Bloomberg: Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, sees political “black swan” events threatening global security even as economic risks subside, with confidence returning to the euro area.

AP: The director of the ministry’s economy department, who was unnamed in the Monday report from the semiofficial Fars agency, says that expanding domestic production can help counter Western sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.

Bloomberg: China’s imports of crude from Iran rebounded to the highest level in six months in December after the U.S. renewed an exemption from penalties on banks that process payments for the Persian Gulf nation’s oil.

The Guardian: Tehran’s latest propaganda offensive shows Barack Obama on a huge mural side by side with a seventh-century Shia villain.

AP: A spokesman for Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has criticized the 2011 storming of the British Embassy in Tehran, saying students and activists should “avoid actions driven by emotion.”

Reuters: A senior aide to Iran’s supreme leader warned against the overthrow of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, saying his fate was a “red line”, in one of the Islamic state’s strongest messages of support for the Damascus government.

AP: Two days before national elections, Israel’s prime minister on Sunday shrugged off international criticism of Israeli settlement construction, charging instead that Iran’s suspect nuclear program the real threat to regional security.