USA - Hidden menus in a recent beta version of the popular instant messaging app WhatsApp have indicated the company is preparing to start sharing the details of its users with parent company Facebook. Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014. The two firms have remained largely separate until now. Facebook has allowed WhatsApp to do its own thing when updating its app and adding new features, keeping WhatsApp's 900 million users separate from the billion on its core social network.

VATICAN - Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Friday in a brief get-together. The two spoke for about 15 minutes surrounded by their personal teams and Vatican cameras. The meeting took place a week after the Catholic leader spent time with Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL, Tech30). Silicon Valley wasn't on the Pope's agenda when he visited the United States in September, so visits from these key figures are prompting numerous theories. An Apple spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the meeting. Is the Vatican preparing to partner with Big Tech somehow? Or are the meetings largely a symbolic extension of the Pope's tech-friendly image?

USA - A travel ban in New York City has ended as the eastern US begins digging out from the weekend's massive snowstorm. New York, the most populated city in the US, saw its second-highest snowfall since records began in 1869, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

GERMANY - Even on its own, the refugee and migrant crisis is stirring such discord among governments as to threaten EU unity. Now, however, this threat is intensifying because of tensions over EU policy towards Russia and the actions of a conservative nationalist government in Poland that is aligned with Hungary’s self-styled illiberal democracy. At stake is the EU’s biggest achievement since the demise of communism in 1989-91: the healing of the post-second world war division between western and east-central Europe.

GERMANY - Germany's interior minister said on Thursday that he could see no end to the temporary border checks with Austria to regulate the flow of asylum seekers, delivering a further blow to Europe’s passport-free zone. Thomas de Maiziere suggested Germany could extend the controls, first introduced in September as the migrant crisis worsened, for up to two years – the maximum that is allowed under the Schengen agreement – and a move that could permanently fracture the EU's open-border policy. "I don't foresee a moment when we can end it," Mr de Maiziere said of the border controls, as a new surge of migrants is expected to enter Europe through Turkey and Greece in the next few weeks.

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.