Little remains of the Berlin Wall, but a new monument in the German capital will honour the protesters who defied the communist state in 1989 and led the divided nation to reunification.

Once state-owned housing, the apartment buildings of Karl Marx Allee have become the target of a bold city plan to keep rents affordable.

At Eliud Kipchoge’s training camp in Kenya, where he never misses his turn to clean the toilets or draw water from the nearby well, his fellow athletes call him “the boss man”. And on a pleasant autumn day in Berlin the 33-year-old lived up to that reputation – as well as reinforcing his case to be considered the greatest distance runner of all time – by obliterating the marathon world record. Kipchoge’s time of 2hr 01min 39sec was staggering enough, given it took 78sec off the previous best set by Dennis Kimetto in 2014.

The Berlin Wall came down in 1989. But it seems that its story still hasn't been fully told. A previously unknown section of the wall was discovered in summer 2018 in a residential section of northwest Berlin. Several locals on a walking tour came upon a 20-meter (66-foot) section of crumbling wall, covered in graffiti, in June. The wall had been covered by overgrown bushes, which is how it had escaped discovery for so long.

A sociopolitical landmark for Berlin's parents: Starting in August all municipal day care centers in the German capital will be free. Several other states are also looking to phase out the costs for working parents.

German authorities investigating the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl said Thursday they are seeking a fugitive Iraqi asylum-seeker and have arrested a Turkish man in the latest high-profile case involving migrants. The body of the girl, who had been missing since May 22, was found Wednesday on the outskirts of the western German city of Wiesbaden.

Dozens of Berlin nightclubs have organized a dance party to protest a march led by the far-right Alternative for Germany.

Security is tight at this brick building on the western edge of Berlin. Inside, a sign warns: “Everybody without a badge is a potential spy!” Spread over five floors, hundreds of men and women sit in rows of six scanning their computer screens. All have signed nondisclosure agreements. Four trauma specialists are at their disposal seven days a week. They are the agents of Facebook. And they have the power to decide what is free speech and what is hate speech.

Horst Seehofer has presented Germany's latest crime figures for the first time since becoming interior minister. The stats show a 10 percent overall decrease in the past year, but upward trends in certain hate crimes.

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Berlin Mayor Michael Müller has called for an end to the controversial Hartz IV welfare system, saying that every jobless Berliner should have the right to a basic income. The Social Democrat (SPD) politician told the Berliner Morgenpost that he wants to see an overhaul of the welfare system, with Hartz IV to be replaced by a “solidary basic income” model. Hartz IV was one of the biggest components of the major labour market reform, which was adopted in the mid-2000s by the then red-green federal government under Gerhard Schröder (SPD).

North Korea used the Berlin embassy to obtain technology and equipment for its nuclear program, said on Monday the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, as reported by the German public broadcaster DW. “We determined that procurement activities were taking place there, from our perspective with an eye on the missile program, as well as the nuclear program to some extent,” the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Hans-Georg Maassen, told NDR.

Today that wall has been gone one day longer than it stood. The 155km, 3.6-metre-high concrete and barbed wire divider separated East and Western Berlin from August 1961 to November 1989. Along its length were more than 300 watchtowers and 20 bunkers, thousands of soldiers, guard dogs, alarms, ditches to trap vehicles, and a no man's land that varied in width from about 300 metres to the width of a street. Despite these preventative measures, many attempted to cross the wall. Exact numbers are uncertain but it is understood about 5,000 people crossed the wall successfully and more than 130 died in the attempt.

German history is entering a new phase: the post-post-wall era

An estimated 3,000 right-wing demonstrators protesting against migrants were met by pro-asylum left-wing counter protests in Berlin. Such protests have become a regular occurrence. Right-wing protesters, including known neo-Nazis, marched through Berlin's government quarter on Saturday, chanting "Merkel must go" and "We are the people" in an anti-immigration rally that drew ten times more people than police had expected.

An angry American traveler found herself plunged into German legal waters this month after allegedly calling federal police officers "Nazis" during a dispute at Frankfurt International Airport. Police say the woman, a 49-year-old professor, became "unreasonable and irritated" when they told her she had too many liquids in her carry-on during a screening for explosives.

Economic growth in Germany hit a six-year high in 2017 and its public finances posted a record surplus, fuelling hopes of another strong showing in 2018 and sharpening a debate about how its next government should manage the windfall.

New Year's Eve celebrations in Berlin will feature a special safe area for women who feel harassed. The Red Cross has set up a tent where women can get help if they feel unsafe on the Eberstrasse, just south of the Brandenberg Gate, the focal point of New Year's festivities in the German capital.

The German government is offering rejected asylum seekers benefits in kind worth up to €1000 if they voluntarily return home. The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced the new program called “Your Country, Your Future, Now!” which will run until February 28, on Saturday. Under it families who agree to leave will be entitled to up to €3000.

Experts on Friday defused an explosive device found near an outdoor Christmas market in the German city of Potsdam near Berlin, local police said on Twitter. Germany is on high alert for potential militant attacks nearly a year after a Tunisian Islamist hijacked a truck, killed its driver, and then rammed the vehicle into a Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 11 people there.