An Afghan militant group is willing to "help" U.S. and coalition forces, if they prepare to leave Afghanistan, the group's leader said in a statement given to CNN on Monday. "We are ready to help with the United States and ... other coalition forces if foreign troops announce the time frame for the pulling out their troops from Afghanistan," said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former Afghan prime minister and leader of the pro-Taliban Hizb-e-Islami militant group. "I am sure Afghans will ...

Olympic champion Usain Bolt had few worries in qualifying fastest for Sunday night's 100-meters final at the world championships in Berlin despite suffering a rare false start. The Jamaican clocked the fastest time of the two semifinals as he came home in 9.89 seconds, again being able to take his foot off the pedal long before the finish. Bolt will line up alongside defending champion Tyson Gay after the American won the second semifinal in 9.93 as he needed to ...

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both crashed out of the Montreal Masters at on Friday night as the world's top eight contested the quarte-finals at the same event for the first time in tennis history. But number one Federer and second-ranked Nadal both flunked their lines, admittedly returning to tournament action after layoffs. Federer, who has not played since winning Wimbledon after becoming the father of twin girls, let a 5-1 lead in the final set slip as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ...

The search for a missing Russian cargo ship was "developing quite dramatically" Friday, according to Russia's ambassador to NATO. But exactly what was developing was not made clear. Ambassador Dmitry Rogozin spoke on Radio Echo of Moscow amid reports of progress in the search for the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship whose Russian crew was last heard from after a reported hijacking two weeks ago. Asked about reports that the ship had been located in the Atlantic Ocean, the ambassador ...

Germany took a decisive step nearer the 2010 World Cup finals with a 2-0 win in Azerbaijan to open up a four-point gap at the top of European qualifying group four. Goals early in each half from Bastian Schweinsteiger and Miroslav Klose sealed victory for Joachim Loew's side, who have played a game more than closest rivals Russia. Germany's trip to face Russia in Moscow on October 10 is likely to decide who tops the group, but Wednesday's win gives ...

In her first television interview since Mel Gibson went public with their relationship in April, his girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, made it clear to CNN: "I'd like to be known for my music." Still, the 39-year-old singer was willing to talk about her beau and her pregnancy, as well as her new album, "Beautiful Heartache." "Beautiful Heartache" was released to iTunes on July 23 by Icon Distribution, Gibson's company, which up until now has handled only soundtracks for his ...

Rafael Nadal made his return to competitive tennis after a two-and-a-half month layoff with a doubles victory at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. Nadal teamed up with fellow Spaniard Francisco Roig to beat the Serbian pairing of Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic 7-5 6-4 in a first round match. World number two Nadal has not played since losing in the fourth round of the French Open to Robin Soderling, troubled by tendinitis in both knees which caused him to skip ...

Last month two famous defendants — one adored, the other despised — appeared in courts nearly 10,000 km apart. Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, is being tried by a special tribunal in The Hague for murder, rape, torture and other war crimes allegedly committed during the decade-long conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor — known as "Pappy" to child soldiers who, say prosecutors, were abducted, drugged and dispatched to commit atrocities on his orders — used his ...

A blogger believed to be the target of the attack that brought down Twitter Thursday has told CNN the cyber assault was politically motivated and timed to coincide with the one year anniversary of the Russia-Georgia conflict. "Cyxymu" has identified himself to CNN as "George," and the owner of the Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal accounts named by Facebook's security officer as being the target of a co-ordinated online attack. George told CNN in an e-mail his username is "the ...

Two Russian attack submarines have been cruising in the Atlantic off the East Coast of the United States, a senior defense official said Wednesday. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said their presence is not causing alarms to go off. "So long as they are operating in international waters, as, frankly, we do around the world, and are behaving in a responsible way, they are certainly free to do so, and it doesn't cause any alarm within this building," he said. The ...