Berlin - A 20-centimetre layer of snow blanketed parts of Germany on Monday, disrupting road, rail and air traffic.

Tailbacks of up to 30 kilometres were reported on motorways across the country as the inclement weather caught many drivers by surprise.

At least 1 person died and more than a dozen were injured in road accidents. In the eastern state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, more than 100 accidents occurred between midnight and 8 am.

Berlin  - Networking PCs and other devices can be a tricky process. One false check in the automatic IP assignment settings or an outdated driver for a WLAN card and the whole system will refuse to function properly. Powerline adapters can provide an alternative path.

Berlin  - With the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaching, many Germans are disappointed with the achievements made since unification, according to a new poll.

The survey by the opinion research organization Forsa showed less than half of those polled thought their personal situation had improved since the fusion of East and West Germany.

"The euphoria that dominated after the fall of the Wall has more or less disappeared," the head of Forsa, Professor Manfred Guellner, told the newspaper Berliner Zeitung.

Berlin  - At the landmark Brandenburg Gate in the centre of Berlin, 1 million people braved sub-zero temperatures early Thursday to celebrate the start of the New Year in Germany.

All over the country, Germans ignited firecrackers and skyrockets and clinked glasses as they toasted 2009 with sparkling wine.

Security was tight at the central Berlin event, the 20th New Year celebrations since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall reunited the once-divided city.

Berlin  - For many, it was a first stopping-off point: a place where refugees could prepare for a new life in the West after turning their backs on Communist Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

The Marienfelde Refugee Centre in south-east Berlin, which served as a temporary home for close on 2 million people during its busy 55-year history, closed Wednesday.

It was no longer needed. Refugee arrivals from Eastern Europe having dwindled to a trickle in recent years.

Operated by the West Berlin authorities and earlier by US, British and French Allied officials, the Marienfelde camp was set up in 1953 to cope with growing numbers of refugees arriving from the east.

Berlin - Seven luxury cars were set on fire in a rash of attacks early Wednesday in Berlin in what seemed to be a resumption of far-left attacks.

Police have been powerless to stop the intermittent car-burnings, which have occurred for several years now at intervals of a few months in the German capital.

In the first half of last year alone, about 60 expensive cars were burned in a leftist-dominated central district, Kreuzberg. Wednesday's attacks occurred in various areas around Berlin including Kreuzberg, police said.