Fire at Berlin metro station injures 4, 1 of them seriously

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.

A 24-year-old man dressed in Batman's Joker costume attacked passengers on a Tokyo train line on Sunday evening, injuring 17 people as many party-goers headed into the city center for Halloween gatherings, media reported.

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.

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.

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.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has hit Berlin hard, yet despite rising numbers of new infections, businesses and markets remain open. DW visits some markets to ask vendors and customers what impact the danger has had on them.

It's Europe's most accessible, edgy and – often – political film festival. The Berlinale has kicked off in the German capital with François Ozon's "Peter von Kant", a gender-swapped reimagining of German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1972 feature "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant".

French filmmaker Claire Denis has won best director at the Berlin Film Festival for a film partly filmed in FRANCE 24's buildings. "Both Sides of the Blade" stars Juliette Binoche as a woman torn between two lovers in pandemic-era Paris. She plays Sara, a journalist who works at FRANCE 24's sister radio station RFI. Film critic Emma Jones speaks to Eve Jackson from Berlin about all the action from this year's festival.

Germany has urged Russia to come back to the negotiating table as Russian media reported "no concrete plans" were in place for Putin to meet Biden.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was the latest international leader in Moscow to sound out Russia's Vladimir Putin on the war in Ukraine. Some see Bennett as a potential mediator between Moscow and Kyiv.

The refugee exodus is seeing thousands of Ukrainians arrive in Berlin every day. It's caught the German capital off guard and is pushing resources to the limit. Berlin says it can't cope alone and has appealed for help from other parts of the country.