World in brief

Israeli Parliament votes leave Sharon's coalition in power

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon survived no-confidence votes in Parliament on Monday, a sign that his coalition is in no immediate danger of collapse, despite Cabinet approval of a divisive Gaza withdrawal plan a day earlier.

However, Sunday's historic vote to pull out of Gaza by the end of 2005 left Sharon's coalition increasingly brittle and could lead to new political alliances, or even elections, in the coming months.

Also Monday, two Palestinians, including a mentally disturbed man, were killed by Israeli troops. The army also said it was investigating the death of a paralyzed Palestinian man who was fatally shot by troops a day earlier.

LEBANON ATTACK: Israeli warplanes struck deep into Lebanon, blasting a Palestinian militant base south of the capital in what Israel said was retaliation for a rocket attack on an Israeli naval boat earlier Monday.

Lebanese officials said the Israeli planes fired at least four rockets at targets in the hills at Naameh, about 5 miles south of Beirut. Palestinian guerrillas of the Syrian-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command maintain an underground base in the Naameh hills.

EGYPT DEAL: Israel and Egypt are close to an agreement on Egyptian security presence along their border as Israelis prepare to remove settlements from Gaza and return the area to Palestinian control, officials said Monday.

Under a proposal, Egypt would send 200 Egyptian military experts into the Gaza Strip to aid Palestinian officials, said the Israeli officials who visited Egypt.

SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE, France - Sixty years after the D-day invasion, six U.S. veterans in their 70s and 80s parachuted Monday into Normandy in a re-enactment of their bold wartime jump.

Hundreds of people turned out near Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the first French town to be liberated during World War II, to watch them jump safely to the ground.

"This is a great feeling to have been able to realize a jump that will certainly be the last of our lives," said Carl Beck, 79, of Atlanta. "And with the crowd, it was just magic."

SAUDI TERROR THREAT: An Internet statement signed by an al-Qaida cell in Saudi Arabia warned Monday that the terror network will target Western airlines, military bases and residential compounds and told Muslims to stay away from Westerners. The statement suggested that more attacks on Western targets in the kingdom were imminent. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Brian Roehrkasse, said, "This particular threat appears to be focused on Westerners in the Arabian peninsula."

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