RFE/RL in the Media
# "Washington Post" mentions RFE/RL being taken off AM in list of "highs and lows" in U.S.-Russia relationship
# WorldCrunch cites Golnaz Esfandiari's post on Iran's "unforgivable opposition"
# Read Daisy Sindelar in "The Atlantic" on how Volgograd became a target for terror attacks
Middle East
# Another Beirut blast
# "The Saudi Dilemma" - Amir Handjani, The National Interest
# First female law firm opens in Saudi Arabia
Iran
# Two conservatives join Iran nuclear panel
# Iran FM to visit Turkey this weekend, amid political crisis
# Family watches over Internet in Iran as women dies in Michigan
# "The Invisible Man: Bill Burns and the Secret Iran Talks" - Arshad Mohammed, Reuters
Iraq
# Iraqi Kurdistan on brink of reaching new international markets
# Al-Qaeda linked group seizes half of Fallujah
# Iraq arrests Shi'ite militia commander
Afghanistan/Pakistan
# McCain warns Karzai in meeting, but says he's still confident
# "Afghanistan Has More to Worry About Than U.S. Bases" - Ahmed Rashid, BBC
# In Afghanistan, January 1 is everyone's birthday
# Musharraf, taken to hospital with chest pains, misses court date again
# French restaurant in Pakistan bans Pakistanis
Russia
# A deep look at corruption in Sochi
# Exxon and Rosneft team up for Arctic oil drilling
# "Putin's (Un) Happy New Year" - William Pomeranz, Reuters
# "Forget Vladimir Putin's Olympic Fantasy and Check Out the Real Sochi" - Jeremy Lybarger, Mother Jones
# Sochi's "dark secret"
# Critical tests in U.S.-Russia relationship in 2014
Eastern Europe
# "Protesting alone" rare at Euromaidan
# "Fighting for the Soul of Ukraine" - Tim Judah, "New York Review of Books"
Central Asia
# Uzbekistan increases taxes on gas
# Guernsey-based oil company leaving Uzbekistan following start of criminal probe
# Banned Father Frost appears on Tajikistan state TV anyway
Caucasus
# Azerbaijan official says Azerbaijani Diaspora working to show Armenian Genocide "a myth"
Of Interest