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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. The pro-government newspaper Al-Watan claimed there was a "hidden condition" for the talks from the Syrian opposition that President Bashar al-Assad step down at the start of any transitional period. The newspaper said the Damascus government would delay its arrival in Geneva.

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Kenyatta sworn in amid high security and opposition rally Kenyan election:

President Uhuru Kenyatta begins his second term as leader of Kenya. But contested elections and months of political violence have cast doubt on his legitimacy and raised tensions in the capital.

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.

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

Carmaker BMW to invest heavily in battery cell center

China sales behind German

billion missile defense deal

German premium car manufacturer BMW has announced it will spend hundreds of millions of euros on a new battery cell competence center. The company wants to have more options should e-cars hit the mass market.

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."

BMW will bundle its battery cell expertise in a new competence center in Munich. At a ground-breaking ceremony Friday, the carmaker said it would invest €200 million ($237 million) in the site over the next four years.

"By producing battery-cell prototypes, we can analyze and fully understand the value-creation process behind it," BMW board member Oliver Zipse said in a statement. "With this built-to-print

expertise, we can enable potential suppliers to produce cells according to our specifications." "The knowledge we gain is very important to us, regardless of whether we produce the battery cells ourselves or not," Zipse added. Right now, German carmakers buy battery cells abroad. BMW for instance gets them from South Koreaʼs Samsung conglomerate for its plug-in hybrid vehicles and its all-electric i3.

Germanyʼs wolf population on the rise, new data shows The news is likely to frustrate some farmers who believe the predators are dangerous and attack livestock.

The number of wolves in Germany has grown, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the Documentation and Counseling Center of the Federation of the Wolf (DBBW). The re-

searchers, who counted the wolves by analyzing photographs of traps, animal feces, and other traces, found 60 packs are now living across the country, which is 13 more than a year ago. Overall, there are between 150-160 adult wolves in Germany, Beae Jessel, the president of BfN told reporters in Berlin. A year ago, there were estimated to only be around 140 wolves and 47 packs.

Oscar Pistoriusʼ prison sentence more than doubled South Africaʼs Supreme Court of Appeal has increased the Paralympianʼs jail term for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to more than 13 years. Prosecutors had argued that the original sentence was "far too lenient." South Africaʼs Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein increased the prison sentence of formerParalympic champion Oscar Pistoriusto 13 years and five months on Friday. The athlete had previously been sentenced to six years for the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

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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-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.

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.