falling flat on her face. When she visited an ophthalmologist two years ago, he prescribed two kinds of eyedrops for her glaucoma. She often clutches them in her right hand.
JERUSALEM - Under internal political pressure, King Abdullah II of Jordan announced on Sunday that he was cutting off Israelis' free access to two tracts of land along the border that fall in sovereign Jordanian territory, but where Jews historically had private land use rights.
AMMAN, Jordan - The Syrian government celebrated the reopening on Monday of a vital border crossing with Jordan as a new sign of President Bashar al-Assad's reestablished control over much of the country and of progress in his efforts to normalize relations with other Arab states.
The decision to withdraw the bill, which proposed increasing the tax rate on workers by at least five percentage points and on businesses by 20 to 40 percentage points, was lauded by many in Jordan, where the official unemployment rate is 18 percent and poverty rates are even higher.
AMMAN, Jordan - Escalating economic pressures on Jordan threatened to turn into a political crisis on Monday, as the prime minister resigned amid nationwide protests against proposed tax and price increases in a country that has suffered through years of declining living standards.
Mr. Pence had delayed his trip to the region amid the furor over Mr. Trump's decisions, which were seen here as pro-Israel and a slap in the face to Palestinians. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, canceled a meeting with Mr. Pence planned for this trip.
"We're reaching out to official donors, obviously, but also to the Arab world, to untraditional donors in emerging markets and to individuals, in the hope that we can rapidly upscale the amounts they give to us," said Chris Gunness, the agency's chief spokesman.
"An educational system should give empowerment, skills to think critically, creatively, intelligently, the ability to contest, to challenge and to say, 'I think not,' " Professor Quawas said in an interview with The New York Times in 2014. "The whole paradigm of teaching needs to change. We are graduating robots."
The system of tight security cooperation is unpopular with many Palestinians. But it has helped anchor the authority's control in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and Israeli officials say the program has helped thwart many terrorist attacks.
They were part of a four-vehicle convoy returning to the King Faisal air base outside the southern town of Al Jafr, after conducting weapons training at a nearby range, according to a United States military investigation that was completed March 7.
AMMAN, JORDAN - The last surviving animals in the Montazah Al-Morour Zoo in the war-ravaged Iraqi city of Mosul - Lula, a bear, and Simba, a lion - reached safety at a wildlife shelter in Amman, the Jordanian capital, on Monday night.
"Let's see, hopefully. Let's see, God willing," he said, looking pained and at least a decade older than his real age. "I hope so. Let's see." He was nervously smoking a cigarette outside the terminal, as his wife - whom he had told not to speak to journalists - waited inside.
They were among an estimated 110,000 people in line to be processed for resettlement in the United States during this fiscal year. In fact, they thought they had already made it through the rigorous vetting procedure and, after years of waiting, were on the verge of having their hopes realized.
"It was like in the movies," Ms. Obaidi said in an interview this month. Fearing more attacks, the family left Iraq for Jordan. It joined many other Iraqi refugees, including extended family members. Ms. Obaidi and her husband used their savings to buy a home in Amman.
"I'm sorry," said Ms. Najjar, 26, wiping her eyes. Hisham, who is shy and has large dark brown eyes, left the room to play with balloons. "It's just that I almost lost him, not to violence or to war, but to diabetes." A few birds singing in their cages brighten the grim space where Hisham's family lives.
At least two dozen of the people killed were said to be foreigners. Most of the victims were from countries with Muslim-majority populations. According to news reports and government statements, the dead included citizens of Belgium, Canada, France, India, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia.
AMMAN, Jordan - The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a terrorist attack in the southern Jordanian city of Karak that killed 10 people, including the head of the military's special forces, according to an organization that monitors militant groups.
KARAK, Jordan - Gunmen involved in a rare terrorist attack in Jordan on Sunday had a large cache of weapons, explosives and suicide vests in the apartment where they had been living, the country's interior minister said on Monday. The discovery of the cache suggested that the men were preparing for multiple deadly attacks.
AMMAN, Jordan - Seven Jordanian security officers, a Canadian tourist and two Jordanian civilians were killed by gunmen in the southern city of Karak on Sunday, according to a joint statement from the Public Security Department and the Jordanian armed forces. The security forces later captured and killed four of the gunmen, the statement said.
Never mind that after an across-the-board social media backlash, Mr. Hattar quickly removed the cartoon, deactivated his Facebook account and apologized, saying he "did not mean to offend anyone." If the government hoped that arresting him would tamp down the anger among the more violent sections of Jordanian society, it misjudged.
AMMAN, Jordan - Members of the political arm of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood won seats in Jordan 's Parliament in a symbolic comeback, and women increased their numbers in the legislature, according to results of parliamentary elections released on Thursday.
Jordan stripped the Brotherhood of its license this year as well, but the Islamic Action Front, its political wing, remains registered and legal. Hoping to draw the Islamists into the system rather than leave them on the outside where they might grow more radical, the government adopted a new election law allowing bloc voting, reversing a two-decade-old system that worked against parties like the Brotherhood.
Europe is also promising over $4 billion in aid to several African countries in exchange for their help in stemming the exodus out of the continent. Even Sudan, long under European and American sanctions for its human rights record, is reaping money as part of the package.
AMMAN, Jordan - Four Jordanian soldiers, a police officer and a civil defense officer were killed on Tuesday after a car bomb exploded on the Jordanian border with Syria, according to a statement by the Jordanian Armed Forces. The attack took place around 5:30 a.m.
On a recent visit to Amman, we met some of the people who are changing the cultural fabric of Amman. In the window of the Abou Arabi Haider Damascene Gourmet Sweets shop sat an intricately terraced mountain of baklava, glistening in syrupy sweat.
AMMAN, Jordan - Three Jordanian intelligence officers and two employees of the service were killed on Monday in a Palestinian refugee camp in the capital, Amman, in what the government said was a terrorist attack. The government reportedly convened an emergency meeting in response to the assault, which occurred at 7 a.m.
AMMAN, Jordan - The Jordanian police closed down the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan on Wednesday, the group said in a statement. Warning that the closing would "bring us back to the days of martial law with the absence of law and justice," the group said it would take legal and political measures to combat "these illegal pressures."
AMMAN, Jordan - Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. held talks in Jordan on Wednesday with King Abdullah II on a variety of regional topics, including the fight against the Islamic State. Jordan was the last stop on the vice president's Middle East tour, which also included visits to the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
AMMAN, Jordan - King Abdullah II made his people an extraordinary promise last week: For every job the government offered Syrian refugees, it would create five jobs for Jordanians. But officials had previously pledged to create 200,000 jobs for Syrians, so the king's promise means that the government will have to create 1.2 million jobs.
AMMAN, Jordan - The deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, Zaki Bani Rushaid, was released from prison on Monday after serving 13 months for criticizing the United Arab Emirates, a Jordanian ally, in a Facebook post.
AMMAN, Jordan - The Jordanian authorities on Friday deported hundreds of Sudanese asylum seekers, most of them from the war-afflicted Darfur region, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.
AMMAN, Jordan - The United Nations and human rights groups on Tuesday called on Jordan to allow the entry of thousands of Syrian refugees stuck in a northeast desert holding area adjoining the Syrian border. The United Nations refugee agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said the number of refugees in that area had tripled to 12,000 since the start of November as the Syrian conflict intensified.
AMMAN, Jordan - A Jordanian police officer opened fire at a military training center in the capital, Amman, on Monday, killing two United States training officers and a South African, the Jordanian government said.
AMMAN, Jordan - Mohammad Smarat sat gazing at the few plants sprouting outside the entrance of the white stone hospital here, recalling how he had collapsed in a sea of green fields after getting shot. He had been helping farmers pick tomatoes near his home in Dara'a, Syria, when a stray bullet shattered his left hip joint.
JERASH, Jordan - The tour guides sat in a dusty white trailer a few steps from the main gate, drinking thick black coffee and smoking. There were 42 of them, ready to show a visitor around a world-renowned archaeological site in any of nine languages.
AMMAN, Jordan - The main border crossing between Syria and Jordan remained closed and chaotic on Friday, with insurgents - including the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda 's branch in Syria, and Western-backed rebel factions - wrangling for control two days after they seized and looted the crucial gateway.
AMMAN, Jordan - Roya news channel, an independent Jordanian television broadcaster, was live-tweeting the Israeli elections on Tuesday. انتخابات الكنيست الاسرائيلي ..
AL AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan - Here in Jordan 's vast northeastern desert, row after row of white steel shelters built specially for Syrian refugees sit empty. Storefronts lining a street designed to mimic an urban souk are shuttered, the silence broken only by the punishing wind that is infamous here.
AMMAN, Jordan - Push brooms in hand, the sanitation workers who clean the streets of this capital could be easily recognized by their bright orange work suits. The city's mayor, Aqel Biltaji, even donned the municipal uniform in 2013 to help show Jordanians that there was no shame in a job that requires "dedication and loyalty."
The Peace Corps has temporarily suspended its volunteer program in Jordan because of regional instability, officials said. All 37 volunteers have left Jordan amid turmoil and terrorism in neighboring countries, Samir Dahshan, safety and security manager at the Peace Corps office in Jordan, said Sunday.
The United States Embassy in Jordan on Wednesday warned American citizens to avoid high-end shopping malls in Amman, the capital, because of credible threats of terrorist attacks. The embassy's statement contained no information about the type or timing of any possible attack, but it advised Americans in the country and embassy employees and their families to avoid the malls in the next few days.
AMMAN, Jordan - The deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan was sentenced on Sunday to 18 months in prison for criticizing the United Arab Emirates in a Facebook post. The state security court, a special body that has jurisdiction over Jordan 's internal and external threats, found the Brotherhood leader, Zaki Bani Rushaid, guilty of "acts harmful to the country's relations with a friendly nation."
AMMAN, Jordan - Whether three young students were shot and killed in North Carolina this week in a parking dispute or, as their families believe, because they were Muslims, online commentators here and outside the Middle East say the victims' religion makes it a hate crime.
Jordan released Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a leading jihadist cleric, from prison on Thursday, according to the official Petra news agency. Mr. Maqdisi, who was arrested in October, was accused of "using the Internet to promote and incite views of jihadist terrorist organizations." It is unclear why he was released.
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Jordan threatened the militants of the Islamic State on Thursday with "grave consequences" if they harmed a Jordanian pilot captured after his F-16 crashed in northern Syria. The warning, issued by Jordan 's Parliament, came as members of the pilot's family appealed to his captors to welcome him as a "guest" and to show him mercy as a fellow Muslim.
MAFRAQ, Jordan - The bride-to-be was so young and shy, she spent her engagement party cloaked in a hooded robe that swallowed her slim figure but could not quite hide the ruffled pink dress her fiancé's family had rented for her.
AMMAN, Jordan - Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians were committed to taking "concrete steps" to ease strife over a volatile holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM - As Israel and Jordan neared the final stage of negotiations over their peace treaty, King Hussein of Jordan requested what Efraim Halevy, envoy for the Israeli prime minister, thought would be a deal killer: a clause giving Jordan a role in the future of Jerusalem and, especially, the holy place in the Old City that Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary.
AMMAN, Jordan - Hundreds of Syrian refugees, including women and children, who had been stranded for months in a buffer zone along the Jordanian border were allowed to enter Jordan on Thursday, according to the United Nations refugee agency and Syrians who were reunited with family members.
AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan ended an eight-year moratorium on executions on Sunday when 11 men were hanged at dawn. The men had been convicted of murder charges from 2002 to 2004, according to a statement released by the Interior Ministry.
AMMAN, Jordan - Zaki Bani Rushaid, the provocative deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, has never been shy with his opinions. For years, Jordan did nothing as he railed - often on nationwide television - against Jordan's "meager" political reforms and what he sees as continued attempts to cozy up to the United States, which he calls "the cause of tyranny in the Middle East."
AMMAN, Jordan - Thousands of Syrians, mostly women and children, have been stranded for weeks on Jordan 's border, according to international aid agencies who say Jordan appears to be increasingly turning away Syrians fleeing war at home.
AMMAN, Jordan - They were among the final holdouts. Even as many of their neighbors fled the violence that engulfed Iraq after the American invasion, the three men stayed put, refusing to give up on their country or their centuries-old Christian community.
AMMAN, Jordan - Jordan is refusing to let Syrian refugees cross the border, international refugee agencies said on Wednesday, expressing fear that thousands have been left stranded with limited access to food and other supplies. "We have not recorded any Syrian refugees crossing into Jordan in the past week," said Andrew Harper, the top official with the United Nations refugee agency in Jordan.
JERUSALEM - Israeli soldiers on Monday fatally shot a Jordanian judge of Palestinian origin at the Allenby Bridge after the man tried to seize a soldier's gun and then threatened two soldiers with a metal bar, according to the Israeli military.
AMMAN - As the sun rises over the Jordanian capital, the problems of the day start to stream in to Radio Fann. In the studio, producers scramble to keep up with calls and e-mails from listeners complaining about issues like water shortages and bureaucratic failures.
AMMAN, Jordan - Twice a year, the names and faces of a select group of young women are splashed across the pages of Jordanian newspapers, their names written in bold, black lettering and their passport-sized photos adorned with colored frames. These are students who have achieved top grades in the general secondary examination, the test taken to qualify for university.
AMMAN, Jordan - Yusra Shinwan, 44, and her four school-age children arrived in Jordan in June, refugees from the Syrian civil war. Her husband, a school librarian, chose to stay behind after being told he would lose his job if he left. More than half a million Syrians were registered with the U.N.
AL AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan - His face was bright red from the desert sun, and his son's eyes, blank with exhaustion, gazed into the distance. Bahjat Sheikh, 58, and his family had crossed the Jordanian border to safety after an arduous two-and-a-half-day journey, mostly on foot, from the central Syrian city of Hama.
ZARQA, Jordan - Late one night, Abu Abdullah left his whole life behind. Abandoning his wife, two children and a modest frozen foods business, he sneaked across the border to Syria to join an affiliate of Al Qaeda. He thrived on the blasts and gunfire and relished the feeling of serving what he saw as a celestial cause.
AMMAN - Two months ago, the most famous ice cream parlor in Damascus set up a new outlet amid the fast-food joints, stalls selling plastic household goods and offices lining Al Madina Al Munawara Street, a traffic-snarled road in Amman.
RAMTHA, JORDAN - A few months ago, boxes of tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers blocked the entrances to shops in a bustling market in Ramtha, close to the Syrian border. Shop shelves were lined with boxes of cigarettes, and there were so many containers of goods from Syria that a storage facility was opened in the middle of the market.
AMMAN - The political turmoil in the Middle East over the last two years has not been kind to Jordan's king, Abdullah II, who has faced domestic protests and public discontent. Still, the king scored a tactical victory over his most serious political challenger, the Muslim Brotherhood, in last week's elections for the lower house of Parliament.
MAFRAQ, JORDAN - Shaking with fear, Abu Abdel Hadi tripped and fell three times in the dark as he fled across the desolate desert from Syria into Jordan. The 65-year-old was clutching his grandchildren, intent on shielding them from snipers who often lie in wait along the border.
Abu Majid Abu Dail of the Nash Design House in Amman demonstrating the silk screen process.
AMMAN - On Nov. 13, Amer Tubeishat joined several thousand demonstrators in central Amman to protest rising prices. As Mr. Tubeishat, a senior program officer at a nonprofit organization, walked away from the crowds, he was thrown into a police wagon and introduced to a frightening new world, where he had no access to a lawyer for three days, was prevented from using the telephone and was handed over to the State Security Court.
AMMAN - Through their eight years of marriage the husband of Suzan Qouqas would not allow her to work, even though she had studied to become a pharmacist. A year ago, she found herself divorced, with three children and no career.
AMMAN - Jordanians took to the streets this summer to protest water shortages and disruptions. Some demonstrators burned tires and blocked roads while others carried empty plastic gallons in the street symbolizing the scarcity of water in their homes. Jordan is the world's fourth-poorest country in terms of water resources per capita, according to the World Bank.
AMMAN - On a warm day late last month a crowd filed into a white tent outside the royal palaces in Amman to hear a much-anticipated speech by King Abdullah II on the country's political future.
ZAATARI, Jordan - In Zaatari, the site of one of the largest camps for Syrian refugees in the Middle East, hundreds of girls sat this week in makeshift school tents provided by Unicef. In one, third graders were learning basic addition and subtraction. In the next tent, fourth graders brushed up on their Arabic vocabulary.
AMMAN - For Osama Hasoun, 23, protesting has become a weekly affair. Nearly every Friday afternoon, he prays at Amman's popular Grand Husseini Mosque. Afterward, he carefully folds his prayer mat, puts on his black shoes and blends into the crowd.
AMMAN - When the Arab Spring started, Safwan al-Ma'aytah, 30, posted photos of himself online, wearing black sunglasses and carrying large signs calling for political and economic reforms. Today, he and other members of Jordanian opposition movements say they are increasingly disillusioned by economic hardship and by regional violence across the border, especially in neighboring Syria.
AMMAN - Jordan has been rocked by the shock waves running across the Middle East, and tensions are still simmering. Last week, about 200 protesters gathered at a traffic circle in the heart of Amman.
AMMAN - At a hospital in the hills of Amman, some patients have only one leg, others have no arms and most have been burned and scarred by exploding bombs. All have suffered complex injuries that require several operations, physiotherapy and psychosocial care.
AMMAN - For four days in a row this week, youths hurled rocks at police officers, burned tires and damaged properties in the ancient city of Salt, thought to have been built in the days of Alexander the Great.
RAMTHA, JORDAN - Four Syrian women sat in a circle in a small apartment during the weekend, reminiscing about green fields and the homes they left behind months ago as their neighborhoods descended into violence and basic food supplies dried up.
RAMTHA, JORDAN - This impoverished Jordanian city across the border from Dara'a, Syria, has become a temporary haven for Syrians who continue to flee the violence that has swept their country.
AMMAN - As scenes of Arab street protests fill his television set, Abu Saqer, a petty domestic tyrant, panics at the thought of losing control of his household. His daughter wants to wear a brighter shade of lipstick. His son wants to join the protests.
AMMAN - A year ago, a video surfaced of a 6-year-old boy, Ahmad al-Saket, standing in front of a large classroom chalkboard crying, shaking and pleading for mercy. A teacher carrying a wooden stick in her hand is scolding him in front of other students for writing the number nine incorrectly.
AMMAN - At a gathering of the Celebration of Entrepreneurship forum here this month, young Arab techies, some dressed in jeans, others in pinstriped suits, exchanged business cards and listened to advice from investors. The goal of these would-be entrepreneurs: to start local businesses that tap into a rapidly growing market for Internet and mobile telecommunications applications.
MAFRAQ, JORDAN - In this northern Jordanian town, just a few minutes from the Syrian border, tall water tanks can be seen from a distance and an empty lot is encircled with barbed wire.
AMMAN - For eight years, Nima Habashna has been garnering online support for the rights of Jordanian women to pass on their citizenship to their non-Jordanian spouses and children. When the Jordanian government - in response to the Arab Spring - scrapped an article in the Public Assembly Law requiring consent to hold rallies, Mrs.
AMMAN - As Jordanians celebrated their country's independence from Britain 66 years ago this week, thousands of citizens came out to participate in the festivities. It was a shift from the more familiar scenes of strikes and protests, most recently over price increases imposed by the government.
AMMAN - Alaa Khalil, 42, has been selling T-shirts and sweaters on a busy pavement in central Amman for 30 years. Al Husseini mosque is just a five-minute walk from his wooden tables and untidy mannequins. The mosque has been a focus point of nearly all the demonstrations here since the Arab Spring began.
AMMAN - A few days after police attacked journalists covering a pro-reform demonstration here in July, injuring more than a dozen and breaking cameras, the Jordan Press Association held a protest sit-in to denounce the attacks. King Abdullah II issued a statement condemning the attack and rejecting official restrictions on press freedom.
AMMAN - When Iraqi militias threatened Ghasswan Al Taee, 36, in 2006, he fled to Jordan. Five years later and with three children born here, his state of limbo has become a constant. Since 2003 an estimated four million Iraqis have fled their homes, the largest exodus since Israel's creation in 1948.
AMMAN - Ahmad Sami, 28, watched as cars passed by his makeshift tent, which he set up to sell watermelons. Mr. Sami's business opens early and closes late and so, he said, he did not hear about the recommendations announced Saturday on reforming politics in Jordan, including laws on elections and parties.
AMMAN - Jordan 's political reform movement has gone quiet in recent weeks after demonstrations in Amman and elsewhere that ended in violence. A protest March 25 in Amman left scores injured, opening fractures between groups opposing the government and raising tensions between East Bank Jordanians and Jordanians of Palestinian origin.
AMMAN - With unrest continuing in Syria, violence between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and repression elsewhere in the region, Jordan is trying to walk a narrow path of managed reform. The balancing act is not easy.
AMMAN - Some pleasant memories of Essam Ali's Iraqi homeland still seep into his mind. He remembers the summer of 1985, for instance, when, surrounded by forests and friends, he trained in mime and pantomime in Mosul, Iraq, from dusk until dawn. Throughout that summer, until September, he seldom returned to his home in Baghdad.
Voices of Jordan Book Project
The Telegraph
A missile strike earlier this month, which killed seven Iranian military advisors from the country's elite Quds Force in the Syrian city of Homs, has been neither confirmed nor denied by Israel's government. However, New York Times' columnist Thomas Friedman wrote that a senior Israeli military official admitted to him that Israel attacked the Syrian base known as T4, in a separate attack.
Israel's defence minister has dismissed claims that Israel assassinated a Palestinian Hamas member and scholar who was shot dead in Malaysia. Avigdor Lieberman said it was more likely Fadi al-Batsh, 35, was killed on Saturday as part of "an internal Palestinian dispute." He also added that al-Batsh who was a scientist, was a "rocket expert and no saint".
"I'm so sad to see another chemical attack, and we expect to see it happen again and again," said Aya Fadl, who survived the chemical attacks on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib last April which killed more than 18 members of her family. "Of course the strikes were not enough!
Huffington Post
The war in Syria has forced more than five million people to flee from their homes. The vast majority of them are not in Europe. They are living in neighboring countries as the conflict in Syria stretches into its sixth year with no signs of abating.
"It's easier to fight cancer than to fight an archaic mindset." Those were Nima Habashneh's last words on camera before she passed away this week. The 55-year-old Jordanian spent her last decade fighting for the rights of Jordanian women to pass on their citizenship to their spouses and children.
Posted: The Arab Spring continues to blow winds of change in the Middle East. There is no doubt the direction these countries are heading in will affect Arab societies and personal rights. But recently, the focus has been on women in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
Since the 2011 Arab uprisings, there has been little doubt that enhanced access to information and news contributed to political and social activism, pushing the boundaries of free speech, even for a short period of time, to beyond anything that had been seen regionally.
Posted: With a high death toll in Syria, intensified sectarian strife across the region and a sharp rise in conservatism, it's easy to forget why the Arab Spring actually began. From autocratic regimes to deteriorating press freedoms to consistent corruption, the Middle East was, for the most part, decaying.
Contrary to the saying that truth is the first casualty of war, the Arab Spring has overwhelmingly broken a barrier of fear that has presided over the Middle East for decades. Most people in the region are demanding nothing but the truth; they also participate by disseminating the news.
As I watch the Arab Spring, I recognize the road ahead will be long and difficult. While many Arabs are calling for democracy, the region continues to lack democrats, a key component for any political, cultural and social revolution. Two years ago I interviewed Khaled AlMajali, director of the Jordanian correctional facilities for a story on prison reform.
The country of Jordan is sometimes called a mosaic. It is literally home to one of the oldest mosaics in the world, including the famous Holy Land map. Symbolically, it is also home to many different people who fled war and turmoil in the region.
AMMAN - Two weeks ago, Manal, 27, dressed in a black robe, walked slowly in a crowd of several hundred demonstrators - mostly men - carrying children, waving Jordanian flags or holding up homemade protest signs near the prime minister's office.
"Town meetings are to liberty what primary schools are to science; they bring it within the people's reach..." -- Alexander de Tocqueville, from Democracy in America. On a typical weekday, an ordinary woman from Hempstead, New York taught me an extraordinary lesson on the meaning of democracy.
A year after the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York, former President Bush's national security strategy was clear: US interests triumph all else and international institutions would not hinder military actions deemed necessary. Therefore, when contemplating humanitarian interventions, the US would weigh the potential benefits--in terms of foreign lives saved--against the likely costs to the United States.
Recently I met with Majed, an elderly Arabic schoolteacher in Amman, Jordan. Not long ago, he taught me Arabic, and we still meet occasionally to talk about the media in Jordan. He lives in a small clay mud brick house in Amman and has 10 children.
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In a dull, pre-fabricated caravan in Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp, a group of Syrian children marvel at brand-new laptops and tablets, tapping out words. In another corner, a clutch of youngsters, many in ragged clothes, watch cartoons downloaded from the Internet.
Published Journal Entries
Der Krieg in Syrien hat mehr als fünf Millionen Menschen zur Flucht gezwungen. Die allermeisten von ihnen sind nicht nach Europa gekommen, sondern leben in den Nachbarländern Irak, Libanon, Türkei und Jordanien. In Jordanien mit leben mittlerweile über eine Million Syrer, von denen mehr als 650 000 als Flüchtlinge registriert sind.
Jordan's state television JRTV has seen its audience levels plummeting in the past decade. Its reform has never succeeded. Now, the government pledges to launch a new TV channel that would truly serve the public. But these plans are raising numerous eyebrows.
As a reporter, you must gather information and interview sources quickly, then explain what you've learned concisely and clearly. Once that's done, it's tempting to ship the story to your editor or hit "publish" on your blog. Resist that temptation.
The true role of new communications technologies in the dramatic events of the “Arab Spring” in 2011 is still under discussion, but wireless communications were certainly used widely by activists and protesters. This article uses events in Jordan as a case study, and the authors argue that reform of that country’s spectrum licensing policies and speech laws is essential for future democratic progress and economic development. The authors combine research into Jordan’s emergent high-tech...
Revolutions in the Middle East have been powered by young people using new technology. Young people, who make up 30 percent of the region's population, have played a dominant role in protests and political upheaval by documenting events with cell phones, the Internet and social media.
Bloomberg