Bank robbers have pulled off a brazen heist in the German capital after digging a 30 meter-long (100-foot) tunnel leading into the bank's vault, police said Monday.

Once inside the Berliner Volksbank branch in the southwestern district of Steglitz they cracked open safety deposit boxes and managed to get away with an undisclosed amount, a police spokeswoman said.

Berlin will open a major new exhibition Thursday celebrating the centenary of the discovery of the 3,400-year-old fabled bust of Egypt's Queen Nefertiti as a feud with Cairo over its ownership rages on.

The show at the city's New Museum showcases its most famous treasure, considered the most priceless depiction of the female visage after the Mona Lisa, and other booty carted home by German archaeologists after the December 6, 1912 find.

A 120-kilogram (265-pound) wild boar attacked and injured four people Monday in Berlin, the German capital's police force said.

The boar bit a 74-year-old man on the back and leg, knocked a 74-year-old woman to the ground and bit a 24-year-old woman on the legs before she took shelter in a parked car, police said in a statement.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed that investigations into the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan is making “speedy progress”, revealing that they have reaching important information in the case, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Tuesday.

Security information revealed that the owner of the stolen car that was booby-trapped in the bombing that killed Hasan on Friday has been identified.

A far-right group displayed a caricature of the Prophet Mohammed outside a Berlin mosque Saturday amid a heavy police presence, while far-leftists and anti-Nazis staged a counter-demonstration.

The protest by some 50 militants of the Pro Deutschland group aimed at Islamist extremists went ahead after a court allowed them to brandish copies of cartoons whose original appearance in Denmark sparked violent reactions across the globe.

New music license fees could threaten the livelihood of Berlin's legendary all-night clubs, or drive them underground in a return to the heady post-Wall 1990s, the city's tourism body said Wednesday.

The head of the public-private marketing group Visit Berlin, Burkhard Kieker, said the German capital's renowned nightlife remained one of its biggest draws and warned against a planned hike in levies on discos.

Beyond the cliches of Bratwurst, beer festivals and discount supermarkets, Germany has built up a world class haute cuisine, even if many Germans still prefer to spend cash on their car rather than eating out.

Second only to France at the European level since 2007 in terms of distinctions in the prestigious Michelin guide, Germany boasted nine restaurants with three stars in this year's guide.

Organic lubricants, silicon vibrators and whips recycled from old bike tires -- a Berlin sex shop has taken a growing trend for clear-conscience consumerism to its most intimate extreme.

"Other Nature" sells purely organic and vegan sex aids in a country which, a recent poll suggested, topped the table for liking sex "tools and gadgets".

born Christian pastor, sentenced to death, whose execution Berlin fears is imminent.

"At the request of Minister (Guido) Westerwelle, the Iranian ambassador was summoned yesterday (Friday) to the foreign ministry for the German government to convey its deep concern over the fate of Christian pastor Yusuf Nadarkhani and to demand his immediate release," a spokeswoman said.

Robust growth and record low unemployment enabled Germany to slash its public deficit last year, even if Europe's biggest economy ground to a halt at the final months, data showed on Friday.

Germany -- which given its economic clout has assumed a leading role in the fight to end Europe's chronic debt crisis -- ran up a deficit equivalent to just 1.0 percent of output last year, down from 4.3 percent in 2010.