1. Iran slams US plans for new anti-Iranian sanctions over its missile program, calling the move arbitrary and illegal.
2. Turkey says it respects Iraq’s sovereignty despite Baghdad’s criticism that Turkish troop presence in northern Iraq violates its sovereignty.
3. The Syrian army retakes several villages and towns in the eastern countryside of Hama and a town in southwest of the country.
4. Egypt’s highest Islamic Authority, Al-Azhar, denounces newly-released rules by Daesh takfiri terrorists for sex slavery, saying they have nothing to do with Islam.
5. Six more people are detained over an alleged terror plot during New Year festivities in Brussels. A total of eight people are now held in the case.