DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH
German spy agency sets sights on Balkans, focuses on Bosnia Germanyʼs foreign intelligence agency BND is increasingly focusing on the Balkans and especially Muslim-majority Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Berliner Zeitung reports. Bosnia faces a growing influence from the Gulf states. The German Intelligence Agency (BND) is increasingly concerned about Islamist tendencies in Bosnia-Herzegovina, theBerliner Zeitung daily newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing sources from the intelligence community. The agency is allegedly also turning its attention to the whole of the volatile Balkan region. For generations, the Muslim population in multi-ethnic Bosnia has adhered to a very liberal interpretation of Islam. This perspective was also reinforced by authorities in secular former Yugoslavia, which included Bosnia along with six other present day Balkan states. However, religious divisions flared up during the break up of the socialist state in the 1990ʼs and the influence of religion has been growing ever since.
Syria transition talks in Geneva to get underway with or without Assad officials The eighth round of UN-sponsored talks on Syria since 2012 is set to get underway in Geneva, though the Assad regime has not yet named a delegation. Talks hosted by Russia have led to hopes there may be a breakthrough. The United Nations special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he would "not accept any preconditions by any party" for the talks set to start in Geneva on Tuesday. He said the talks would be guided by a 2015 Security Council resolution mandating a political transition for Syria. By Monday evening, the eve of the talks, the Syrian government had not officially named its delegation.
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Potsdam Christmas market bomb alarm prompts more police patrols Investigators are seeking the sender of a mysterious package that turned out to be harmless
Police are boosting their presence at Christmas markets in the eastern state of Brandenburg after a bomb scare.
Uber hits legal roadblock in Israel The bad news continues for Uber. Less than a week after the revelations about a massive data leak the firm tried to cover up, Israel has become the latest country to block some of the firm’s services. An Israeli court has banned Uberʼs ridesharing services from operating in the country,following legal challenges from a taxi driversʼ union and a rival ride-sharing app. The beleaguered ridehailing service has been trying to develop its operations in the Israeli market in recent times, both through its traditional app-based taxi booking model
and also through two ride-sharing pilot schemes, UberNIGHT and UberDAY. Mondayʼs injunction targets those ridesharing pilots, which Uber confirmed would no longer operate following the ruling. Uber says its standard app service will continue to operate in the country. "While we are ending our UberNIGHT and UberDAY pilots, we will continue to offer UberTAXI in Israel," a spokeswoman said. "We are committed to working with the Israeli authorities to explore how technology can improve our cities with safe and affordable transportation alternatives."
Germany must allow third gender in registry of births, court rules An intersex person has won a court case to allow them to enter a third gender into the registry of births. The case was appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court after failing at lower levels. Germanyʼs Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday called for a third gender option in the registry of births. Intersex people, who are neither male nor female, should be able to register their sexual identity as such, the Karlsruhe court ruled. The court found that the general right to the protection of personality in Germanyʼs Basic Law meant the register had to be altered to
allow a third gender. The court ruled seven to one that lawmakers must create new legislation by the end of 2018 to allow for a third sex, providing the examples of "intersex," "diverse" or another "positive designation of sex." Another possibility raised was to scrap gender entries altogether. "Assignment to a gender is of paramount importance for individual identity; it typically plays a key role both in the self-image of a person and in the way in which the person concerned is perceived by others. The gender identity of those persons who are neither male nor female is protected,"the court ruled.
Senior military official commits suicide amid corruption probe A former member of Chinaʼs Central Military Commission has committed suicide after authorities opened a corruption probe against him. Zhang Yang was being investigated over his ties to two corruption-tainted generals. A top Chinese military official under investigation for corruption has committed suicide, the Defense Ministry and state media said on Tuesday. Zhang Yang (pictured above), a former member of the powerful Central Military Commission, was "suspected of giving and taking bribes" and the origin of a large amount of his assets was unclear, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing the commission. "On the afternoon of November 23, Zhang Yang committed suicide at home," the Xinhua report stated.
Danish teenage convert to Islam given extra jail term for bomb plot Sentenced when she was 15 years old for her plot to attack schools with bombs, the IS sympathizer has stabbed an educator while in jail. Medical advisors recommended she be incarcerated for the foreseeable future. A high court in Denmark extended to eight years the sentence for the now 17-year-old Muslim convert. The individual, who cannot be named under Germanyʼs media code, was arrested in her home village 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of the capital, Copenhagen, in January 2016.
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US and Poland strike $10.5 billion missile defense deal The US has approved the $10.5 billion sale of a Patriot anti-missile system to NATO ally Poland. Eastern European NATO states have been ramping up their military capabilities in the face of perceived Russian aggression. In a move likely to irk Russia, the US and Poland agreed on Friday a major arms deal that could see the eastern European NATO member soon begin conducting air and missile defense operations. As part of the $10.5 billion (€8.9 billion) sale, Poland is expected to receive 208 Patriot Advanced Capabilty-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement missiles, 16 M903 launching stations, four AN/MPQ-65 radars, four control stations, spares, software and associated equipment. Made by US defense contractor Raytheon, the missiles are reportedly designed to detect, track and engage unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles and shortrange or tactical ballistic missiles. In a statement issued following the sale, the State Department said that: "A secure Europe capable of deterring air and missile threats and other forms of aggression promotes peace and stability within NATO and on the European continent."
Bird flu scare latest to rattle South Koreaʼs Winter Olympics
Congressʼ top Democrats ditch Trump meet after tweet Top Congress Democrats have pulled out of a meeting with President Donald Trump after he attacked them on Twitter. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi called off the meeting after Trump told followers he didnʼt "see a deal." Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (pictured) on Tuesday canceled a scheduled afternoon White House meeting with Trump and called for immediate talks with top Republican leaders in Congress to avert a government shutdown. "Rather than going to the White House for a show meeting that wonʼt result in an agreement, weʼve asked Leader McConnell and Speaker Ryan to meet this afternoon," Pelosi tweeted later, referring to Speaker
Paul Ryan Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. Trump later said that Schumer and Pelosi had been "all talk" and "no action." This followed a Trump tweet in which he said he would be meeting with "Chuck and Nancy” about keeping the government open and functioning, but simultaneously claimed that they "want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE Taxes." "I don’t see a deal!" he concluded.
Could we run out of sand? Sand seems to be in limitless supply — but we are going through it faster than almost any other resource on the planet. On parts of the shoreline in the Moroccan beach town of Tangier, something is amiss. Though the ocean is there — its waves lapping, crashing and roaring as they have since time immemorial — it is not a place for long days of lazing on soft sand. Because there isnʼt any. Instead of a rolling golden strand, there is a rockscape with lunar-like formations. Though spectacular to behold, they arenʼt natural phenomena — but actually just former beaches stripped bare by large-scale theft of sand. But why
steal it? "We have a lot of sand, but we also have a lot of demand," Hermann Kessler from the German Environment Agency (UBA) told DW. It is used in many, many things. From toothpaste and plaster to stonewashed jeans; crockery, kitchen sinks and toilet bowls; from windows and beer bottles to silicon chips that are used in items from smart phones to cars. But by far the biggest consumer is the construction industry, which uses sand to produce bricks, asphalt and concrete. It takes around 200 tons (400,000 pounds) of the stuff to make a mid-sized house; to build a kilometer of highway takes 30,000 tons; and a nuclear power plant around 12 million tons.
The Winter Olympic Games have been dogged by avian influenza, as well as the concern over the unpredictable regime in North Korea, poor ticket sales, a shortage of accommodation and rising prices. Local governments in South Korea have called on operators of farms close to venues that are to be used in Februaryʼs Winter Olympic Games to slaughter around 6,000 ducks and chickensafter avian influenza was discoveredon a duck farm in North Jeolla Province.
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China sales behind German carmakersʼ rosy third quarter Strong vehicle sales in the wordʼs most important car market have been essential in enabling German carmakers to end their third quarters on a positive note. Their dependence on China is expected to increase further. Germanyʼs top carmakers would not have been able to present positive third-quarter results without a booming auto market in China, a study by consultancy EY showed Tuesday. It said China had long become the most important market for Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler, with one in three of their cars sold in the third quarter having gone to the Asian nation. To be more precise, the Chinese market accounted for 34 percent of Germanyʼs overall car sales between July and September, the highest ever rate logged so far. Back in 2010, only 23 percent of Germanyʼs quarterly car sales ended up in China.
Ousted Venezuelan opposition leader escapes house arrest, flees to Spain Ousted Caracas mayor Antonio Ledezma has likened his escape to a film. He plans to take the fight against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro abroad. The ousted opposition mayor of Caracas arrived in Spain on Saturday after orchestrating a daring escape from house arrest in Venezuela. Antonio Ledezma landed in Madrid from Bogota, Colombia, where he arrived a day earlier after slipping across the border. He was greeted by his wife and two daughters who live in Spain. Ledezma said he planned to organize resistance from abroad to President Nicolas Maduro, under whose rule millions of Venezuelans have suffered from shortages of food and other basic supplies. "I am going to travel the world to spread the hope of all Venezuelans to escape this regime, this dictatorship," Ledezma said. The 62-yearold opposition figure was removed as mayor of Caracas and arrested in 2015 on allegations he sought to topple Maduro. He was later put under house arrest due to health issues. Ledezma was one of the opposition leaders who led protests against the government in 2014, which also resulted in the arrest of opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. He remains under house arrest.