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KABUL, Afghanistan - Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar purportedly said in an audiotape aired Sunday that Afghanistan's government and the U.S.-led coalition supporting it do not have the wisdom to solve the nation's crisis.

SEOUL, South Korea - Japan warned Sunday it would consider "all options" against North Korea, including sanctions on oil and food sales, if the reclusive communist country goes ahead with a test launch of a long-range missile that could reach the United States.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki offered an olive branch to insurgents who join in rebuilding Iraq and said Sunday that lawmakers should set a timeline for the Iraqi military and police to take control of security nationwide.

KIBBUTZ KEREM SHALOM, Israel - Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel through a tunnel from the Gaza Strip and attacked a tank with bombs and grenades, killing two crew members and kidnapping a third, the Israeli military said.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Palestinian militants launched on Sunday their first deadly raid into Israel from Gaza since an Israeli pullout last year, killing two soldiers and abducting another in an assault in which two attackers died.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Europe's Muslims have remained largely silent in the face of terrorist attacks that have killed 254 people in Madrid, London and Amsterdam. Europeans want to know why.

STUTTGART (Reuters) - Five hundred England soccer supporters have been detained in Stuttgart in the two days leading up to their side's second-round match with Ecuador for mostly drunken and aggressive behavior, police said on Sunday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein is certain his trial for crimes against humanity will result in the death penalty, but clings to the hope that Washington will use the sentence as leverage to enlist his aid to tamp down the insurgency in Iraq, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

KUFSTEIN, Austria - Authorities in Germany and Austria said Saturday they may allow hunters to shoot a marauding brown bear nicknamed Bruno after recent efforts to capture him alive failed.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's national reconciliation plan is a hard sell on Karrada Inner street, where a roadside bomb left Akram Jabaar with a painful limp and little faith in his government.

ROME - Italians began voting Sunday on constitutional changes that proponents say would increase stability in a country known for its revolving-door governments.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake struck Indonesia's Sulawesi island early Sunday and panicked residents, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran backed efforts by Islamic states on Thursday to get the United Nations new Human Rights Council to counter what they call "defamation of religion" around the world.

KIBBUTZ KEREM SHALOM, Israel - Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip infiltrated Israel through a tunnel early Sunday, attacking a military post and killing two Israelis before soldiers shot dead three gunmen.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US administration officials chose to ignore a CIA officer's warnings that an Iraqi defector's claims of purported biological labs made by Iraq for germ warfare were unproven.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan has suspended the work of a U.N. mission in its violent Darfur region after accusing the world body of transporting a rebel leader who opposes a recent peace deal, a Sudanese official said on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Leading US senators have expressed fears that the national reconciliation plan announced by Iraq's prime minister could lead to an amnesty for insurgents who have killed US troops.

WASHINGTON - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday that the Taliban's fugitive leader should come out of hiding and face justice. An audio tape allegedly made by Mullah Omar and aired Sunday by a Pakistani television station said the U.S.-led coalition and the Afghan government do not have the ability to solve Afghanistan's escalating violence.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US administration officials chose to ignore a CIA officer's warnings that an Iraqi defector's claims of purported biological labs made by Iraq for germ warfare were unproven, The Washington Post has reported.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military has charged two soldiers in the February killing of a civilian near Ramadi, the military said Saturday.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) - The Vancouver Canucks and Florida Panthers pulled off the first major deal of NHL Draft week on Friday night as the Canucks sent forward Todd Bertuzzi to the Panthers for goalie Roberto Luongo.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - A bankruptcy judge on Friday canceled the planned sale of Brazil's flagship Varig airline to a workers' group, throwing the future of the carrier into limbo and virtually ensuring more travel chaos ahead for ticket holders in Brazil and abroad.

MANILA, Philippines - About 100 villagers fled from boulders and rocks rumbling down the Philippines' restive Bulusan volcano amid heavy rains from a tropical storm, an official said Sunday.

NAIROBI, Kenya - He was speaking at a conference about sexual health — a meeting convened in part to help reduce the alarming number of rapes in Kenya. But the priest wasn't crusading. He was trying to entertain.

As of Saturday, June 24, 2006, at least 2,521 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,983 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.