Chancellor Gerhard Schr?'s ruling Social Democrats won the support of left-wingers and trade unionists for a controversial "tax-the-rich" manifesto with which the party hopes to win Germany's general election this autumn. Frank Henkel, the Berlin conservative party's general secretary, said: "This red administration's failure to act is historically irresponsible."In the 15 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, there is hardly a trace of the former Cold War barrier left in the city. Last week an all-party commission of MPs was to meet in Berlin to discuss proposals for a permanent Wall memorial.Checkpoint Charlie was manned in rotation by British, American and French occupying powers during the Cold War. It was the scene of a menacing stand-off between Soviet and American forces only weeks after the wall was built by Communist East Germany in summer 1961.American tanks, their engines running, stood almost muzzle to muzzle with Soviet tanks at either side of the checkpoint, raising fears of war until the conflict was defused.Checkpoint Charlie was also the scene of one of the last attempted escapes from east to west months before the fall of the wall in November 1989.. Opposition conservatives appealed to Berlin's coalition city government of Social Democrats and Communists to save the memorial. The owners say her museum leased the site for three months and the deadline for her to remove the memorial has long since expired. We are demanding that the demolition be stopped."Three other former East German dissidents supported Mr Zahn in his protest, which has also been backed by the city's opposition conservative party.The privately run "wall memorial" was set up only last year to remind visitors - in a city virtually devoid of wall relics - of what the former concrete barrier between capitalism and communism once stood for.Complete with searchlights and black crosses commemorating the 1,067 people shot dead while trying to escape west across the Cold War frontier, the white-walled memorial has become a major tourist attraction.
"The Americans value the history of Berlin more than the Berliners themselves," she said.Mrs Hildebrandt also embarked on a last-minute drive to collect €36m (£24.3m) to buy the site She said yesterday that she had still not given up hope. Alexandra Hildebrandt, whose Checkpoint Charlie museum built the wall memorial, wrote to President George Bush, hoping that American intervention might save the project. Last week, at least 2,000 people a day were visiting the site.But days ago, the owner of the plot, the BAG banking group, was given approval to demolish the memorial. The police can carry me off, but I am not going of my own fee will."He added: "It is a disgrace that Berlin's only functioning wall memorial should be destroyed. Several victims of the Communist regime said that they would use East German prison chains to attach themselves to crosses at the wall memorial, sited at the city's former east-west crossing point, Checkpoint Charlie Bulldozers were expected to move in at 5am today. Demolition squads have been told to destroy the memorial by its owners, an investment bank which wants to use the site for office development. But Hans-Eberhard Zahn, 77, who was imprisoned for seven years by the East German regime, said yesterday: "I am shackling myself to the memorial with one of the foot chains that was used on me during my time in jail. The German capital was facing an angry showdown today over plans to demolish the popular Berlin Wall memorial after former East German dissidents chained themselves to the site to prevent bulldozers flattening it.
Mr Olalla later died in a hospital.The 22-year-old said he returned to the scene hours later and did not realise the man had died until he found out in the news He was arrested in March 2004.The case continues.. "I don't know whether I'm guilty or innocent."Farruquito, a man listed in the US People magazine as among the "50 most beautiful" people, is the son of flamenco singer Juan Fernandez Flores "El Moreno" (the Dark One) and the grandson of the legendary Farruco, considered the best flamenco dancer of the 20th century.He faces a prison sentence of three to eight years if found guilty.The prosecution claims that Farruquito had been driving without a licence or insurance on 30 September 2003 when he hit Mr Olalla at a pedestrian crossing.Farruquito said he was exhausted after a long day of rehearsing and lost control of his car. He claims that he fled the scene because he was scared of ruining his and his family's future."I had fear of everything, my career future and all that could happen to my family if I went to prison," he said. A flamenco dancing prodigy, dubbed one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world, went on trial for allegedly killing a man in a hit-and-run accident yesterday. Farruquito, whose real name is Juan Manuel Fernandez Montoya, took to the witness stand in Seville in southern Spain over an offence committed in 2003. Although he admitted to police that he was driving the car that struck Benjamin Olalla, 35, he denies the charge of negligent homicide.