DUBAI: In-school learning in Jordan will be suspended from Friday until further notice, the country’s education minister said.
Complimentary exams for secondary school students however will be held on time, with the exact dates for the tests to be announced sometime next week, chief education official Tayseer Noaimi said in a report from state news agency Petra.
The country reported 1,507 new coronavirus cases overnight, pushing its caseload to 19,000. Most of the confirmed infections came from areas in Amman, Balqa, and Zarqa.
The rise in infections has prompted authorities to impose a nationwide, 48-hour lockdown starting Thursday midnight, and will be a weekly measure until the unprecedented increase in COVID-19 cases has been addressed. The army has been called in to ensure the curfew is adhered to.
Jordan is separately enforcing a partial lockdown during the weekdays, which runs from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m.
Noaimi meanwhile said international examinations for students will be run according to previously announced schedules, but health and safety measures must be observed in testing halls.
Faculty members were also required to be present in schools on a shift system, so they can rotate from home and in school.
Jordan to suspend in-school learning amid rise in coronavirus cases
https://arab.news/j79yy
Jordan to suspend in-school learning amid rise in coronavirus cases
- The country reported 1,507 new coronavirus cases overnight
Lebanon’s government approves a deal to transfer Syrian prisoners back to Syria
- Lebanon and Syria have a complicated history with grievances on both sides
- A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Cabinet on Friday approved an agreement to transfer Syrian prisoners serving their sentences in Lebanon back to their home country.
The issue of prisoners has been a sore point as the neighboring countries seek to recalibrate their relations following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led insurgents in December 2024. Former insurgent leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa is now Syria’s interim president.
Lebanon and Syria have a complicated history with grievances on both sides. Many Lebanese resent the decades-long occupation of their country by Syrian forces that ended in 2005. Many Syrians resent the role played by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah when it entered Syria’s civil war in defense of Assad’s government.
A key obstacle to warming relations has been the fate of about 2,000 Syrians in Lebanese prisons, including some 800 held over attacks and shootings, many without trial. Damascus had asked Beirut to hand them over to continue their prison terms in Syria, but Lebanese judicial officials said Beirut would not release any attackers and that each must be studied and resolved separately.
The deal approved Friday appeared to resolve that tension. Lebanese Information Minister Paul Morcos said other issues remain to be resolved between the two countries, including the fate of Lebanese believed to have been disappeared into Syrian prisons during Assad’s rule and the demarcation of the border between the two countries.
Lebanon’s Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told reporters after the Cabinet meeting that about 300 prisoners would be transferred as a result of the agreement.
Protesters gathered in a square below the government palace in downtown Beirut ahead of the Cabinet vote to call for amnesty for Lebanese prisoners, including some who joined militant groups fighting against Assad in Syria. Some of the protesters called for the release of Sunni cleric Ahmad Al-Assir, imprisoned for his role in 2013 clashes that killed 18 Lebanese army soldiers.
“The state found solutions for the Syrian youth who are heroes and belong to the Syrian revolution who have been imprisoned for 12 years,” said protester Khaled Al- Bobbo. “But in the same files there are also Lebanese detainees. ... We demand that just as they found solutions for the Syrians, they must also find solutions for the people of this country.”
