GERMANY - Germany's southern states are confiscating cash and valuables from refugees after they arrive, authorities in Bavaria confirmed on Thursday. "The practice in Bavaria and the federal rules set out in law correspond in substance with the process in Switzerland," Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild on Thursday. "Cash holdings and valuables can be secured [by the authorities] if they are over €750 and if the person has an outstanding bill, or is expected to have one." Authorities in Baden-Württemberg have a tougher regime, where police confiscate cash and valuables above €350. The average amount per person confiscated by authorities in the southern states was "in the four figures," Bild reported.

USA - A MAJOR earthquake that struck Alaska on Sunday and was felt up to 170 miles away has fuelled fears that a super quake is imminent. The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.3 quake struck 30 miles south east of Pedro Bay and was recorded at a depth of 124.8 km, being felt by people in Anchorage. Twitter users reported feeling shaking, but there were no reports of serious casualties in the region. Express.co.uk has previously revealed that scientists were attempting to allay fears after it was reported a quake could send tsunami waves crashing over the coast of Washington and Oregon, and even trigger the eruption of volcano Mount Hood. Locals feared it could be on the cards following a "seismic shift".

CHINA - Remember when Bitcoin and its digital currency cohorts were slammed by authorities and written off by the elite as worthless? Well now, as the war on cash escalates, officials from The IMF to China are seeing the opportunity to control the world's money through virtual (cash-less) currencies.

USA - A huge blizzard bearing down on the US east coast is expected to dump near-record levels of snow on Washington and the Mid-Atlantic region. More than 50 million people have been warned of a "potentially paralysing storm" late on Friday that will bring 24ins (60cm) of snow within hours.

FRANCE - France will seek to keep its state of emergency until a "total and global war" against so-called Islamic State (IS) is over, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has told the BBC. The measures were introduced after the IS-led Paris attacks on 13 November and then extended for three months. Such a move gives police more power to conduct raids and impose house arrests. Mr Valls also warned that Europe's migration crisis was now putting the European Union itself at grave risk. Interviewed by the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr Valls said France was "at war", which meant "using all means in our democracy under the rule of law to protect French people". Europe, he said, needs to take urgent action to control its external borders. "If Europe is not capable of protecting its own borders, it's the very idea of Europe that will be questioned."

GERMANY - "I understand that refugees need somewhere safe to go but Germany can't save the world by itself. Hopefully this nightmare will soon be over - for them and for us. Then they'll be able to go back to their own homes. And leave ours for good." It is a journalistic cliché to quote your taxi driver but East German Alexander in his smart Mercedes summed up perfectly the pervading mood in his country. So I can't ignore him.

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Thursday that Europe had just six to eight weeks to get a handle on the influx of refugees from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere. "We have 6-8 weeks," Rutte told a panel on Europe at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that he believed the Schengen borderless travel zone in Europe could be saved but that first the bloc must agree on a mechanism to replace the failed Dublin system, which says that migrants must seek asylum in the first EU country they enter.

CHINA - Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday called for establishing a Palestinian state within the pre-1967-war borders amid efforts by Beijing to assert its economic and political clout in the Middle East. Addressing the Cairo-based Arab League, Xi said the Palestinian problem "should not be marginalized." "China supports the peaceful process in the Middle East [and] the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital being eastern Jerusalem," he added through an interpreter. Xi announced 50 million yuan ($7.6 million) in aid for the Palestinians. The United States, an ally of Tel Aviv, has unsuccessfully attempted to break a long-standing stalemate in Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking. Tensions between the two sides have been growing in recent months after a wave of Palestinian stabbing attacks on Israelis and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.

GERMANY - Jewish people no longer feel safe living in Germany, it has been claimed. The leader of Hamberg’s Jewish community, Daniel Killy, told the Jerusalem Post: “We no longer feel safe here.” He went on to explain how a combination of extreme right-wing forces, deteriorating security, and Germany welcoming of refugees brought up in cultures "steeped in hatred" for Jews were resulting in anti-Semitism. Hamburg has a 2,500-strong Jewish population, and there are around 118,000 in Germany overall. One million Muslim refugees arrived in Germany over the last year.

USA - The US-led military coalition’s fight against the Islamic State militant group entered a new phase on Wednesday, with defense ministers from the seven countries most heavily involved in the operation pledging to continue fighting and look for ways to more aggressively target the group. The United States, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands made the promise here after a joint meeting hosted by US Defense Secretary Ashton B Carter and his French counterpart, Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The group’s members said in a joint statement that they have “expressed our broad support for the campaign plan objectives, and the need to continue gathering momentum in our campaign.” As of January 10, the US-led military coalition has carried out 6,341 airstrikes in Iraq and 3,219 in Syria, according to the Pentagon.

HUNGARY - Those who are terrified of the prospect of a United States of Europe should realize that this entity has already come to life: it is governed from Berlin and its leader is called Angela Merkel, the Hungarian pro-government analysts warn. In conservative daily Magyar Idők, commentator Zoltán Kottász suggests that the debate in the European Parliament, as well as the rule of law probe launched by the European Commission, are expressions of a drive to set up a European super state. Each time a government is formed which values national sovereignty first and foremost, he continues, Brussels and the liberal media clamp down and accuse it of dictatorial inclinations.

UK - The head transplant juggernaut rolls on. Last year, maverick surgeon Sergio Canavero caused a worldwide storm when he revealed his plan - to New Scientist magazine - to attempt a human head transplant. He claimed that the surgical protocol would be ready within two years and said he intended to offer the surgery as a treatment for complete paralysis. Now, working with other scientists in China and South Korea, he claims to have moved closer to that goal with a series of experiments in animals and human cadavers. “I would say we have plenty of data to go on,” says Canavero. “It’s important that people stop thinking this is impossible. This is absolutely possible and we’re working towards it.”

ITALY - The Italian financial meltdown that we have been waiting for has finally arrived. For quite a long time I have been warning my readers to watch Italy, and now people are starting to understand why. Italian banking stocks continued their collapse for a fifth consecutive day on Wednesday, and nervous Italians are beginning to quietly pull large amounts of money out of the banks.

EUROPE - The European financial powerhouse could be facing a huge financial crisis which would have devastating implications for Britain as a lethal storm of economic problems brews in Germany. Germany’s industrial production has slipped to ZERO per cent and customer confidence has plummeted in just part of a catalogue of disasters for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

USA - Last time around it was subprime mortgages, but this time it is oil that is playing a starring role in a global financial crisis. Since the start of 2015, 42 North American oil companies have filed for bankruptcy, 130,000 good paying energy jobs have been lost in the United States, and at this point 50 percent of all energy junk bonds are “distressed” according to Standard & Poor’s.