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AMMAN — Thousands of saplings will be planted across the country on Wednesday to compensate for the trees destroyed in December’s snowstorm, which was a “strong blow” to Jordan’s forestry sector, an official said on Monday.

More than 10,000 saplings will be planted in celebration of Arbour Day and also to replace thousands of trees that were damaged late last year, Agriculture Ministry Spokesperson Nimer Haddadin said.

“During this time every year, the ministry’s forestry department plants saplings on hundreds of dunums to expand the green cover. This year, however, will be different, as the new saplings will replace thousands of uprooted trees,” Haddadin told The Jordan Times over the phone.

A nationwide campaign to plant trees across the country will be launched from a forest in Deir Alla in the central Jordan Valley, where over 10,000 saplings will be planted on 200 dunums, he added.

“The ministry started planting trees in the 70,000-dunum Deir Alla forest in 2009. The step seeks to create more green spaces in the country, especially in areas that lack forests,” Haddadin noted.

The spokesperson said the forestry department’s 13 nurseries across the country will provide the saplings, noting that they produce 3 million saplings of 80 different kinds every year.

“The department annually distributes 1.5 million saplings to the public free of charge, in addition to 500,000 saplings to public and private institutions. Another one million saplings are left at the nurseries to produce more,” Haddadin highlighted.

The tradition of Arbour Day in the Kingdom began in 1939 with a ceremony held in the Jabal Al Qalaa neighbourhood.

Since then, it has been an annual celebration, with the Agriculture Ministry choosing a different location each year to plant various saplings.

Illegal logging during winter, wild fires in summer and insufficient rain due to climate change are the main threats to Jordan's shrinking green cover, which stands at less than 1 per cent of the country's total landscape, according to experts.

Several projects were launched over the past years to increase forest terrain in Jordan and create more green spaces, including the national forestry project, the forests protection project and the Green Belt project, under which trees are planted along the desert road, which links the country’s central and southern regions.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Monday started deliberations over the draft 2014 state budget amid expectations that voting on the bill will take place by end of this week.

The House will need more than 25 hours to conclude its debate over the bill, as each deputy has 10 minutes to address the Chamber.

On the first day of the debate, most of the speakers who took the podium expressed their opposition to the bill, with the majority blaming the government for the “bad” economic situation and the increasing budget deficit.

They called for looking into alternatives to finance the budget rather than relying on citizens’ pockets through more taxes and higher prices of basic commodities.

The first day also witnessed calls to divert the subsidies to target Jordanians who need them rather than maintaining the same blanket subsidy system that the rich and poor benefit from.

In their speeches, many deputies focused on demands for their own constituencies, urging the government to allocate funds to provide more services for local communities across the Kingdom.

Last week, the Lower House Financial Committee concluded its review of the bill and sent it to the Permanent Office.

Immediately, after receiving the committee’s recommendations on the draft, the Lower House dedicated this week’s meetings to discussing the bill to endorse it before a delegation of MPs leaves the country to participate in a regional activity in Kuwait next week.

After holding 60 meetings with various government entities over the past few weeks, the House panel submitted 25 recommendations to the government for examination during the discussions under the Dome.

The committee recommended that the government draft a deficit law to cover the next five years, starting in 2015 to reach self-sufficiency by 2020.

The panel urged the government to speed up its efforts to collect Treasury funds — estimated at JD2 billion — and conclude all lawsuits against tax evaders and others who owe money to the state, expected to generate JD1 billion, calling on the authorities to aggressively combat tax evasion.

The government should also accelerate the implementation of alternative energy projects, according to the panel’s recommendations, which were made available to The Jordan Times.

The government submitted the draft budget to the Lower House in November 2013, with a 12.8 per cent expansion in spending and a deficit of around JD1.1 billion.

AMMAN — Four people were killed and four others were injured, one critically, in a road accident near Madaba Bridge on Monday morning, official sources said.

The accident involved a trailer truck and five vehicles on a four-lane road that connects Amman with Madaba, Maj. Ziad Abdul Aziz, director of the Traffic Investigation Department, said.

Abdul Aziz told The Jordan Times that a white vehicle with five passengers heading to Amman from Madaba was speeding.

“Wrongful overtaking by the driver resulted in the vehicle slamming into the street divider, crossing to the other side and crashing head on with the trailer truck that was coming from the other direction,” the traffic official said.

The vehicle was pinned under the truck and was dragged for 30 metres, and the two entangled vehicles collided with four others on the same road, Abdul Aziz explained.

“The strong impact resulted in the immediate death of four of the five occupants of the white vehicle and the injury of three passengers in the trailer truck,” he added.

The driver of the white vehicle was the sole survivor and is listed in critical condition, according to Abdul Aziz.

The victims were aged 37, 24, 21 and 24.

The injured were rushed to Hamaideh and Bashir hospitals, a Civil Defence Department official told The Jordan Times.

The four other vehicles were heavily damaged as a result of the collision, he added.

According to Central Traffic Department figures, around 11,004 accidents associated with human injury were registered in 2012, with 816 road-related deaths.

In late 2012, the Public Security Department said road accidents over a decade had killed 7,869 people and injured 171,143 in the Kingdom.

In 2011, more than 142,000 accidents took place in Jordan, resulting in 694 fatalities and 18,122 injuries, while financial losses amounted to about $440 million. 

AMMAN — With Microsoft’s support for Windows XP ending in April, the international software giant recommended that users in Jordan upgrade to Windows 8 or 8.1 operating systems.

On April 8, support and updates for Windows XP will no longer be available.

In addition, anti-virus and software updates will eventually stop, Ayman Afaneh, Microsoft Jordan’s developer and platform evangelist lead, told The Jordan Times on the sidelines of a meeting Monday to launch Windows 8.1 in the Kingdom.

“I do recommend that those using Windows XP upgrade to Windows 8. When Microsoft stops supporting Windows XP, they can still use the software but are likely to face problems,” Afaneh said.

“When security and software updates stop... users of XP will be more vulnerable to cyber attacks and threats,” he added.

In a statement on its website, Microsoft said very few old computers will be able to run Windows 8.1, which is the latest version of Windows.

Citing studies by research firm Gartner, it indicated that most PC hardware manufacturers will stop supporting Windows XP on the majority of their new PC models.

“Microsoft has provided support for Windows XP for the past 11 years. But now the time has come for us, along with our hardware and software partners, to invest our resources towards supporting more recent technologies so that we can continue to deliver great new experiences,” Microsoft said.

During Monday’s meeting with the press, Afaneh announced the launch of Windows 8.1, noting that it “offers many unique features, including a multi-tasking option that enables users to simultaneously display and run several applications on a single screen”.

Windows 8.1 offers a host of increased customisation refinements and functional improvements, including an enhanced and more adaptable start screen so that each Windows device is tailored to the individual, a Microsoft statement said.

Windows 8.1 brings back the start button as a familiar point of navigation.

The operating system also provides native support for 3-D printing, enabling apps to seamlessly print 3-D jobs and understand 3-D file formats.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday attended a ceremony held by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs at the King Abdullah I Mosque to mark Prophet Mohammad’s birthday.

At the event, attended by several Royal family members and senior officials and officers, Awqaf Minister Hayel Dawood said Prophet Mohammad had called for promoting the values of peace and tolerance and denouncing all forms of extremism.

He underlined the ministry’s commitment to continue spreading the true image of Islam, which seeks to ensure the well-being of all humans, according to a Royal Court statement.

Chief Islamic Justice Ahmad Hilayel highlighted the lessons to be learned from the prophet’s life in addressing current issues and working towards advancement and prosperity.

For her part, Senator Nawal Faouri stressed the importance of having Prophet Mohammad as a role model in his actions that sought to bring about justice and reforms.

On the occasion of the prophet’s birthday, marked on Rabi I 12 on the Islamic lunar calendar, King Abdullah tweeted his best wishes to Muslims on the Royal Court’s official Twitter account.”Extending my best wishes to all Jordanians, the Arab & Islamic world on AL MAWLID of our great Hashemite grandfather Prophet Mohammad PBUH [peace be upon him],” the King wrote.

His Majesty and HRH Crown Prince Hussein received cables of congratulations from senior officials and officers on the occasion.

The King also received similar cables from Arab leaders, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.