VOA News for Monday, April 5th, 2021

VOA News for Monday, April 5th, 2021
Thanks to gandalf.ddo.jp/ for transcribing
This is VOA news. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton.
Jordan's foreign minister says authorities have foiled an alleged plot by the former crown prince to undermine the government.
Ayman Safadi told reporters that Prince Hamza, the younger half-brother of King Abdullah II, had coordinated with foreign parties over a plot to destabilize the country. Safadi, who also holds the title of the deputy prime minister, did not say who the foreign parties are.
Division in the ruling royal family came to light late Saturday when Hamza announced he could not leave his home. State media reported that senior officials had been detained in a security probe. Hamza sent a video recording to the BBC saying he was being silenced. He said the country had become "stymied in corruption, nepotism and misrule."
Jordan's military accused Hamza of targeting the country's "stability and security."
The United States and the Gulf states including Saudi Arabia expressed strong support for King Abdullah.
Ned Price, the U.S. State Department spokesman, wrote on Twitter that "Abdullah is a key partner of the United States," and said he has Washington's "full support."
Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borissov may have difficulty holding on to power after a surge of votes in an election Sunday for anti-establishment and anti-corruption parties that want him out.
Exit polls in the [bulgari...] Bulgarian election forecast Prime Minister Borissov's center-right political party to remain the largest party in parliament, but it is only expected to win around 25 percent of the seats.
Behind it, the opposition Socialists and a new anti-establishment party vied with each other for second place, and two protest parties who want Borissov out are also forecast to enter the parliament.
Borissov's party has few natural coalition [par...] partners, so talks, or even another election, cannot be ruled out.
VOA news.
Kosovo's parliament has appointed a 38-year-old U.S.-educated female law professor and candidate of the ruling party as the country's new president following the February election.
Vjosa Osmani took over as acting president of Kosovo last November when her predecessor, Hashim Thaci, resigned ahead of his impending war crimes trial in the Netherlands.
Osmani's initial mandate expired when the new government took over after the February 14th election.
On Sunday, the 120-seat parliament voted in favor of appointing Osmani president by 71 votes.
Opposition parties and civil society watchdogs have criticized her appointment, saying that having a president, prime minister and speaker of parliament all from the same party is not welcome in a country with a fragile democracy.
In a speech, Osmani called for a dialogue aimed at normalizing ties with Serbia but said Belgrade must first apologize and prosecute those responsible for war crimes committed during the war of 1998-99 that ultimately led to Kosovo becoming independent in 2008.
At least 23 Indian security forces were killed in an ambush by Maoist militants in the central state of Chattisgarh, officials said Sunday, reviving concerns around a [decade-old insurgence] decades-old insurgency that appeared to have been largely contained in recent years.
A large force of Indian security personnel had been carrying out a clearance operation in a densely forested area on the edges of the Bijapur district when they were ambushed by the insurgents on Saturday in a firefight that lasted four hours.
Avinash Mishra, the deputy superintendent of police in Bijapur, said an additional 31 security personnel were wounded in the attack.
Demonstrations against military rule continued in Myanmar on Sunday. Many protesters carried Easter eggs embellish with slogans supporting their movement. They also held up drawings of a three-finger salute that has become a symbol of the movement.
The eggs are a nod to the Christian holiday Easter celebrated on Sunday.
Protesters began taking to the streets after the February 1st coup by the military, in which de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other government leaders were arrested.
Hundreds of people have been killed in violent crackdowns on protests over the past two months, according to media. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a nonprofit based in Myanmar, has tallied 557 deaths and more than 2,750 people arrested since the protests began.
Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton, VOA news.