Jordanian COVID-19 curfews removed from midnight

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Updated 01 September 2021
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Jordanian COVID-19 curfews removed from midnight

  • Third phase in Amman’s antivirus plans greeted with joy by business owners
  • Citing improvement in the epidemiological situation, the government has also announced that most sectors will be allowed to work in full capacity at all times

AMMAN: Jordanians will say farewell to the partial curfew on Tuesday night, ending more than one-and-a-half years of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdowns.

In April last year, Jordan imposed a nationwide lockdown, including a night curfew, as per the COVID-19 containment measures.  

The government has recently announced a set of procedures for the third phase of the plan to return to normalcy, including ending all curfews and resuming in-class education at schools and universities.

Citing improvement in the epidemiological situation, the government has also announced that most sectors will be allowed to work in full capacity at all times.

The government has also referred to the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and the increase in the inoculated population as another major encouraging reason to reopen the country.

Over 4 million of the kingdom’s 10 million population have received the second jab.

The measures will come into effect from Sept. 1.

The Ministry of Education Secretary-General for Administrative and Financial Affairs Najwa Qbeilat said that more than 2 million students will resume in-class education on Wednesday.

The official told the Jordan news agency, Petra, that a set of health measures will be in place at all the Kingdom’s 3,971 public schools, including social distancing and mandatory facemasks.

 The government has begun a three-phase plan to gradually reopen closed sectors dubbed “safe summer.”

The first and second phases began on June 1 and July 1 respectively, opening more sectors and adjusting curfew hours to midnight for businesses and 1:00 a.m. for the public.

The end of the nighttime curfew was such “great news” for Amer Badran, owner of Aristotle café in Amman’s Luweibdeh neighborhood.

“It is summer time and people love to stay out until late hours at night. Having to close at midnight was really bad for our business,” said Badran, recalling the days when his café was still open until 3 a.m."

Mohammad Fadel said was also happy to have the curfew canceled forever: “Curfew was not effective in containing COVID-19. The virus does not go to bed at midnight.”


Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

Updated 15 sec ago
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Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

LONODN: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday spoke to his French and German counterparts and outlined UK plans to get aid to people in Gaza and evacuate sick and injured children, his office said.
“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” a statement said.
In a phone conversation, Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed the humanitarian situation in Gaza “which they agreed is appalling.”
“They all agreed it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace,” according to a readout released by Downing Street.
“They discussed their intention to work closely together on a plan.... which would pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region. They agreed that once this plan was worked up, they would seek to bring in other key partners, including in the region, to advance it,” it added.
The discussion comes a day after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip, calling it a “moral crisis that challenges the global conscience.”
Aid groups have warned of surging cases of starvation, particularly among children, in war-ravaged Gaza, which Israel placed under an aid blockade in March amid its ongoing war with Hamas. That blockade was partially eased two months later.
The trickle of aid since then has been controlled by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.


Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

Updated 22 min 40 sec ago
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Britain ‘taking forward’ Gaza food airdrop plan: PM Starmer’s office

  • The UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid

LONDON: British Prime minister Keir Starmer on Saturday spoke to his French and German counterparts and outlined UK plans to get aid to people in Gaza and evacuate sick and injured children, his office said.

“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” a statement said.


Libya detains 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in raid near Tripoli

Updated 41 min 6 sec ago
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Libya detains 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in raid near Tripoli

  • Al-Abed said: “These workers, of various nationalities, had no residency permits, no official passports, and not even health records“
  • The detained migrant workers will be “transferred to centers run by the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority”

TRIPOLI: Libyan authorities detained on Saturday some 1,500 undocumented migrant workers in a raid on a neighborhood housing them east of the capital Tripoli, an AFP reporter saw.

“Saturday’s inspections uncovered housing units where undocumented foreign workers were living,” Libyan labor minister Ali Al-Abed, who was present during the raid, told reporters.

“These workers, of various nationalities, had no residency permits, no official passports, and not even health records.”

Libya has been gripped by conflict since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi in a NATO-backed uprising.

The country remains split between Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah’s government based in Tripoli and a rival administration based in the east.

With Italy some 300 kilometers (186 miles) away, Libya has become a key launchpad for tens of thousands of migrants who risk their lives at sea trying to reach Europe.

The area targeted in the sweep east of Tripoli housed makeshift encampments surrounded by high walls and a large gate.

Hundreds of migrants — mostly Egyptians and sub-Saharan Africans — were said to have lived there.

Inside the compound, an AFP journalist saw a small grocery store, a butcher shop and vegetable vendors.

The labor minister said the site had “unregulated housing that fails to meet basic requirements for decent accommodation, health and workplace safety.”

The detained migrant workers will be “transferred to centers run by the Anti-Illegal Immigration Authority, and legal proceedings will be initiated against them according to national regulations,” Abed said.

It remained unclear whether the migrants would be immediately deported.

Earlier this month, a European Union commissioner and ministers from Greece, Italy and Malta were in Libya to discuss irregular migration from the North African country.

Migrants intercepted by Libyan authorities, including in international waters before reaching the Italian coast, are forcibly returned to Libya and held in detention under harsh conditions frequently condemned by the United Nations.


Nine killed in courthouse attack in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, Iranian media report

Updated 26 July 2025
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Nine killed in courthouse attack in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan province, Iranian media report

  • Jaish Al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account
  • Sistan-Baluchestan is home to Iran’s Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalization and political exclusion

At least nine people were killed in an armed attack by the Sunni Jaish Al-Adl Baluch group on a courthouse in Iran’s restive Sistan-Baluchistan province on Saturday, including three of the assailants, state media reported.

Another 22 were injured, according to the report.

Jaish Al-Adl confirmed the deaths of its three members in the clashes with security forces in Zahedan, the capital of the far southeastern province bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sistan-Baluchistan is home to Iran’s Sunni Muslim Baluch minority, who have long complained of economic marginalization and political exclusion.

A toddler and a 60-year-old woman were among those killed, as well as three soldiers and law enforcement personnel assigned to the courthouse, the head of the province’s judiciary told IRNA. He did not identify the sixth dead person. He said the attackers wore explosive vests and carried grenades. It was not clear if they had detonated them.

Jaish Al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Telegram account, said it had killed at least 30 members of the judiciary and security forces. It said it targeted judges and court personnel, whom it accused of issuing death sentences and house demolition orders to Baluch citizens.

“We warn all judges and employees of the judiciary that Baluchistan will no longer be a safe place for them and death will follow them like terrifying shadows until retribution,” the group said in its statement.

It blamed security forces for the deaths of civilians, saying they had fired indiscriminately.

The Baluch human rights group HAALVSH, quoting eyewitnesses, said several judiciary staff members and security personnel were killed or wounded when the assailants stormed the judges’ chambers.

Sistan-Baluchistan is frequently hit by clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy. Tehran accuses some of them of ties to foreign powers and involvement in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.


Five civilians, three gunmen killed in ‘terrorist’ attack in southeast Iran

Updated 26 July 2025
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Five civilians, three gunmen killed in ‘terrorist’ attack in southeast Iran

  • Jaish Al-Adl group, operating from borderlands between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, claimed the attack
  • The region has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, various militant outfits

TEHRAN: Gunmen killed five civilians during a “terrorist attack” on a judiciary building in southeast Iran on Saturday before being killed themselves, state media reported.

“Unknown gunmen attacked the judiciary center in Zahedan,” the capital of southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, the judiciary’s Mizan Online said.

“Five people have been killed and 13 injured in this terrorist attack,” the report said while adding that the counts are “preliminary” and the toll may rise.

Separately, the official IRNA news agency reported that three of the attackers were killed during the assault, citing the regional headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

According to Alireza Daliri, deputy police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan province, the attackers attempted to enter the building disguised as visitors.

The assailants threw a grenade into the building, Daliri said, killing several people inside, including a one-year-old baby and the child’s mother.

Jaish Al-Adl (Arabic for ‘Army of Justice’), a Baloch militant group operating from the borderlands between Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, mainly the Sistan-Balochistan triangle, but active inside Iran, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Located about 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the restive province shares a long border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The area has been the scene of recurring clashes between Iranian security forces, including the IRGC, and rebels from the Baluch minority, radical Sunni groups, and drug traffickers.

In one of the deadliest incidents in the region, ten police officers were killed in October in what authorities also described as a “terrorist” attack.