USA - Many of China’s wealthy are fleeing their home country and settling in the United States, where better schools and other opportunities await. The 2012 Annual Report of Chinese International Migration shows immigration from China is growing, with most heading to the US. Nearly 90,000 Chinese became permanent US residents in 2011. The United Nations reported last year that the number of foreign-born Chinese Americans in the US doubled between 2000 and 2010. There are about 3.8 million Chinese in the country, of which 2.2 million were born in China.

NETHERLANDS - With stem cell technology constantly advancing, the dream of artificial (or synthetic) gametes comes ever closer. Last September Maastricht University, in the Netherlands, hosted a conference on “Artificial Gametes: Science and Ethics”. The creation of artificial gametes would represent the triumph of technology over the limitations of natural reproduction. Now that it seems feasible to coax adult cells into reverting to a pluripotent state, women could make sperm and men could make eggs. Eventually it might be possible to make bespoke gametes from any tissue samples.

UK - The Environment Agency put water voles, greater water parsnips, silver diving beetles and large marsh grasshoppers ahead of people in the flood-ravaged Somerset Levels, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. A 250-page agency document issued in 2008 shows that years of neglecting vital dredging which used to let water drain away much faster is part of a deliberate policy to increase flooding in the areas now worst affected. The policy was revealed as agency director of operations David Jordan angered residents yesterday by calling the flood defences a ‘success story’.

IRAN - A senior Iranian naval commander says his country has sent several warships to the Atlantic Ocean, close to US maritime borders for the first time. The commander of Iran's Northern Navy Fleet, Admiral Afshin Rezayee Haddad, is quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying Saturday that the vessels have already begun the journey to the Atlantic Ocean via waters near South Africa. Haddad says the fleet is approaching US maritime borders for the first time. The Islamic Republic considers the move as a response to US naval deployments near its own coastlines. The US Navy's 5th fleet is based in nearby Bahrain.

JAPAN - TEPCO has revised the readings on the radioactivity levels at the Fukushima Number 1 nuclear plant well to 5 million becquerels of strontium per liter – both a record, and nearly five times higher than the original reading of 900,000 becquerels per liter. Strontium-90 is a radioactive isotope of strontium produced by nuclear fission with a half-life of 28.8 years. The legal standard for strontium emissions is 30 becquerels per liter. Exposure to strontium-90 can cause bone cancer, cancer of nearby tissues, and leukemia.

USA - Benjamin Wittes of the Brooking Institution has become the go-to non-government NSA apologist. One of his most recent articles is a true work of rhetorical artistry, in which he tries to explain why saying "the NSA doesn't spy on Americans" is acceptable shorthand for the fact that the NSA spies on pretty much every American. It's a master class in political doubletalk. It's the law's fault. The law, you see, is too complicated for mere mortals not working for the NSA to understand, so that makes it okay to lie: The law is so dense and so complicated that it cannot be accurately summarized at a level a citizen can reasonably process.

NETHERLANDS - The average Dutch household could be better off by over £8,000 a year and national income will grow by over £1 trillion if the Netherlands leaves the euro and the EU, according to a new study. The study by the respected British Capital Economics research consultancy into "Nexit" - as a potential exit by the Netherlands has been termed - finds significant benefits over the next two decades if the country swaps its EU membership for a status similar to Switzerland or Norway. "Any decision to leave the EU is first and foremost a social, cultural and political one. It must revolve around issues of national sovereignty, citizenship and freedom of determination," the report found.

EUROPE - Eurozone banks are facing a new capital black hole of as much as €50 billion (£42 billion), according to one of the UK’s most respected financial analysts. Davide Serra, the chief executive of Algebris, who advises the Government on banking, said that this year’s stress tests by the European Banking Authority and the European Central Bank were likely to find fresh problems in the eurozone banks. He said that Germany had one of “the worst banking systems in the world” and that three or four regional Landesbanken were likely to be wound up.

GERMANY - The Ukrainian crisis is important in itself, but the behavior it has elicited from Germany is perhaps more important. Berlin directly challenged Ukraine's elected president for refusing to tighten relations with the European Union and for mistreating Ukrainians who protested his decision. In challenging President Viktor Yanukovich, Berlin also challenged Russia, a reflection of Germany's recent brazen foreign policy.

GERMANY - Call it the Spider-Man Doctrine: With great power comes great responsibility. Enunciated not by Stan Lee but by Germany's President Joachim Gauck in a speech at last week's Munich Security Conference, this sentiment made front page news all over Europe. Why? Because Mr Gauck urged Germans to fundamentally rethink their attitude toward international affairs in general and international security in particular.

USA - A top US diplomat tried to play down the damage to Washington's diplomacy in Ukraine from a leaked telephone call on Friday, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel called an obscene remark about the EU "absolutely unacceptable."

UK - The Environment Agency has been accused of putting the needs of wildlife before those of humans in its management of storm-hit places like Dawlish in Devon. Days before the recent winter storms, the agency is said to have told peers that it could not act to protect the railway line at Dawlish from the sea until it had studied the impact of any improvements on local birdlife. About 85 yards of the sea wall at Dawlish was destroyed by the raging seas and high tides on Tuesday night, causing a large stretch of the railway to collapse into the sea. Network Rail estimates that it will take at least six weeks to carry out repairs and reopen the track.

UK - In last week’s Peterborough Telegraph letters pages Mr Hyland stated that 'Germany now rules the United States of Europe by means of the power of the financial strength that it can exert over all the other European countries' and later that his 'father died as a result of fighting for his country’s freedom'. Comparing the two world wars and their attendant horrors and suffering with the European Union is not only an insult to ex-serviceman but also an affront to those who believe in reasoned, rational debate.

USA - Ice continued to build this past week on the Great Lakes due to the cold air and temperatures staying below freezing, and Lake Superior's new record shows it. The lake is 92 percent frozen, toppling a 20-year-old record of 91 percent set on February 5, 1994. That statistic helped total Great Lakes ice cover soar, and we can expect to see more form in coming days. As of February 5, 2014, the entire Great Lakes system is now reportedly covered 77 percent with ice, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

USA - The latest in a series of winter storms hit the United States on Wednesday, dropping wet, heavy snow in the Northeast states that disrupted travel and threatened supplies of salt needed to keep roads clear. Over a million homes and businesses were without power in the Northeast on Wednesday following severe snow and ice storms overnight, according to local power companies. The hardest-hit state was Pennsylvania with 849,000 customers without electricity at one point, according to the governor.