A House committee has launched an investigation into claims that US military contractors in Afghanistan are paying the Taliban to guarantee the safety of their transportation convoys, an allegation that could mean American taxpayers are indirectly funding the insurgency that has killed more than 900 American soldiers so far.

Iran and Iraq have decided to establish an arbitration commission to clear up the conflict over an oil well in the border region. In a telephone conversation between Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari Dec. 19, the two sides agreed to settle border disputes. The de-escalation came one day after Iraq accused Iranian forces of seizing an oil well in Iraqi territory, and mobilized its own forces to the scene.

A group of 34 al-Qaeda militants were killed and 17 others were arrested by special operations in Abyan province, Sana'a city and Arhab district in Yemen, authorities announced Dec. 17. Warplanes reportedly carried out air-strikes against an al-Qaeda training camp in al-Ma'jala area of Abyan governorate, while safe houses were raided in Sana'a, the capital. (Yemen Observer, Dec. 17)

Preet Bharara, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michele M. Leonhart, the acting administrator of the DEA, announced that Oumar Issa, Harouna Toure and Idriss Abelrahman arrived in the Southern District of New York Dec. 18 to face charges of conspiracy to commit acts of "narco-terrorism" and conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The charges stem from the defendants' alleged agreement to transport cocaine through West and North Africa with the intent to support three terrorist organizations—al-Qaeda, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). All three have been designated by the US Department of State as "Foreign Terrorist Organizations."

Former Khmer Rouge head of state and "Brother Number Five," Khieu Samphan, has been charged with genocide, the UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia announced Dec. 18. Samphan is the third member of the Khmer Rouge to be charged with genocide by the war crimes tribunal this week. "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea and former foreign minister Ieng Sary also face genocide charges—marking the first time the charge has been brought against Khmer Rouge leaders by an internationally sanctioned court. All three are accused in the deaths of thousands of members of Cambodia's Vietnamese and the Cham Muslim minorities.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen has summoned the Venezuelan ambassador to provide an explanation of statements made by President Hugo Chávez at the Copenhagen summit, where he accused the Netherlands of colluding with the United States against his nation by allowing military access to the Dutch Antilles. Verhagen denied that there is any aggression plot against Venezuela. (Radio Netherlands, Dec. 18)

In a statement released on the Internet, Colombia's two rebel guerilla armies, the FARC and ELN, announced they intend to unite. "Our only enemy is North American Imperialism and its oligarchic lackeys," the statement said. The head of the Colombian armed forces, Gen Freddy Padilla, dismissed the news. "This alliance is impossible," he said. "They dispute territory to control drug-trafficking and have killed one another in the south [of the departments of] Bolívar and Arauca." (BBC News, Dec. 17)

Special forces from the Mexican army and navy killed one of the country's top drug kingpins, Arturo Beltrán Leyva, in a firefight in Cuernavaca late Dec. 16. Beltrán Leyva, who was also wanted in the US, was the highest-level drug lord killed since President Felipe Calderón launched his offensive against the cartels in December 2006. Some 400 troops surrounded his apartment in a luxury complex, sparking a two-hour gun battle, in which Beltrán Leyva's henchmen—known as the "Fuerzas Armadas de Arturo"—responded with automatic weapons and grenades. Six of the the henchmen were killed, one as he jumped from a window, as well as one member of the navy's Special Forces.