The Rundown -- January 12

# New York Times editorial on Azerbaijan's crackdown calls for tougher Western response

# Azerbaijan government "critic" writes in Washington Post letter that RFE/RL "has abandoned its principles of objective journalism"

# Independent cites RFE/RL Azerbaijani service's reporting on brutal attack on journalist

# Carl Schreck's reporting on new restrictions against some LGBT drivers cited in Washington Post, Daily News and Carscoops

# Kazakhstan summit now unlikely to take place as conflict escalates again

# Stoltenberg says "fewer clashes" in general in eastern Ukraine

# More than $1 billion in real estate assets have been seized by Crimean government

# New report by Germany investigative group claims it proves Russian-operated Buk shot down MH17

# Leviathan wins Golden Globe

# Former rebel leaders in Russia now call Novorossia a fantasy

# Oligarchs "left peddling into the sunset"

# Iraq PM says country may need three years to restructure and rebuild military

# U.S. Joint Chiefs chair says Iran role in Iraq might be positive

# "You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia" - Alastair Crooke, Huffington Post

# Kerry and Zarif reportedly exploring ways to speed up nuclear talks

# Geneva nuclear talks to test Iran's flexibility

# NYT Editorial: Saving the Nuclear Deal With Iran

# Rally in support of Paris attackers in southern Afghanistan

# Afghan experts pin little hope on Pashtun Pakistani officials' Kabul tour

# "Islamic State Adds to Terror In Afghanistan" - Margerita Stancati and Habib Khan Totakhil, Wall Street Journal

# Ex-Pakistan Taliban members join IS group, behead man

# Serbian PM accuses EU of backing anti-government media

# Kazakhstan's Slovak [hockey] colony

# Kazakhstan sends $400,000 in humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine

# Ethnic-Russian in Kazakhstan charged with "inciting ethnic hatred" for Facebook posts

# To be a French Jew/Muslim