The Wordl's Billionaires TOP 20

Methodology: How We Crunch The Numbers

More than 50 reporters in 16 countries worked on compiling our 25th anniversary World’s Billionaires rankings. Throughout the year our reporters meet with the list candidates and their handlers and interview employees, rivals, attorneys and securities analysts. We keep track of their moves: the deals they negotiate, the land they’re selling, the paintings they’re buying, the causes they give to. To estimate billionaires’ net worths we value individuals’ assets, including stakes in public and private companies, real estate, yachts, art and cash–and account for debt.

Not that we pretend to know what is listed on everyone’s private balance sheet, though some folks do provide that information. We do attempt to vet these numbers with all billionaires. Some cooperate, others don’t.

We have not included fortunes dispersed across large families (as in those of the Du Ponts) when individual net worths are below our minimum of $1 billion per name. But we do include wealth belonging to a member’s immediate relatives if the wealth can ultimately be traced to one living individual; in that case “& family” indicates that the number shown includes money belonging to more than one person.

Our estimates of public fortunes are a snapshot of wealth on Feb. 14, 2012, when we locked in stock prices and exchange rates from around the globe. Some on our list will become richer or poorer within weeks–even days–of publication. Privately held companies are valued by coupling estimates of revenues or profits with prevailing price-to-revenues or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies.

RANK	NAME	NET WORTH	AGE	SOURCE	COUNTRY OF CITIZENSHIP
1	Carlos Slim Helu & family	$69 B	73	Telecom	Mexico
2	Bill Gates	$61 B	57	Microsoft	United States
3	Warren Buffett	$44 B	82	Berkshire Hathaway	United States
4	Bernard Arnault	$41 B	63	LVMH	France
5	Amancio Ortega	$37.5 B	76	Zara	Spain
6	Larry Ellison	$36 B	68	Oracle	United States
7	Eike Batista	$30 B	56	mining, oil	Brazil
8	Stefan Persson	$26 B	65	H&M	Sweden
9	Li Ka-shing	$25.5 B	84	diversified	Hong Kong
10	Karl Albrecht	$25.4 B	93	Aldi	Germany
11	Christy Walton & family	$25.3 B	58	Wal-Mart	United States
12	Charles Koch	$25 B	77	diversified	United States
12	David Koch	$25 B	72	diversified	United States
14	Sheldon Adelson	$24.9 B	79	casinos	United States
15	Liliane Bettencourt	$24 B	90	L'Oreal	France
16	Jim Walton	$23.7 B	65	Wal-Mart	United States
17	Alice Walton	$23.3 B	63	Wal-Mart	United States
18	S. Robson Walton	$23.1 B	69	Wal-Mart	United States
19	Mukesh Ambani	$22.3 B	55	petrochemicals, oil & gas	India
20	Michael Bloomberg	$22 B	71	Bloomberg LP	United State

South Africa’s Somali refugee child stars fly to the Oscars

After narrowly winning a race against time to get extended refugee status, passports and visas, brothers Harun and Ali Mohammed are flying from Cape Town to Hollywood today for Sunday’s Academy Awards, where their film Asad will compete in the Best Short Film category.

The Somali refugee child stars will be accompanied by their father, Mahdi Hassan Mohamed, and will meet up in Los Angeles with Rafiq Samsodien, Asad’s South African producer, who’s had sleepless nights making the trip happen.

Speaking at Tuesday’s double screening of the Western Cape’s two Oscar-nominated films, Asad and the Rodriguez documentary Searching for Sugarman, Rafiq said, “I haven’t slept in 24 hours. I’ve been trying to get these guys extended refugee status documents, passports, and visas, which is not an easy task.

Arranging this trip has been the biggest production of my life: what we’ve managed to achieve in three weeks would normally take four years, so I need to thank Minister Naledi Pandor, The Department of Home Affairs and the American embassy for coming through for us.”

Written and directed by acclaimed American commercials director Bryan Buckley of Hungry Man, Asad is set in a war-torn fishing village in Somalia and follows a 12-year-old boy who must decide between falling into the pirate life and rising above it to become an honest fisherman.

Asad has scooped awards from 13 festivals around the world and has just received a glowing endorsement for Nobel Prize winner and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Tutu says, “South Africa is a relatively young democracy only recently emerged from the shackles of tyranny and prejudice. We have much to learn and we also have much to teach. Asad is at once a painful reminder of the xenophobia that shamefully still exists in South Africa and a heartwarming tribute to our special ability as members of the human family to heal ourselves.”

The short film was sparked in part by a United Nations short documentary, No Autographs, which brought Buckley and his producer Mino Jarjoura to refugee camps in Kenya and Sudan in the summer of 2010.

Filming in Somalia would have been too dangerous, so the short was brought to Rafiq and The Asylum (now Egg Films Service) to shoot in Paternoster in the Western Cape.

Spoken in Somali with English subtitles, Asad stars an all-refugee cast, headed by Harun (14) and Ali (12). The brothers reside just outside Cape Town with their parents and 13 brothers and sisters. Before filming started, neither Harun nor Ali spoke English, so Buckley and Jarjoura had to deploy a translator. The boys had also never attended school, so they were illiterate and had to memorize their lines without a script or written point of reference.

“These two kids were diamonds in the rough,” Rafiq says. “But if you’ve seen the performances, they shine much brighter than any diamond I have ever seen in my entire life.”

Tutu agrees. “The young Somali actors Harun and Ali Mohamed are the stars of a compelling show. They are also real life stars in an inspirational South African story about hope and reconciliation. So are the filmmakers – South African Rafiq Samsodien and the US partners Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura. Before Asad the children had never attended school; now, thanks to the director, they have received catch-up private tuition and enrolled in a home school system. They are being equipped to contribute to our shared South African future. Their film has been nominated to receive an Oscar. They deserve two Oscars: one for the creative endeavor and the other for contributing to our collective understanding of our dependence on one another.”

All prize money Asad receives from festivals goes towards the boys’ school expenses. Since March 2012, the boys have progressed from illiteracy to excelling in the fourth grade, in English.

Rafiq thanked everyone who made the children’s trip to the Oscars possible, including Melanie Mahona at The Provincial Government of The Western Cape, Nils Flaatten at Wesgro, The City of Cape Town, Myatt International, Woolworths, Dr. Anwar Nagiah, Marcel Golding, Tahir Salie, Munier Parker and Oryx Media, and The National Film and Video Foundation, who are sponsoring the flights and accommodation, among other costs.

The Academy Awards take place on 24 February 2012 at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.

For more information, visit http://www.asadfilm.com/.

You can watch and embed the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq6aJ7_8tcc.

UK : Met police will prosecute parents who send their girls abroad for FGM

People who book flights to send girls abroad for genital mutilation operations will face prosecution in a new Met attempt to bring offenders to justice. Scotland Yard chiefs say that parents, relatives and others who arrange transport and surgery will be targeted for criminal action as child abusers as detectives step up their efforts to combat the illegal practice.

Nimci Ali

The police move was revealed as a parliamentary hearing was warned that large numbers of girls aged as young as six are being sent from London to Africa  for genital surgery which leaves them with painful and life-changing injuries.

It came as the Met disclosed that it is close to bringing the first British prosecution for female genital mutilation after receiving nearly 150 reports of cases involving girls in the capital already “cut” or at risk of surgery.

Giving evidence to MPs, Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Niven, the head of Scotland Yard’s child abuse command, said “a number of difficulties” had prevented prosecutions so far, but warned that parents and others who organised mutilation would face criminal charges as the Met improved its evidence-gathering methods.

“The people that commit the crimes are people that perform the act and the people that arrange for that to take place,” he said.

“So the parents would be liable to criminal prosecution, as would the people who book the flights, as would the people that ensure the transition of that process.”

Mr Niven, who was appearing before the Commons international development select committee, said one person suspected of preparing to send a child abroad for a genital operation was arrested days ago, and “clear” evidence of a crime was found in another case over which his officers are now seeking to bring charges.

He added: “The child was in care and came forward and disclosed that the crime had taken place. We were able to go ahead, gain the evidence and the evidence has been very clear. The individual has now got concerns about taking that to the next stage and that’s about reassurance and about engagement with the Crown Prosecution Service which we are about to do. Prosecution will send a very clear message. It is child abuse.”

Female genital mutilation, or FGM, which is  practised in Africa and other parts of the world, involves the removal of parts or all of a girl’s clitoris and labia. It is illegal in Britain because of the lasting damage that it causes.

Efua Dorkenoo, a London director of the charity Equality Now, said some older girls were being “cut” to stop them becoming “too Westernised”.

But she warned that most victims  were of primary school age. “Most FGM is done to kids under the age of 10,” she told the MPs.

Mr Niven said the Met was now trying to win support from faith leaders and others within affected communities to stop the abuse. He said work was also being carried out with schools and health staff to identify those at risk and that further efforts were being made to give victims the confidence to alert police to their plight.

Flashbacks from smell of Dettol
Nimco Ali was taken to Somalia for female genital mutilation by her mother when she was seven. The procedure was performed in a hospital and to this day the smell of Dettol still gives Ms Ali flashbacks.

The civil servant, 29, from west London, said: “It’s bizarre because my mother is a feminist, believes women should be educated and independent.

“But she still thinks that female genital mutiliation (FGM) is part of what it is to be a woman, she did her best to legitimise the pain. I was told it was a normal thing that would help me to grow up.”

Ms Ali, a founder of the Daughters of Eve FGM campaign group, added: “London is now the capital of Europe where FGM is happening. It’s happening in people’s houses, clinics, with struck-off doctors.”

Mark Blunden

Evening Standard

Fugitive likely in Somalia

By Jennifer O'Brien, The London Free Press

A Toronto man who skipped town after a downtown London shooting spree is likely in Somalia, police say.

With all clues pointing to Africa, police have taken Ahmed Moalin-Mohamed from the Most Wanted section of their website — more than six years after the shocking shootout that sent four people to hospital and could have been much worse.


Investigators have reached out to international police forces, said London Police Const. Ken Steeves.


“We have reason to believe he is in Somalia,” he said. “We have contacted the UK., the U.S., Kenya, the Netherlands and Somalia, through Interpol” Steeves said.


Moalin-Mohamed, born in Somalia, faces 13 charges, including attempted murder in relation to the shooting just before 3 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2006. At that time, someone pulled a gun out and started shooting in what was then a parking lot at Richmond and Carling streets.


Jermaine Weeks, Doug Vaneau, Bryan Jones and Joseph Cosmo were hit.


Police arrested Moalin-Mohamed, then 23, and charged him with 13 offences, but he was released on bail to his parents custody shortly after. Moalin-Mohamed was a no-show for his next court appearance and hasn’t been seen in London since.

Somali robber sues UK

By CHRIS POLLARD - The Sun - AN asylum seeker with a string of criminal convictions is suing the Government — claiming its bid to deport him gave him NIGHTMARES.

Abdirahman Ajab

Somali Abdirahman Ajab wants £50,000 compensation for his “mental problems” after being held at an immigration centre for eight months while his case was considered.


Amazingly, despite Ajab, 30, having convictions for robbery and false imprisonment, a High Court judge let him stay.

He was jailed again for armed robbery but fought off another deportation bid last year and was given a flat in Tower Hamlets, East London.

When The Sun approached him at his home, he said: “The Government have been doing me bad for years. It’s giving me mental problems. It’s given me nightmares. They owe me, man.”

Ajab, who has lived in the UK since 1996, said he would use any compo to buy land in Somalia. He insists he wants to go back there but claims the Government is stopping him.

But a Home Office source said: “He’s more than welcome to leave.”

Xildhibaanadii Golaha Deegaanka Saylac iyo Lughaya ee Beesha Ciise oo is wada casilay

Warar Hordhac ah oo Waaheen ka soo gaadhaya Degmadda Saylac ayaa sheegaya toban Xildhibaan oo Golaha Deegaanka Saylac iyo Lughaya uga soo baxay beesha Ciise doorashadii muranka badan dhalisay inay is wada casileen.

Is casilaada Xildhibaanadan ayaa ka dhalatay kadib markii ay dhawaan qaar ka mid ah Xildhibaanadaasi shir wada tashi ah magaaladda Diridhaba kula soo yeesheen Ugaaska Beeshaasi oo fadhigiisu yahay Itoobiya.

Talaabadan ay qaadeen Xildhibaanadii Golaha Deegaanka Saylac iyo Lughaya oo Toddoba ka mid ahi ay ka soo baxeen Saylac, sadexda kalena ay ka soo baxeen Lughaya ayaa noqonaysa mid saamaynteeda leh iyada oo ay Beesha Ciise cabashooyin badan hore uga muujin jirtay inaanay Wakiilo ku lahayn Golayaasha Sharci dajinta gaar ahaana Golaha Wakiiladda oo ay beeshu doorashadii ka hadhay.

Ma cada talaabada xigta ee ay qaadi dooonaan Beesha Ciise hase yeeshee sida ay Ilo wareedyo u dhuun daloolaa sheegeen waxa la filayaa in ay Xilka ka tagi doonaan Xildhibaanada Golaha Guurtida kaga jira iyo Hal ka Xildhibaan ee kaga jira Golaha Wakiiladda.

Xukuumadda Somaliland ayaa xal u weyday xalinta khilaafka ka taagan Doorashadii Golaha Deegaanka Saylac, waxaanay taasi sababtay in ay go’aan qaadato Beesha Ciise

Short URL: http://waaheen.com/?p=60325

Genocide Trial Against Former Guatemala President General Ríos Montt to Start

The Center for Justice & Accountability will support the prosecution

On January 31, 2013, in a historic step, Guatemalan Judge Miguel Angel Galvez has decided to send to trial the case against former general Efrain Ríos Montt for genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Mayan people, specifically the Ixil indigenous people. In the next few days, the prosecutors and the lawyers for the victims will present to the court their evidence and full list of witnesses.  During a trial that could last as long as three months, more than 150 survivors of the genocide are expected to testify. Culminating the tremendous Guatemalan and international justice effort to date, the legal strategy on behalf of the victims will include all the Guatemalan and international expert witness testimony and other evidence prepared by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA) for the Guatemalan Genocide case before the Spanish National Court.  The trial will begin on January 31, 2013. 

In 2006 and after all the efforts in Guatemala to obtain justice for the victims failed, a pioneer effort led by CJA’s international attorney resulted in the creation of an international legal team that strategized and worked together on pleadings before both the Spanish and Guatemalan courts, and most importantly developed evidence with an eye on both, to sufficiently prove the genocide before the Spanish court and to serve future justice efforts in Guatemala. During more than five years, over 40 survivors testified in Spain; CJA’s team prepared at least 12 expert witness-testimony reports from both Guatemalan and international professionals. We are proud to state today that all the work done by CJA’s team was always aimed at one goal, to advance and support a trial for Genocide before the Guatemalan courts. We celebrate this news and congratulate the diligence and perseverance of the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office, as we prepare to work with our Guatemalan friends on everything they will need in the next few weeks.

About Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA):

CJA is a San Francisco-based human rights organization dedicated to deterring torture and other severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of survivors to seek truth, justice and redress.  CJA uses litigation to hold perpetrators individually accountable for human rights abuses, develop human rights law, and advance the rule of law in countries transitioning from periods of abuse.  For more information please visit www.cja.org.

Somaliland: 54 Terror Suspects Netted in Security Operation

Somaliland Security forces have conducted massive overnight raids for the past two nights arresting a few dozen people.

The security forces in the capital had last night imposed a curfew raid in which the Rapid Reaction unit popular known as the RRU by locals headed the search which was centered in Ahmed Dhagax suburb of Hargeisa.

Security Personnel blocked all major roads in the city stopping and randomly searching both civilians and motorist alike.

Security forces surrounded a Hotel were unspecified number of men suspected to be affiliated with Al shabaab militants were  staying, a firefight erupted when they realized that they were about to be detained.

Two suspects  affiliated to Al Shabaab were later arrested at the Hotel while a third believed to be armed and dangerous escaped in the ensuing firefight which is believed to have lasted more than half hours while others are still at large.

A policeman who agreed to talk to Somalilandpress on condition we won't reveal his identity, said more than 54 people suspected to have entered the country illegally from neighboring Somalia were netted in the last night operation.

Relatives of those arrested by security forces had gathered at the Hargeisa Central Police Headquarters to enquire about those detained.

Earlier this week Somaliland security forces arrested the son of prominent opposition leader in Las Anod and a woman after foreign secret services tipped off local police, the duo are suspected have links with two other suspects arrested also in Las Anod a fortnight ago and are believed to be involved in the cold blood killing of the grant Mufti of Garowe recently.

Ethiopia: another false prophet from the north?

Is it Abune Matias or Abune Samuel? (By Getahune Bekele, South Africa)

“The church is Noah’s ark and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood overwhelms all…”

(The Cappadocia fathers, 376 AD)


Abune Samuel of Tigray, still the main TPLF candidate as the 6^th patriarch?

One of the first Christian nations with more than 60 references in the bible, a refined and purified church made up of  people united to their priest and the flock that cleaves to its shepherd; with unique theology, traditions and customs in the land of Prester John- Ethiopia, where priestly dignity transcends  royal or political powers.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido church is no ordinary church but those which the apostles themselves established and governed from the ancient imperial city of Alexandria.
However, since the internal colonization of Ethiopia began in May 1991, the very same church was handed over blind folded and hand cuffed to a man called Aba Pawlos, the supreme ruler of darkness who was dethroned by untimely death in 2012.

After his death, an ungodly warlord known as Abbay Tsehaye (pictured) took over, cutting up and destroying the most revered doctrine developed in accordance with the tradition of the gospel.

Currently, Abbay is running the circus of electing new Patriarch at his pleasure and on his
authority. Either Abune Matias of Jerusalem or Abune Samuel (both Tigres) are expected to win with the ruling minority junta’s support.
  
But not a single soul in the land of Abyssinia accepts Aba Samuel or Abune Matias as disciples of the cross. To the faithful all Tigre bishops are symbols of long standing feuds in the criminal TPLF run synod of Addis Ababa which is tearing to shreds the seamless robe of the lord. Millions want them to be excommunicated and debarred from communion for dragging the undefiled and immortal spiritual mother’s name through the mud for 21 years along with other members of Abbay Teshaye’s unholy synod.

Aba Samuel is a Pernicious evil that already immersed himself in TPLF’s demonic business of wickedly disguised breach of faith, extremely arrogant and proud, he is considered the high priest of the semi- pagan Tigray kingdom who by perfidy, robbery and murder  continues to govern the church; striving to dominate Ethiopians with cupidity and intolerable presumption

In the past 21 years the clannish Tigre priesthood used banishment and death as main weapons to force absolute obedience out of the non- Tigre clergy and the laity, showing no clemency to those who defy them. Ethiopians will never forget how the incomparable religious scholar Aleka Ayalew Tamiru was made to suffer great hardship and die destitute in captivity. Moreover, the violent arrest and torture of Adebabaye Iesuse’s spiritual warrior, Aba Amha Eyesus is still fresh in our memory.


And when all these grave crimes were committed by Patriarch-cum-gunman the late Aba Pawlos, all these Tigray fathers, Aba Samuel, Aba Lukas and Abune Matias were there.
Born in Tigray republic’s Shire Endasilassie area as Tekestebirhan Wolde-Samuel (now Abune Samuel) some 50 years ago, a dear friend of the dead tyrant Meles Zenawi and a trusted ally of sadist Tigray republic president Abbay Woldu, the replica of the dead fake patriarch Aba Pawlos of Tigre; another false prophet is about to become the 6^th patriarch of the ancient faith against the most sacred laws of the fathers and the divine canon of the church.

Aba Samuel has already exposed himself to the assaults of the adversary through his unbounded lust for leadership. He suddenly began to rave in a kind of ecstatic trance, and to babble in a jargon, acting in a manner contrary to the custom of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church which had been handed down by tradition from the earliest times.
A well known backslider and compromiser who spearheaded the synod of scheming bishops to dismantle the historic Waldiba monastery, is Aba Samuel fit to lead the matured Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the oldest institution in the world at the age of just 50?
Some who heard his evil, demented, absurd and irresponsible utterances of saying “after five we say six, not four.” already rebuked him as devil incarcerate, remembering the lord’s warning to guard vigilantly against the coming of false prophets.
  
By saying “after five we say six”, the irreverent behemoth was suggesting that after the death of the fifth patriarch electing the sixth is the only way to go. “Not four” represents the stance of the minority junta that the legally elected fourth patriarch, his holiness Abune Merkoreyos who was forced into exile 21 years ago won’t be allowed to make a triumphant return to the throne of St Markos.

And if Abune Samuel or Abune Matias succeeds to become the 6^th patriarch, it means the wishes of those who were beseeching the fathers with tears to break the chains of the devil by wisely and sensitively restoring the church to unity will never come to fruition.

Carefully groomed for more than a decade by the lawless TPLF heathen, the throne vacated by the death of the late Aba Paulos has already been given to Abune Samuel or to Abune Matias. What is left for them to do is just go through sub-rosa election before the junta officially declares one of them ‘winner?’.

What then shall Ethiopia’s pious priesthood and the laity do when the canon of 318 holy fathers assembled at Nicaea and confirmed by 150 most esteemed bishops who in like manner met at Constantinople, being abused and violated by the minority junta for the second time in 21 years?

It is time to break the back bone of fear and confront the junta in the only language it understands.

The warlords and their fake clerics who vainly beguile themselves, not being at peace with God’s people, approach the church by stealth and by under hand means just to continue practicing their vile trade of slowly destroying both the historic nation and the historic faith must be smashed by popular uprising now.

If we Ethiopians still believe that our churches is the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death, then let’s stops grieving for eternity and remove the four-footed devil from its throne with utmost determination.

Our church is one and cannot be rent or sundered, but should assuredly be bound together and united by the glue of the clergy who are in great harmony with the almighty. Hence Ethiopians demand the return of the sole patriarch Abune Merkoreyos, a vigorous champion of Ethiopiawenet, to Addis Ababa.

Rise up Ethiopia!

Iran denies it captured a foreign 'enemy drone'

Iran's Revolutionary Guard denied Sunday that it had captured a foreign unmanned drone during a military exercise, despite Iranian media reports to the contrary.

Gen. Hamid Sarkheili told Iranian media that Guard experts took control of one unmanned aircraft's navigation system and brought it down near the city of Sirjan where the military drills began on Saturday.

"While probing signals in the area, we spotted foreign and enemy drones which attempted to enter the area of the war game," the official IRNA news agency quoted the general as saying. "We were able to get one enemy drone to land."

But a spokesman for the Guard, Yasin Hasanali, told The Associated Press that the drone was actually being used during the drill as a supposed enemy aircraft.

Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft.

Earlier this month, Iran said it had broadcast footage on state TV allegedly extracted from the Sentinel after it entered Iranian airspace near the border with Afghanistan.

After initially saying only that a drone had been lost near the Afghan-Iran border, American officials eventually confirmed the Sentinel had been monitoring Iran's military and nuclear facilities. Washington asked for it back but Iran refused, and instead released photos of Iranian officials studying the aircraft.

In November, Iran claimed that the U.S. drone had violated its airspace. The Pentagon said the aircraft, which came under fire but was not hit, was over international waters.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Afghan president orders US special forces to leave province over torture-related allegations

Feb 24, 2013: A security official stands guard the scene of a suicide car bomb attack which killed and injured several people at the National Directorate of Security in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (AP)

Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan –  Afghanistan's president on Sunday ordered all U.S. special forces to leave a strategically important eastern province within two weeks because of allegations that Afghans working with them are torturing and abusing other Afghans.

The decision seems to have caught the coalition and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, a separate command, by surprise. Americans have frequently drawn anger from the Afghan public over issues ranging from Qurans burned at a U.S. base to allegations of civilian killings.

"We take all allegations of misconduct seriously and go to great lengths to determine the facts surrounding them," the U.S. forces said in a statement.

Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said the decision to order the American special forces to leave Wardak province was taken during a meeting of the National Security Council because of the alleged actions of Afghans who are considered linked to the U.S. special forces.

He said all special forces operations were to cease immediately in the restive province next to Kabul, which is viewed as a gateway to the capital and has been the focus of counterinsurgency efforts in recent years.

The Taliban have staged numerous attacks against U.S.-led coalition forces in the province. In August 2011, insurgents shot down a Chinook helicopter, killing 30 American troops, mostly elite Navy SEALs, in Wardak. The crash was the single deadliest loss for U.S. forces in the war.

Afghan forces have taken the lead in many such special operations, especially so-called night raids.

"Those Afghans in these armed groups who are working with the U.S. special forces, the defense minister asked for an explanation of who they are," Faizi said. "Those individuals should be handed over to the Afghan side so that we can further investigate."

A statement the security council issued in English said the armed individuals have allegedly been "harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people."

Ceasing all such operations could have a negative impact on the coalition's campaign to go after Taliban leaders and commanders, who are usually the target of such operations.

Faizi said the issue had already been brought up with the coalition.

The U.S. statement said only that the announcement was "an important issue that we intend to fully discuss with our Afghan counterparts. But until we have had a chance to speak with senior Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan officials about this issue, we are not in a position to comment further."

Also Sunday, a series of attacks in eastern Afghanistan showed insurgents remain on the offensive even as U.S. and other international forces prepare to end their combat mission by the end of 2014.

Suicide bombers targeted Afghanistan's intelligence agency and other security forces in four coordinated attacks in the heart of Kabul and outlying areas in a bloody reminder of the insurgency's reach nearly 12 years into the war.

The brazen assaults, which occurred within a three-hour timespan, were the latest to strike Afghan forces, who have suffered higher casualties this year as U.S. and other foreign troops gradually take a back seat and shift responsibility for security to the government.

The deadliest attack occurred just after sunrise -- a suicide car bombing at the gate of the National Directorate of Security compound in Jalalabad, 78 miles east of Kabul.

Guards shot and killed the driver but he managed to detonate the explosives-packed vehicle, killing two intelligence agents and wounding three others, according to a statement by the intelligence agency. Provincial government spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai confirmed the casualty toll and said the building was damaged in the attack.

A guard also shot and killed a man in an SUV filled with dynamite that was targeting an NDS building on a busy street in Kabul, not far from NATO headquarters. The explosives in the back of the vehicle were defused. Blood stained the driver's seat and the ground where security forces dragged out the would-be attacker.

Shortly before the Jalalabad attack, a suicide attacker detonated a minivan full of explosives at a police checkpoint in Pul-i-Alam on the main highway between Kabul and Logar province. One policeman was killed and two others were wounded, along with a bystander, according to the NDS.

Also in Logar province, which is due south of Kabul, a man wearing a suicide vest was stopped by police as he tried to force his way into the police headquarters for Baraki Barak district, said Din Mohammad Darwesh, the provincial government spokesman. The attacker detonated his vest while being searched, wounding one policeman, according to Darwesh and the NDS.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the Jalalabad attack and two others in the eastern province of Logar in an email to reporters. He did not address the attempted assault in Kabul.