I don’t know how true this is…
Jordanian authorities have banned all events marking the “Nakba,” or Catastrophe, as Arabs refer to the creation of Israel 60 years ago. Several pro-Palestinian groups and Jordanian opposition parties has been planning to hold a rally in Amman on Friday.
But the authorities informed the organizers of the decision to […]

AMMAN (AFP) — A teenage woman was jailed for 15 years in Jordan on Wednesday for murdering her parents and two brothers by poisoning their orange juice, a court official said.
Hana al-Shamali, 19, was sentenced to prison and hard labour for the February killings in the city of Irbid, north of the Jordanian capital Amman, […]

Jordanian security arrested three activists for distributing leaflets calling for a general strike to protest food prices and government policies that fail to help the poor, activists said on Sunday.
Khalid Kalaldeh, head of the leftist “Social Jordanian Movement”, told Reuters the arrests took place on Saturday when members of his small group handed out leaflets […]

15,000
22,000

…and that’s all I have to say about that

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I know it might feel a bit redundant after the past few days of picking on the subject extensively, but today there seems to be an overkill of news on our favorite topic.
First, a new study.
Around 46 per cent of the Kingdom’s journalists believe that the status of press freedoms did not change last year, […]

A few of my delicious pickings from the past few days. Pay particular attention to the more new-media-meets-real-world articles on Facebook and Flickr. I really found those interesting. Makes the world feel a bit smaller than it is.
Staring Contest: An Italian man was given a suspended jail sentence for staring too intensely at a […]

If you love the TV show, Big Brother, and if it’s been a life-long goal of yours to be a contestant on it, then I’ve got good news for all you die-hard reality TV fans; Big Brother is coming to Jordan and in the most hi-tech of manners. The better news is that every […]

U.S. diplomats will begin moving into the mammoth new, heavily fortified embassy in Baghdad next month after long delays in the $736 million project — and not a moment too soon.
….S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said Friday that construction is complete at the Vatican-sized compound
…The new embassy will be the largest U.S. diplomatic mission […]

Director of the Financial Disclosure Department Nazim Aref on Sunday said 61 out of 110 deputies have submitted financial disclosure statements. Yesterday was the last day for deputies to file and submit their financial statements according to the 2006 Financial Disclosure Law, he added. The department provided lawmakers with the statement form on January 13, […]

If you haven’t read Khalaf’s primer on the issue, definitely check it out. The new Salt Document is a pretty stunning and rare act of cultural and social reform on the ground level, specifically in adherence to the new socioeconomic realities. Some of the highlights focus mainly on wedding festivities:
- A bride’s jewelry (as part […]

Could this editorial in the Jordan Times be any more propagandistic? I mean, come on people, a little show of objectivity can’t hurt you. Can it?

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The legislative session is over and MPs are on holiday. After doing pretty much nothing about helping the average Jordanian deal with rising prices, low wages, and fuel hikes, the MPs have decided to take this time off to help themselves. According to Ammon, MPs are asking for their wages to be increased, their cars […]

I wanted to point to a recent piece of local news where the government is expected to remove both the 16% sales tax and customs duty on renewable energy devices like solar panels and windmills. It was interesting because a few days ago I was in a meeting where Ahmad Humeid noted the high prices […]

No, they’re not turning them into hybrids or any thing environmentally friendly. It’s not that kind of “green”. Public buses and taxis in Aqaba are all being painted green to symbolize the “uniqueness” of the city. Now even though it’s my favorite color, when I think of Aqaba I don’t really think of green. Red, […]

Apparently, there were “secret” plans, headed by the Bakhit government, to build a Casino at the Dead Sea; a project that was supposedly funded in the millions by an unnamed “British Kurd” investor (don’t ask me why his nationality is important, you know how the Jordanian media is). Upon discovering these plans, it also seems […]

Last night, Amman joined the list of cities all around the world and turned its lights off in honor of Earth Hour, a WWF initiative to raise awareness about global warming. Here’s a picture of the Capital that I took last night as it was plunged into darkness.

Ok, ok, so that picture was totally photoshopped. […]