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DAILY NEWS IN ENGLISH

CSUʼs Horst Seehofer to step down as Bavariaʼs premier Horst Seehofer, state premier of Bavaria, is set to step down, but will remain head of the CSU as part of a party compromise. Intra-party conflict has made coalition building in Berlin difficult. Horst Seehofer is set to step down as Bavariaʼs state premier before local elections next year in order to end an internal crisis within his Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkelʼs Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Seehofer, who will retain his position as party leader, is to be replaced at the helm of the Bavarian government by the stateʼs current finance minister, Markus Söder. State parliament party delegates voted for Söder unanimously on Monday, after state interior minister Joachim Herrmann bowed out of the race. Speaking at the session of delegates in Munich on Monday, Söder said it was the beginning of a "new chapter" for the party.

Former Egyptian premier Ahmed Shafiq still considering presidential bid Ahmed Shafiq has made his first comments since arriving in Cairo amid a swirl of rumors he had been kidnapped. The former premier and air force officer says he is still considering a run for the presidency in 2018. Former Egyptian prime minister and presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafiq said Sunday he had not been kidnapped and was still considering running in next yearʼs election. The former air force chief had not been heard from since arriving in Cairo on Saturday from the United Arab Emirates, where he had been in exile since 2012. Aides and family members said he had been taken from his UAE home and deported,days after he made an announcement that he would run for president. Shafiq is viewed as the strongest challenger for President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who hasnʼt yet made an announcement on whether he will run next year. He is, however, expected to do so.

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Half of Britons support second referendum Brexit poll:

A UK paper has found that 50 percent of Brits would support another vote on the final terms of a Brexit deal. The poll comes ahead of Mondayʼs crunch meeting between UK PM Theresa May and the EUʼs Jean-Claude Juncker.

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 al-

low 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.

Malta arrests 10 over slain journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia The military and police have detained 10 suspects over the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Galizia, whose work extensively covered corruption by the ruling elite in Malta, died in a car bomb attack in October. Authorities in Malta announced on Monday that they had made 10 arrests in connection with the murder of investigative journalistDaphne Caruana Galizia. Galizia, who was known for her dogged pursuit of corrupt politicians, was killed in a car bomb attack on October 16. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, himself a target of Galiziaʼs pen along with his inner circle, said that the military and police had detained the suspects after a weekslong investigation. All of the suspects are Maltese nationals, Muscat said. Investigators now have 48 hours to seek charges against them. Galiziaʼs death prompted a series of demonstrations on the island, with many on the island nation criticizing the ruling class for not doing enough to catch her killers.

Palestinians and Arab League warn US not to recognize Jerusalem as Israeli capital The Arab League, Palestine and Jordan have warned the US against moving its embassy to Jerusalem. The status of the city has been a key stumbling block in previous peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. The Arab League and Palestine have warned the US against moving its embassy to Jerusalem, saying such a move would set back any future peace negotiations and could spark a new wave of violence in the strife-torn region.

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285/2017 • 6, December 2017

US and Poland Paris tightens regulations for Airbnb of Friday, only officially regisstrike $10.5 billion As tered apartments can be rented out missile defense to tourists for overnight stays in Paris. The French capitalʼs meadeal sures aim Airbnb and similar

China sales behind German carmakersʼ rosy third quarter

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."

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.

Case of wrestler throwing bout sparks anger in Iran

short-term rental sites.

Hosts in the French capital have to apply for an official registration number from now on in order to rent out their private accommodations via Airbnb or other internet platforms such as Homelidays or Abritel. In addition, they are limited to renting out their places to a maximum of 120 days per year. Deputy Mayor Ian Brossat considers the transformation of private housing into accommodations for tourists or business travelers in the city as increasingly worrying.

Over the past five years, this has led

to an estimated 20,000 apartments being withdrawn from the already strained Parisian rental market. "We want to stop this bloodletting," Brossats said. Paris is one of the main markets for the US rental platform Airbnb worldwide. A total of about 65,000 accommodations are offered here. German cities such as Berlin and Munich are also fighting the misappropriation of housing properties.

Anyone renting out their apartment illegally to tourists in Munich must expect fines up to 500,000 euros.

Almost all plastic in the ocean comes from just 10 rivers Most of the plastic in our oceans doesnʼt get dumped there directly, rivers carry it to the sea.

At last count, there were at least 8.3 billion tons of plastic in the world. Much of it gets discarded and eventually ends up in our oceans. Researchers are looking for ways to collect that trash in the sea using a variety of technologies but the overall consensus is that using less plastic, or at least catching the trash at the source, would be much better than filtering it out afterwards. But where to start? Well, in fact, that might be an easier decision to make than one would think. It turns out that about 90 percent

of all the plastic that reaches the worldʼs oceans gets flushed through just 10 rivers: The Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong (in that order).

These rivers have a few key things in common. All of them run through areas where a lot of people live — hundreds of millions of people in some cases. But whatʼs more important is that these areas donʼt have adequate waste collection or recycling infrastructure. There is also little public awareness that plastic trash is a problem at all, so a lot of garbage, gets thrown into the river and conveniently disappears downstream.

Tehranʼs ban on any contact with Israel has led to another case of an Iranian athlete being ordered to lose during an international competition. This policy is coming under growing criticism in Iran. "Ali Resa lose!, Ali Resa you must lose!" echoed through the venue in Bydgoszcz, Poland in the final moments of one of the semifinals at the U23 wrestling World Championships.

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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-year-old 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.