1.Berlin is becoming ever more popular with tourists and young professionals. No wonder DW reporter Anne-Sophie Brändlin's account of her passionate love story with the German capital was our most-read article this year.

http://www.dw.de/how-berlin-has-ruined-living-anywhere-else/a-17802182

2.In India, following the dramatic gang rape case in New Delhi in 2013, the story of two teenage girls found hanging from a tree near their village in May 2014 triggered widespread protests demanding quick police action.

The initial investigation indicated they had been raped and strangled, but months later a court questioned those findings.

http://www.dw.de/india-arrests-police-officers-over-gang-rape/a-17671524

3.Data privacy issues are among the most hotly debated. Documents leaked by US whistleblower Edward Snowden showed this year just how closely Germany's intelligence agencies work with the US National Security Agency, NSA. This triggered suspicion that the German government deliberately weakened laws protecting privacy to make this cooperation possible.

http://www.dw.de/new-leaks-show-germanys-collusion-with-nsa/a-17726141

4.Israel's offensive on Gaza this year, which began in retaliation for rocket fire targeting Tel Aviv from within the Gaza Strip, claimed well over 1,300 lives. In an interview with DW, renowned Israeli novelist Amos Oz, who had criticized Israel's use of force as excessive, began by asking a question of his own: "What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap and starts shooting machine gun fire into your nursery?"

http://www.dw.de/oz-lose-lose-situation-for-israel/a-17822511

5.The information published in December in the 500-page document compiled by the US Senate came as a shock to many, although most of the facts had already been known. It revealed that the CIA's treatment of al Qaeda terrorism suspects in secret prisons outside the US was more brutal than policymakers were led to believe and that some cases amounted to torture.

http://www.dw.de/cia-morale-deeply-hurt-following-senate-report/a-18124389

6.The brutality of the "Islamic State" terrorists in Syria and Iraq triggered fear across the world of a rise in radical Islamism. In Germany the end of the year saw weekly demonstrations of "anti-Islamization" protesters, some of whom held dubious right-wing allegiances.

Earlier in the year, however, 11 young Salafist extremists in Germany made international headlines when they patrolled the city of Wuppertal in bright orange vests with the words "Sharia Police" written on their backs. They later said they only intended to provoke. But many Germans were outraged - and wondered how to react.

http://www.dw.de/germany-wont-tolerate-sharia-police/a-17906086

7.The Ebola outbreak in Western Africa claimed well over 7,000 lives in 2014 and the danger is still not over. An international aid effort kicked in. But people in Europe and the US got really worried when health workers in Texas and in Spain were infected while caring for patients who had travelled from Africa bearing the virus - for which there is no cure or vaccine. DW's science team was quick to explain that Ebola is only one of the most deadly viruses today.

http://www.dw.de/top-ten-most-dangerous-viruses-in-the-world/a-17846283