World briefs 7/31/05

Two Britons, seven Iraqis killed in Iraq Saturday

Bombs killed two British contractors in southern Iraq and seven people in the heart of the capital Saturday. The two Britons, who worked for a security firm, were killed when a roadside bomb exploded alongside a British consulate convoy in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city. In Baghdad, a car bomb exploded near the National Theater in the city's Karradah district, killing seven people, including three policemen, police and witnesses said.

Palestinians vow to ensure calm during withdrawal

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian forces desperately need better weapons and military equipment, but will maintain calm during Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip "even if we have to use clubs," a Palestinian official said Saturday. Israel has threatened harsh retaliatory action if Palestinian militants attack settlers or soldiers during the withdrawal, set to begin in mid-August.

Monsoon death toll could reach 1,000 in Bombay

BOMBAY, India -- Hundreds of angry demonstrators blocked traffic for hours Saturday to demand restoration of drinking water and electricity after this week's monsoon rains in western India. Officials said the death toll could reach 1,000. Rescuers found more than 100 bodies in the debris of collapsed homes Saturday, bringing the official death toll from the devastating floods in Bombay and the surrounding Maharashtra state to 853. They fear more bodies are buried in remote areas.

Police search Aruban landfill for teen's body

ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- Police and volunteers picked through a landfill Saturday where a witness claimed he saw men dumping a female body two days after an Alabama teenager vanished. The landfill is on the southern part of the Dutch Caribbean island, the opposite side from where 18-year-old Natalee Holloway was last seen in the early hours of May 30.

-- From wire reports