Category: General

HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan has been nominated as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Amman Baccalaureate School (ABS) by outgoing Founding Chair, Princess Sarvath El Hassan. HRH Princess Sarvath founded the ABS in 1981 and has served as Chair of the BoT for four decades. Princess Sumaya had previously served for many years as Deputy Chair and as a member of the Parent-Teacher Association, as well as being a former student and the parent of students.

In her new capacity as Chair of the BoT, HRH Princess Sumaya said that she celebrated the inspirational work of HRH Princess Sarvath and the other founders and leaders of the school over the years as ABS continued to strive towards excellence in everything it does, including the education it provides and the systems it engages to deliver it.

She added: “This year we mark the 40th anniversary of the founding of ABS, a milestone that gives us all an opportunity to take stock and to refocus on our evolving school for the future. It offers us a chance to review and renew our guiding statements.”

“ABS has come a long way since the founders set themselves the task of establishing an innovative and ground-breaking school in 1981. ABS quickly became a mould-breaker and innovator on the national, regional, and international levels, and we continue that tradition.”

The ABS BoT and academic staff have worked closely over the years with the International Baccalaureate Organization Council of Foundation to develop, pilot and implement an IB syllabus for the History and Culture of the Islamic World, and for teaching and examination of Arabic at Language ‘A’ Level. Today, as a result of their collective efforts, these two subject options are offered worldwide.

“Today, we are delighted that despite the challenges posed by two greatly disturbed academic years, 2021’s IB Diploma results were outstanding,” added HRH Princess Sumaya. “In line with other leading educational institutions and authorities around the world, we did not host exams but awarded grades based on internal assessment and extended essays.” ABS scored a 100% pass rate, with 35 students scoring above 40 out of a maximum of 45 with 3 students scoring 44 and a class average of 39.

Source: Independent Press Agency

Saudi’s health ministry Sunday said daily COVID-19 infections in the country have continued to drop due to anti-COVID measures and the COVID vaccine, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

SPA reported that the Ministry of Heath said the daily COVID-19 infections have dropped due to the people’s willingness to take the vaccine, as more than 39.3 million jabs had been administered so far.

Source: Independent Press Agency

France 24 Sunday reported that two Morrocan truck drivers were killed and one other was wounded in Mali, as the perpetrators of the attack have not yet been identified.

It cited a Morrocan official as saying the victims were killed when they had been en route to African countries carrying goods.

“The two victims were killed at the hands of an armed group near the Didieni town, about 300km away from Bamako,” a Malian security source explained.

Source: Independent Press Agency

Amman Magistrates Court heard a new public prosecution witness in the case of the oxygen outage at the New Salt Public Hospital, bringing the number of testimonies heard so far to 65.

In its 30th public session on Sunday, the court heard the testimony of a Civil Defense Directorate (CDD) serviceman in the case as an expert, bringing to 13 the number of experts who have testified so far.

Next Thursday, the court is scheduled to hear the last public prosecution witness and will then begin hearing defense attorneys.

In mid-March 2021, the hospital’s oxygen outage incident caused the death of 10 Jordanians. Then, concerned authorities arrested 13 people, including Ministry of Health officials, for investigation.

Source: Independent Press Agency

By the end of last July of 2021, the total area of licensed buildings reached 4.516 million square metres, compared with 2.625 million square metres during the same period of 2020, marking a 72 per cent increase, according to official figures.

The Department of Statistics (DoS) said on Sunday that the total number of building licences issued in the Kingdom rose by 69.3 per cent during the January-July period when compared with the same period of 2020, reaching 14,531 licences.

The area of housing buildings totalled 3.941 million square metres in the first seven months of 2021, compared with 2.279 million square metres in the same period last year, registering an increase of 72.9 per cent, the DoS said.

The DoS stated in its report that the total area of buildings licensed for non-residential purposes showed a hike of 66.2 per cent, amounting to some 575,000 square metres in the first seven months of 2021 compared with around 346 million square metres in the same period last year.

Licensed buildings for housing comprised 87.3 per cent of the total area of licensed buildings, according to the department.

The central region of the Kingdom registered 66 per cent of the total area of licensed buildings, while the north recorded 24.1 per cent and the south witnessed only 9.9 per cent, according to the DoS.

Source: Independent Press Agency

The Ministry of Health announced 6 Covid-19 fatalities and 883 new cases were recorded in the Kingdom on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 10,548 and the caseload to 807, 384.

To date, there are currently 12, 223 cases countrywide, according to the media statement issued by the Prime Ministry and the Ministry of Health.

The statement added that the number of patients who were admitted to hospitals today stood at 83, while 59 cases have recovered and discharged.

According to the briefing, the total number of recoveries recorded Sunday, whether at hospitals or at home, stood at 1, 098 bringing the total to 784,613 since the outbreak began.

Moreover, the number of Covid-19 patients still receiving treatment at hospitals countrywide has reached 545.

The statement also indicated that occupancy of ICU beds in the northern, central and southern regions, has has reached 14%, 26%, and 12%, respectively.

With regard to testing, 29, 050 tests were conducted Sunday, 3.04 percent of which were positive.

Since last March, the total number of tests administered has increased to 9,581, 308, the joint statement noted.

The statement also added that the total number of people who received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine has reached 3,577,708 and 3,091,385 have received their second shot.

Source: Independent Press Agency

COVID-19 killed six in Jordan in the last 24 hours, as the death toll stands at 10,548 and a total of 883 cases were recorded, pushing the caseload to some 807,380, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH).

The MoH said in a press statement Sunday that 3.04 percent of the 29,050 tests conducted today came back positive.

It said 59 people had recovered and were discharged from hospitals while 83 others were admitted, as the total number of COVID-19 patients receiving medical treatment in hospitals hit 545.

The number of active COVID-19 cases in the Kingdom hovers around 12,220, it added.

Some 784,600 COVID-19 patients, including patients who had been self-isolating, have fully recovered so far.

Source: Independent Press Agency

Emirates Airline Saturday announced it is resuming flights to Saudi Arabia with 24 flights a week, including a daily flight to the capital, Riyadh, daily Airbus A380 flights to Jeddah, a daily flight to Dammam and three weekly flights to Madinah al Munawara.

The United Arab Emirates carrier said in a press release that it will raise flights to Riyadh by two daily, starting September 16, adding it also plans to increase the number of flights to other cities by the end of the month.

Saudi Arabia announced the return of travel between the two countries, starting last Wednesday after a two-month suspension as part of coronavirus prevention measures.

Source : Jordan News Agency

In a private ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the US Embassy in Amman, US Ambassador to Jordan Henry T. Wooster commemorated the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks perpetrated by the Al Qaeda terrorist group.

The Ambassador led a moment of silence in honor of the 2,977 innocent people, including Jordanians Robert Elias Talhami and Ramzi Dowany, who were killed in the attacks, the embassy said in a press release.

The ceremony concluded in the lowering of the American flag to half-mast, in the words of Ambassador Wooster, “to remind ourselves that even as life continues, the memories of those taken from us sanctify our ongoing efforts towards a better tomorrow for ourselves, and for future generations.”

Embassy employees, family members of the Jordanian victims, and senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Jordan Armed Forces attended the ceremony.

In his remarks, Wooster noted that only days after the attack on September 11, 2001, the United States began the operations in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 in Pakistan.

He acknowledged Jordan’s support in that effort, as well as the loss of two Jordanian officers in Afghanistan, adding that “our coordinated response, in Afghanistan and across the globe, thwarted efforts by Al Qaeda and similar groups, like ISIS, to slaughter innocent people.”

Reflecting on the deaths of 13 US military service members killed during the evacuation of American citizens and partners in Afghanistan, Wooster observed “Most were infants on 9/11, each had dreams, every one of them volunteered to serve as a marine, a sailor or a soldier, and most had spent time in Jordan and indeed most of them deployed to Afghanistan from Jordan.”

“The grief of their families and friends remind us of the cost terrorism imposes on us,” he said.

Source : Jordan News Agency

Russia’s COVID response centre Saturday put the number of COVID fatalities in the country at 796, taking the death toll to 191,1961.

The Coronavirus Control Centre said more than 18,980 people tested positive for the highly contagious disease Saturday, pushing the case load to 7.12 million.

Some 6.37 million people have recovered so far from the lung disease, it added.

Source : Jordan News Agency