GERMANY - Just when the European weather is at its most unwelcoming, the world’s great strategic minds descend on a quaint city at the Continent’s geographic center, crowding into rustic Stuben to debate the state of the world over beer and mulled wine.

ITALY - The head of Italy’s ultra-nationalist Lega Nord party has promised to clean up the “mess” and kick hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants out of the country if he is elected prime minister in the upcoming general election.

SWITZERLAND - Angela Merkel has attacked the “poison” of right-wing populists, slammed the building of “walls”, and defended free movement and globalism during her speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The German chancellor’s attack comes after the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party surged in the German Federal elections, leaving her struggling to form a government, and shows her tone has changed little since the 2015 migrant crisis that preceded the election humiliation.

MIDDLE EAST - A senior Al-Qaeda leader has called on Muslims “everywhere” to rise up and kill Jews and Americans in response to US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. In a video released Monday, Khalid Batarfi said Trump’s decision was “a declaration of a new Jewish-Crusader war” and every Muslim had a duty to “liberate” the holy city, the SITE Intelligence monitoring group reported. “No Muslim has the right to cede Jerusalem no matter what happens,” said Batarfi, a top commander with the group’s powerful Yemen-based branch. “Only a traitor would give it up or hand it over.”

USA - Audio technology like Google Home and Amazon's Alexa are becoming a dominant source for information. But now, it appears one of the most common names is unknown to Google Home. And some people are sounding the alarm about what the technology tells you when you ask about Jesus.

USA - The rash of natural disasters over the past two days have one common denominator: they all occurred along the so-called Ring of Fire, a sprawling horseshoe-shape geological disaster zone. At least five different events occurred on the Ring of Fire on Monday and Tuesday, including a magnitude 7.9 earthquake that rattled the town of Kodiak, Alaska, and the eruption of Mount Kusatsu-Shirane near a ski resort northwest of Tokyo.

PHILIPPINES - Mount Mayon's dramatic eruption has forced tens of thousands of people to flee for their lives as the Philippines' most active volcano spews red-hot lava and authorities warn a potentially deadly eruption could take place in a matter of hours with the alert level raised to four. As the volcano threw lava 700 metres into the air, officials were forced to evacuate nearby residents on the large island of Luzon. Authorities believe a potentially deadly eruption could take place in a matter of hours as Mayon spits out a combination of superheated gas and volcanic debris while ominously rumbling. Cedric Daep, a regional disaster-response official, said: “If pyroclastic flows hit people, there is no chance for life”. Monday's explosion led officials to raise the risk level of Mayon to four out of a possible five...

JAPAN - A magnitude 6.3 earthquake has struck off Hokkaido, Japan on Wednesday at a depth of 64km (40 miles). There are no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The quake occurred at approximately 19:51 local time Wednesday, 103km northeast of the island of Honshu, Reuters reports. No tsunami warning has been issued, reports NHK. The quake lasted approximately 30 seconds but didn't cause any damage on land. The quake comes just 24 hours after a 7.9 quake struck offshore Alaska, triggering a tsunami warning along the western seaboard of the US and Canada for a time, and launching a tsunami advisory as far away as Hawaii. There was also a magnitude 6.0 earthquake off the coast of Java in Indonesia on January 23

JAPAN - The horrifying volcanic eruption that sparked a huge avalanche in Japan yesterday was “unexpected” as an expert has admitted to being confounded by the deadly blast, it has emerged. Japan’s Meteorological Agency had set up video surveillance in the area of water that was roughly 2 kilometres away from the site of the blast. Japan is home to 110 active volcanoes in total. A soldier was killed and at least 14 more were injured yesterday when a Japanese ski resort was targeted by Kusatsu-Shirane. The terrifying volcano is situated around 93 miles from Japan’s capital, Tokyo. Scientists have declared that the last eruption from the site last took place about 3,000 years ago.

USA - The 8.2 [revised 7.9] magnitude earthquake that has triggered tsunami warnings off the coast of Alaska has sparked fears it could awaken America's most deadly volcano Mount St Helens, with the 8,363ft mountain's threat level at "very high" as shockwaves rattle the northwest states. The volcano in Washington state left 57 people dead and levelled 250 homes when a 5.1 magnitude earthquake caused it to erupt in 1980. An avalanche of debris crashed down the mountain and reduced its height by 1314ft. The trail of destruction brought down 47 bridges, and wiped out 15 miles of railway and 185 miles of highway.

USA - San Diego has been rocked by an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 this morning, just days after another huge quake hit Alaska and triggered warnings of a tsunami hitting California. This morning’s earthquake hit at 2.09 am PST (10.09am GMT) with its epicentre 5 km north east of Trabuco Canyon in California. Tremors were felt in San Diego and the Los Angeles area, affecting up to 10 million people. On social media, people reported being shaken awake by the violent tremors, with one person saying there was huge “jolt”. And one resident of Canyon Lake claimed to hear a “loud roaring sound” before the shaking began.

USA - Alaska has been rocked by another earthquake just days after a massive 7.9 magnitude quake struck off the coast of the US state and triggered a tsunami warning for the entire West Coast. Alaska is located on the Ring of Fire which is a hotspot for earthquake activity. The earthquake measured 4.1 magnitude and was followed by a 3.9 magnitude aftershock one minute later. A further 3.6 aftershock was recorded approximately one hour later at 1.03am GMT. Alaska has seen an increase in seismic activity with more than 50 earthquakes and tremors recorded by the US Geological Survey in the last 24 hours. The tremors range from 2.4 magnitude to up 4.8.

GERMANY - Whatever might come out of the negotiations between Ms Merkel and Martin Schulz, the leader of the Social Democrats, in the weeks ahead, the government they form is doomed to be the weakest and most unstable Germany has had in decades.

GERMANY - The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) confirmed on Tuesday it will take over the leadership of the budget, tourism and legal affairs committees in the German parliament. AfD Parliamentary Secretary Bernd Baumann said in a Facebook post that his party was delighted “to receive these important committees as the strongest parliamentary opposition”. If Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc manages to form a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), the AfD will become the largest opposition party in the Bundestag. The budget committee — often referred to as the “royal committee” by German media — traditionally falls in the hands of the strongest opposition group.

UK - The result of a demerger in 1999, the company became Britain’s second-biggest construction company with high-profile building projects including the Tate Modern, the Royal Opera House — and even the Channel Tunnel. But its operations did not stop there: Through a succession of mergers, Carillion moved into services and management. Rail tracks, hospitals, schools, prisons and military homes all fell within its capacious purview.  Carillion’s reach across the British economy is tentacular.