Afghanistan

• BBC: Afghanistan-US deal 'hinges on Taliban peace talks' (January 25)
• "Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reiterated his refusal to sign a key US security pact until a peace process is under way with the Taliban. "Afghanistan will absolutely not accept or sign anything under pressure," he said at a news conference on Saturday."
  

Egypt

• BBC: Egypt army backs Sisi as presidential candidate (Orla Guerin, January 27)

• "Three years after the revolution of 2011 swept away the military strongman, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt could soon by ruled by another. The newly minted Field Marshal, Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, has no experience of war but has shown himself to be a skilled political tactician."
  
• BBC: Egypt Air Force helicopter 'downing' a major escalation (Jonathan Marcus, January 27)
• "Egyptian forces have relied heavily on US Apache gunships and various Russian helicopters in their battle with the militants. But the apparent use of shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles by insurgents dramatically raises the stakes in this increasingly bloody struggle."
  
• Washington Post: Egyptians mark anniversary of uprising with show of support for army-backed government (Abigail Hauslohner and Erin Cunningham, January 25)
• "Rival groups of demonstrators across the country were met with deadly force. Clashes between police and anti-coup protesters aligned with Mohamed Morsi — and in a few cases, with liberal anti-military protesters — left 29 dead and nearly 170 injured, according to the Health Ministry, a day after six people were killed in a string of attacks on security targets in Cairo. Twenty-six of the deaths were in greater Cairo, the ministry said."
  

Libya

• AFP: Egyptian diplomats seized in Libya freed in swap (January 27)
• "The abduction of the five on Saturday and of another member of the Egyptian embassy's staff a day earlier came after Shaaban Hadeia, a prominent commander in the rebellion that ousted Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, was arrested in Alexandria."
  

Syria

• Washington Post: Syrian government backs away from U.N. plan on humanitarian relief for Homs (Liz Sly, January 27)
• "Hopes faded Monday for a quick win at peace talks between Syria’s warring factions after the Syrian government declined to authorize a convoy of food to enter a besieged neighborhood in the center of the city of Homs under the terms of an agreement brokered by the United Nations."
  
• Time: Is the Assad Regime in League with al-Qaeda? (Aryn Baker, January 27)
• "An emerging consensus among analysts and Western diplomats reveals that there might be some truth to the accusations after all. The opposition is now hoping that a shift in the current Syria narrative—which pits the regime against dangerous Islamist extremists—may help spur an international push to remove Assad from power."
  
• Washington Post: Al-Qaeda leader Zawahiri seeks to end infighting among Syrian militants (Karen DeYoung, January 23)
• "In an audio message released to jihadist forums Thursday by al-Qaeda’s media arm, Zawahiri called on the factions “to stop the fighting between the brothers of jihad and Islam immediately,” to form a commission to resolve their differences and to establish “a mechanism to compel everyone to abide” by the panel’s rulings."
  

Saudi Arabia

• BBC: #BBCtrending: Why Twitter is so big in Saudi Arabia (January 23)
• "Saudis are among the world's heaviest Twitter users, so it's a valid question. But the answers supplied by Saudis on Twitter have nothing to do with technical things like internet penetration rates or mobile phone access."