GERMANY/ISRAEL - German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Israel for bilateral talks at the end of February, accompanied by a number of her ministers, a spokesman said on Friday, according to AFP. Germany and Israel have held regular government consultations since 2008, an arrangement where the two sides meet at regular intervals to discuss specific topics. This will be the fifth such meeting between Germany and Israel. The last one was held in Berlin in December 2012 and during that meeting, Merkel and Netanyahu “agreed to disagree” over Israeli construction in areas the Palestinian Authority (PA) claims for a future state.

USA/CHINA - This is a powerful anticipation from our team for 2014: we are living the last hours of the oil era and the trigger for this shift is the Chinese government’s decision to power its automobiles by electricity. We anticipate that within five years the trend will have become unstoppable and that in 10 years petrol/diesel vehicles will compare to electric vehicles as the Cuban Cadillacs currently compare to modern cars. A catastrophe for the Dollar of course, supported by this raw material since 1975.

GERMANY - Germany's finance minister said on Monday he was open to the creation of a separate European parliament for countries using the euro, a step that could deepen divisions within the European Union. Wolfgang Schaeuble's comments, made during a visit to Brussels, challenge the very foundations of the European Union where lawmaking for all 28 nations is by the bloc's current parliament. Splitting that body, critics believe, would represent a dismantling of one of Europe's biggest symbols of unity. But Schaeuble said a separate parliament for the 18 countries in the euro zone would allow the smaller group to integrate more closely.

ISRAEL - US Secretary of State John Kerry's draft framework agreement for Middle East peace talks will include support for establishing a Palestinian capital in Arab areas of East Jerusalem, senior New York Times analyst Thomas Friedman wrote in his column published Wednesday. Friedman, who is currently visiting Israel, said that Kerry's framework document would present the core concessions that Washington considers Israelis and Palestinians need to make for a fair, lasting deal. It will not include any right of return for Palestinian refugees into Israel proper.

UK - Rural campaigners have criticised comments that the government has to choose between town and countryside over which should get priority for flooding defences. Deluged farming communities nationwide have expressed their anger and frustration at the Environment Agency (EA) chairman’s flood policy that the government can “protect towns or country, not both” and that homes rather than agricultural land must take priority. "For [Lord] Chris Smith to say that and infer that farm land is unimportant is quite frankly ridiculous. Where do they think the food comes from?"

EUROPE - The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking" and it costs the EU economy at least 120 billion euros (£99 billion) annually, the European Commission says. EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem has presented a full report on the problem. She said the true cost of corruption was "probably much higher" than 120 billion. Organised crime groups have sophisticated networks across Europe and the EU police agency Europol says there are at least 3,000 of them. Bulgaria, Romania and Italy are particular hotspots for organised crime gangs in the EU, but white-collar crimes like bribery and VAT (sales tax) fraud plague many EU countries.

ISRAEL - Figures detailing Israel's water levels show that January was an extremely arid month, with water readings in certain areas at the lowest ever since the meteorological services began keeping records 88 years ago. The Kinneret Lake's level was at 25% less than average for the month of January. In the national scale, the amount of precipitation from last September through January was only 64% the annual average for the same period. Israel has been suffering from drought for several years.

USA/ISRAEL - US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday threatened Israel that a failure in the peace talks would lead to global boycotts and de-legitimization of the Jewish state. The warning comes as no surprise to those familiar with reports earlier in the month, which revealed that Kerry is orchestrating the European boycotts against Israel.

UK - Credit card companies are quietly raking in an extra £1.4 billion a year by shrinking the minimum amount cardholders have to pay back. Around one in ten borrowers repays only the minimum sum requested every month and each now finds themselves more than £400 worse off each year.

USA - California's water agency has announced it may for the first time be unable to deliver water to local agencies, amid a worsening drought. Two-thirds of state residents and 1 million acres (404,500 hectares) of farmland get part or all of their drinking and irrigation supplies from the agency.

ISRAEL - George Orwell constructed a world in his Classic Work "1984" that more resembles the world of today than back 30 years ago. With the fall of the Berlin Wall under President Reagan the world had a true chance to move forward and upward.

USA - Show this article to anyone that believes that the economy has actually improved under Barack Obama. On Tuesday evening, Barack Obama once again attempted to convince all of us that things have gotten better while he has been in the White House.

USA - Feel like Big Brother is watching you these days? You’re not alone. “This is not some far-out Orwellian scenario,” wrote the late William Safire of The New York Times in 2002, in the panicky aftermath of 9/11.

PAKISTAN - Top-secret documentation collected by Pakistani field officers gives detailed information on 330 US drone strikes that have occurred in Pakistan since 2006. The CIA-run program is estimated to have killed 2,371 people. From solitary individuals riding on horseback to mountain hideouts crammed with people, the CIA drone program has had no shortage of targets in the Islamic Republic, according to newly released information obtained by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ).

UK - Women are being failed by NHS maternity services with more than 14 babies a day in England either stillborn or dying within seven days of their birth, according to a scathing report by MPs. It said there were 5,183 such tragedies in England in 2011 – at rates higher than in other EU nations. Separate data from the World Health Organisation reveals that the country’s stillbirth rate is 3.5 per 1,000 births. Only a handful of European countries including France, Austria, Latvia, Bosnia and Romania have a worse rate.