VOA news for Friday, July 4th, 2014

Thanks to http://gandalf.ddo.jp/ for audio and text Friday, July 4th, 2014 From Washington, this is VOA news. Coming up, the latest on the killed Palestinian teen. EU observers want deeper Afghan election probe. Hello everyone, I'm Steve Norman. The Israeli army is moving troop reinforcements toward the border with Gaza after an increase in rocket fire from the Palestinian territory. Israeli jets struck targets in Gaza Thursday while militants continued sending rockets into southern Israel. The violence comes amid mounting tension over the killing of an Arab teenager in East Jerusalem in a suspected revenge killing for the murder of three Israeli teens. The U.S. embassy in Uganda has warned of a possible terrorist attack on Entebbe International Airport, 40 kilometers south of the capital, Kampala. The embassy said on its website that, according to intelligence sources, there was a "specific threat" that an unknown terrorist group would attack the airport late Thursday. The deadline has passed without incident. Earlier, Obama administration officials said the U.S. plans to boost security at some foreign airports amid concerns that al-Qaeda may be developing new bombs that could be smuggled onto an airplane. Saudi Arabia is reportedly amassing 30,000 troops along its border with Iraq, amid growing fears that Sunni militants are planning to advance on the kingdom. Phillip Walter Wellman reports. According to the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya news channel, the soldiers were deployed after Iraqi government forces abandoned their posts in the border region. The channel said it acquired video showing about 2,500 soldiers retreating, but a top Iraqi military spokesman described the claim as "false news." Four days ago, the militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, declared its own caliphate in territory it seized in Syria and Iraq, renaming it the Islamic State. Saudi Arabia shares an 800-kilometer border with Iraq, nearly half of which is adjacent to land controlled by the militant group. Phillip Walter Wellman, for VOA news, Dubai. A member of Somalia's parliament has been killed in a shooting claimed by militant group al-Shabab. Mohamed Mohamud Hayd was killed Thursday when gunmen sprayed his car with bullets in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. A lawmaker who was riding with Hayd told VOA the attackers drove next to the car and opened fire. He said his bodyguard returned fire but was also shot and killed. Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab quickly claimed responsibility for the shooting. The group has intensified its attacks since the start of the Ramadan holy month on June 28th, killing at least 7 government security personnel and a tax collector in addition to the lawmaker. China and South Korea have agreed to expand economic ties and reaffirmed their commitment to a denuclearized Korean peninsula, as Chinese President Xi Jinping began a state visit Thursday to Seoul. At a joint news briefing with Mr. Xi, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Seoul and Beijing will work to complete a long-negotiated free trade agreement by the end of this year. Mr. Xi's visit to Seoul before visiting Pyongyang is seen by many as a snap to North Korea, Beijing's historical ally. President Xi has not yet met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who took power in 2011. The campaign of an Afghan presidential hopeful, Abdullah Abdullah, says it will reject preliminary results due Monday if election authorities fail to address its complaints of vote rigging. Ayaz Gul has details. The run-off election pitted Former Foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah against former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani. While Abdullah won more votes in the first round, Ghani's aides claim he has beaten his rival by a margin of one million votes. With official results expected on Monday, Abdullah's campaign cites what it called "industrial-scale fraud" allegedly orchestrated by outgoing President Hamid Karzai and the election commission to rig the vote in favor of Ghani, charges officials have rejected. The commission has already met some of Abdullah's demands. But his campaign's chief spokesman, Nasrullah Baryali Arsalai, on Thursday warned that it will reject any results announced before all their concerns are addressed. Ayaz Gul, for VOA news, Islamabad. U.S. Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who endured two years of misery in Japanese prison camps in World War II, has died. He was 97 years old. The World Cup quarterfinals get underway today, with France taking on Germany, Brazil and Colombia playing their match. On Saturday, quarterfinals will continue. Argentina will be playing Belgium, and the Netherlands and Costa Rica. And you can get more on what's happening at the World Cup on Twitter at VOAfootball or on the Internet at VOA football.com. That's the latest world news from VOA.