Hundreds of flights cancelled in Berlin strike

The SPD's Franziska Giffey won 21.4% of the vote, beating the Greens' Bettina Jarasch, who got 18.9%. Besides the national election, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were also electing local legislatures.

From an image of Hulk who suddenly leaps over your head to a painting that changes its colours, one Berlin street art exhibition offers visitors a chance to experience paintings in 3D. Called "Game Over", the exhibition inspired by video games is housed in a former casino stretching over 2,000 square metres (21,500 square feet) which is due to be torn down.

Police say officers were attacked and cars torched as thousands of people gathered in opposition to the clearance of the radical left-wing Köpi-Platz encampment in central Berlin.

Hundreds of school children stormed the Democratic Republic of Congo's parliament on Thursday (October 21) amid a strike by school teachers over unresolved issues related to the roll-out of government's free primary education program. Teachers went on strike at the start of the school year on Oct. 4 over several issues including salaries, bonus pay and retirement age, according to the Congo Teachers Union.

The coronavirus infection rate in the German capital is at its highest for five months, and young people are now most likely to get infected. But socializing, clubbing and university classes are all going ahead.

The German capital's BER airport was almost nine years behind schedule and way over budget when it finally opened for business a year ago. Now, the scandal-hit site has a new problem: dirty water.

The Dutch public health institute said in a statement that testing was continuing on the samples of 61 people who tested positive for COVID after arriving from South Africa.

Japan has stopped new bookings onto incoming flights after identifying the first cases of the Omicron strain of Covid-19. The country has also tightened its quarantine requirements for all arriving passengers, and extended a ban on non-citizens coming from ten countries in southern Africa. Travel companies have seen their shares tumble in recent days as governments tighten border rules in response to the new strain. Also today, Australia's economy feels the pinch from the recent lockdowns.

On December 19, 2016, Islamist attacker Anis Amri drove a stolen truck through a crowd in central Berlin, killing and injuring dozens. Five years later, the background to the attack remains unclear.

Social Democrat politician Franziska Giffey, Germany's former family minister, has become Berlin's first elected female mayor after a vote by city delegates.

German airline Lufthansa is slashing its winter schedule as a result of reduced demand amid the omicron variant. Spohr said the airline was running just 60% of flights compared to the pre-pandemic year 2019, with "roughly half" the number of passengers.

Berlin Zoo bids farewell to Katjuscha the polar bear, who has died at the ripe old age of 37. The elderly bear had been suffering from a heart condition for some time.