World briefs 14A

Al-Qaida branch threatens Australia if it stays in Iraq

CAIRO, Egypt -- An online statement by a group representing itself as al-Qaida's European branch threatened on Saturday to turn Australia into "pools of blood" if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Iraq. It was the second statement in a week by the Tawhid Islamic Group, a previously unknown group which on Wednesday threatened attacks in Bulgaria and Poland if their troops remained in Iraq.

Ugandan rebels attack Sudanese villages

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Ugandan rebels fighting an 18-year insurgency in northern Uganda have killed dozens of civilians in southern Sudan in the past week, church and Sudanese rebel officials said Saturday. Lord's Resistance Army fighters killed the civilians in villages near Kapeota, 466 miles south of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, said Rev. Paul Yugusuk, head of the Anglican church in Lomega, near Kapeota. The Ugandan insurgents claim to be fighting to overthrow Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. But the force mostly attacks civilians to steal food and abduct children for use as fighters or concubines.

Spanish police found car used by Madrid bombers

MADRID, Spain -- Three months after the Madrid train bombings, Spanish police found a rental car used by the terrorists containing personal effects, an official said Saturday. Police found the car on June 13 in the town of Alcala de Henares, the departure point of three of the four trains bombed in the March 11 attack, a police spokeswoman said on anonymity. She said that investigators believe the bombers used the car to transport some of the explosives used in the blasts. DNA tests on clothes found in the trunk confirmed that it was used by two suspected Islamic terrorists, she said.

-- From wire reports