Young Woman's Berlin Wall Diary Revealed

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 08 November 2014 | 23.17

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Video: Remembered: The Day The Wall Fell

Anke Domscheit Berg saw a world of opportunity open when the Berlin Wall fell. In these extracts from her diary 25 years ago, when she was 21, she describes the emotional celebrations that took place across the city.

9 November, 1989

Hours ago, the news came in - the border of the German Democratic Republic has been opened.

Unbelievable. Every hour, 3,500 people are leaving the country. The Democratic Awakening (a political group formed in October 1989) stood in front of the crossing point and tried to persuade people to stay. To so many people, everything is falling apart. There are resignations all the time; everything has been turned upside down.

To America in the summer? Can I pay for the ticket? Visiting France? The Mediterranean Sea, Holland, Tunisia, Luanda? How can I have a holiday, where can I find the money? I am longing for everywhere, only to return.

Anke.

13 November, 1989

My friend walks into the bathroom and beams. He asks: "What do you think about our victory?"

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Gallery: 25 Years Since The Berlin Wall Fell

West Berlin policemen and East German Volkspolizei face each other across the border in Berlin, circa 1955

1961: Soldiers build the Berlin Wall, as instructed by the East German authorities, in order to strengthen the existing barriers dividing East and West Berlin

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Border guards on opposite sides of the wall, viewed from the western side

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Families and friends, once neighbours, wave across to each other over the wall

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I knew nothing. He is talking about wall depletion.

I run to the radio and hear it for myself, everyone can cross over as they like.

Unbelievable. I go with Gundi straight to the police and we had the visa within an hour.

Video: Sound And Vision: Berlin Wall Fall

Set off early on Saturday by car to the new crossing at Bernauerstrasse-Brunnenstrasse. Dad pushed his way through. We were standing for an hour, the queue was endless, it was moving forwards all the time. We only needed to raise up our ID. All around were broken walls, construction workers and border patrols. I beamed at one of them - even they are happy now, despite the stress.

Youths from West Berlin were sitting on the wall, clapping and waving. I had tears in my eyes. Everywhere West Berliners, laughing and waving, surrounded by innumerable camera crews. One woman handed out sweets, others red and white roses.

We arrived at midday. It was a frenzy, there were so many people. Even the buses are nicer.

Video: Sky Reports The Fall Of Berlin Wall

That evening, we ate at an Italian place. The food was heavenly. I thought I was going to burst, and I felt bad about the leftovers. Everyone had a bit of everything, and the pasta was the best. The waiters rushed and beamed. At one time we were moved to another table, it was so busy. Everything was unforgettable. Tonight, we want to celebrate.

Anke.

Video: Gorbachev's Interpreter On Wall

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Russia Sends Dozens Of Tanks Into Ukraine

NATO has criticised Russian "aggression" after a column of 32 Russian tanks entered Ukraine.

The convoy of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer cannons and 30 trucks of troops and equipment crossed the border into the rebel-controlled Luhansk region.

Ukraine's military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing: "The deployment continues of military equipment and Russian mercenaries to the front lines."

Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko described the action as a "significant" violation of the truce signed on 5 September at Minsk. That deal was meant to stall the conflict in the east, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives.

"The President noted a significant deviation from the implementation of the Minsk (ceasefire) protocol, which is leading to further escalation of the conflict" a statement on the presidential website said.

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A NATO military officer said the alliance was looking into the reports, confirming it had seen an increase in Russian troops and equipment being moved along the Russia-Ukraine border.

"If this crossing into Ukraine is confirmed it would be further evidence of Russia's aggression and direct involvement in destabilising Ukraine," the officer said on condition of anonymity.

The news sparked panic in Russia's currency market, with the euro reaching the 60 ruble mark for the first time in a year when it has lost more than a third of its value against the US dollar.

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Last Sunday, the pro-Russian side held a controversial election, which led to separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko, 38, being sworn in as head of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.

On Thursday tensions were further heightened when five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 16 injured in fighting.

However, Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said that Russia was committed to the Minsk ceasefire agreement in eastern Ukraine and wanted to build on peace talks.

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How The Berlin Wall Came To Be Built

By Patrick Major, Professor of Modern History, Reading University

The Berlin Wall was the Cold War made concrete.

It went up during one of its frostiest flashpoints; it came down as the eastern bloc unravelled, closely followed by the Soviet Union itself two years later.

It was built right on the East-West fault-line created by World War Two. (The bunker garden where Hitler was cremated in 1945 became part of no-man's land.) Berlin had always been a Cold War anomaly, located 100 miles behind the Iron Curtain.

Its three internationally-agreed western sectors, belonging to America, Britain and France, became a refuge for millions of East Germans fleeing in the 1950s.

The decision to build the wall in August 1961 was a communist act of desperation to prevent itself from bleeding dry.

Literally overnight, the Berlin border was closed, and gradually reinforced with breeze blocks and barbed wire.

Video: Gorbachev's Interpreter On Wall

Soon, the first fatal shooting had occurred, when a young man was machine-gunned swimming a canal by the Reichstag - 135 other victims followed over the next 28 years.

"The West is doing NOTHING!" ran Bildzeitung's headline.

Although western leaders condemned the "Wall of Shame", they did not act. There were good reasons. The wall was founded on nuclear stalemate.

In October 1961, the Soviets detonated a 50-megaton Tsar Bomba which mushroomed more than 50 kilometres high (31 miles).

The message was not lost on US President John Kennedy who may not have liked the wall, but thought it "a hell of a lot better than a war".

Video: Sound And Vision: Berlin Wall Fall

This stark reality forced a rethink among some western leaders.

Willy Brandt, social democratic mayor of West Berlin in '61, later Federal chancellor, was the architect of détente - or Ostpolitik - in the late 1960s.

Now the West de facto recognised the German Democratic Republic; in 1973 both Germanys joined the United Nations.

Ironically, it was this international "bringing in from the cold" that undermined the wall in the 1980s.

The date of 9 November, 1989, when thousands thronged the checkpoints and the wall "fell", seemed like another overnight sensation.

Video: Sky Reports The Fall Of Berlin Wall

But there was a long fuse.

East Germany was trapped between Gorbachev's glasnost in the East and the West German Wirtschaftswunder in the West. In return for aid, both demanded human rights reforms which fuelled the mass demonstrations in the hot autumn of 1989.

Nor should we forget that the fall of the wall was a symptom, not a cause, of the collapse of communism. If the writing was on the wall, it was in Polish and spelled "Solidarity", the path-breaking anti-communist movement under Lech Walesa, or in Hungary, where the first McDonald's behind the Iron Curtain had opened in 1988.

The fall of the wall completely altered the geo-political landscape. Even doubters such as Mrs Thatcher could not oppose German reunification in 1990.

By 1994, Russia had left eastern Germany, and NATO was soon on her doorstep. The West had to come to terms with the realities of freedom of movement which for so long had been largely Cold War rhetoric. And the world had learnt about revolution by "people power".

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Gallery: 25 Years Since The Berlin Wall Fell

West Berlin policemen and East German Volkspolizei face each other across the border in Berlin, circa 1955

1961: Soldiers build the Berlin Wall, as instructed by the East German authorities, in order to strengthen the existing barriers dividing East and West Berlin

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Obama Nearly Doubles Troop Numbers In Iraq

By Sky News US Team

US President Barack Obama is sending 1,500 more troops to Iraq, almost doubling the current deployment.

The White House, which said the new forces would not be in combat, also asked Congress for $5.6bn (£3.5bn) to fund the mission against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The request includes $1.6bn for an "Iraq Train and Equip Fund".

The new troops will support the roughly 1,600 US personnel already in Iraq, under what the Pentagon calls Operation Inherent Resolve.

The US says its troops in northern Iraq have no fighting role as they help to train national and Kurdish forces to battle the Islamic State jihadists.

"As a part of our strategy for strengthening partners on the ground, President Obama today authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 additional US military personnel in a non-combat role to train, advise and assist Iraqi Security Forces, including Kurdish forces," said the White House.

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Press secretary Josh Earnest said the new troops would operate at military facilities beyond Baghdad and Irbil, where they have hitherto been based.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm John Kirby said the military would set up several training sites across Iraq to instruct 12 Iraqi brigades.

It would also establish two operations centres where small advisory teams can work with Iraqi forces at headquarters and brigade levels.

One of those hubs is expected to be in Anbar province, where the extremists have reportedly been slaughtering men, women and children.

The latest deployment is based on an assessment of Iraqi security forces made by US Central Command, said the Department of Defense.

On Friday morning, President Obama hosted members of Congress at the White House, where he discussed the fight against Islamic State, among other issues.

House Speaker John Boehner reportedly told Mr Obama that Republicans would work with him next year to grant a new authorisation for military force against the jihadists.

Mr Obama's decision comes three days after his party suffered bruising losses in the midterm elections, a result driven in part by the President's unpopularity.

The US has steadily ramped up its mission in Iraq since Mr Obama announced in June that 300 military advisers would be sent back to the country, three years after American forces withdrew.

The Obama administration is also carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, though the Pentagon has acknowledged such raids alone will not be enough to stop the group.

Last week, Iraqi forces recaptured a town from the extremists. Last month, Islamic States forces lost a string of towns near the Syrian border.

Earlier this week, the UK said it would step up its military presence in Iraq as it seeks to train local ground forces to take on the jihadists.

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Robin Williams Had No Drink Or Drugs In System

By Sky News US Team

Robin Williams had no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system when he took his life at his Northern California home three months ago, a post-mortem examination has found.

The Marin County sheriff's office released the autopsy results on Friday, ruling the death a suicide resulting from asphyxia by hanging.

"Toxicological evaluation revealed the absence of alcohol or illicit drugs," said a brief statement.

The Oscar-winning actor had taken prescription medications, but in "therapeutic concentrations", it added.

The 63-year-old star of Good Will Hunting, Good Morning, Vietnam and Mrs Doubtfire was found dead by his personal assistant in the bedroom of his home on the morning of 11 August.

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A few days after his death, Williams' wife Susan Schneider said her husband had been suffering from depression and the early stages of Parkinson's disease.

She saw him alive before she went to bed on the eve of his death.

Ms Schneider was probably at home at the time the actor killed himself, the sheriff's office has said.

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The father-of-three had joked in the past about his battles with alcoholism and drug abuse.

He had entered a substance abuse rehabilitation programme shortly before his death.

The actor's ashes were scattered in San Francisco Bay, according to media reports.

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Typhoon Haiyan: Million Still Homeless A Year On

A million people made homeless by Typhoon Haiyan are still living in tents and makeshift huts a year after 170mph winds devastated parts of the Philippines.

Oxfam says they are "dangerously exposed" as the typhoon season begins again.

More than 7,300 died or went missing when Haiyan tore through the central Philippines on 8 November, 2013.

Four million people were left without a home as one of the most ferocious typhoons ever to reach land flattened large areas of the country.

Only 1% of the necessary houses have been built, says Oxfam, and it wants the country's government to ramp up efforts to relocate the 205,000 families still living in limbo.

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Philippine President Benigno Aquino has defended the speed of rebuilding, insisting it would be wrong to construct homes "haphazardly".

The £2.3bn reconstruction plan for homes away from coastal danger areas was only signed off last week, and so far just a few thousand have gone up.

In a speech in the town of Guiuan on the eve of the anniversary, President Aquino said: "Curse me, criticise me but I believe I must do the right thing.

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"I am impatient like everyone else but I have to stress that we can't rebuild haphazardly.

"We have to build back better... let's get it right the first time and the benefits should be permanent."

But thousands demonstrated on Friday in Tacloban, the major city affected by the typhoon, and called for Mr Aquino to resign.

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People marched with banners and chanted "Noynoy Aquino, useless, remove!"

Oxfam chief executive Mark Goldring said: "People are still living in overcrowded bunkhouses and in lean-to homes - if nothing is done to these areas the families living there are at risk from another typhoon in this increasingly storm hit area."

The devastation caused by Haiyan prompted a massive international aid response.

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Gallery: Typhoon Aid Efforts

A boy plays in front of his destroyed house where a message is left asking for help at a port devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban.

US military personnel carry aid onto a helicopter for delivery to isolated villages.

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Saudi Arabia Mulls Lifting Women Drivers Ban

Saudi Arabia has moved a step closer to lifting its ban on female drivers - but women would still be banned from wearing make-up behind the wheel.

The Saudi king's advisory council has recommended that the government drop the restriction, a member of the council told The Associated Press.

The decision was taken in a secret, closed session in the last month and has not been made public yet.

Under the recommendation, only women over 30 would be allowed to drive during set hours and they would need permission from a male relative - usually a husband or father, but lacking those, a brother or son.

The rule would require that women wear conservative dress and no make-up at the wheel.

They would be allowed to drive without a male relative in the car within cities, but further afield a male would have to be present.

Stiff penalties would be in place for drivers who do not comply with strict restrictions on interactions between female drivers and male traffic officers or motorists, the council said.

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It said speaking to a female driver would be punishable by a one-month prison sentence and a fine.

A "female traffic department" would have to be created to deal with female drivers if their cars broke down and to issue fines, while female traffic officers would be kept under supervision by the "religious agencies".

Although the Shura Council's recommendations are not obligatory on the government, the move will be seen as a major step forward after years of the kingdom staunchly rejecting calls for a review of the ban.

The latest campaign to overturn the ban came in October, when dozens of women got behind the wheel and posted clips of themselves driving to social networking sites.

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Saudi authorities warned those violating the rules would be dealt with firmly, although there is no written law banning women drivers, only religious edicts.

The ban is part of the general restrictions imposed on women based on the strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law known as Wahhabism.

Men and women are strictly segregated, and women are required to wear a headscarf and loose, black robes in public.

Guardianship laws require women to get permission from a male relative to travel, get married, go to university or undergo certain surgical procedures.

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Top EU Diplomat Calls For Palestinian State

The European Union's new foreign affairs chief has called for the establishment of a Palestinian state, saying the world "cannot afford" another war in Gaza.

"We need a Palestinian state - that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union," Federica Mogherini said during a visit to Gaza, devastated by its third conflict in six years.

Hamas and Israel fought a 50-day war in July and August which resulted in the deaths of 2,140 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis.

Ms Mogherini, a former Italian foreign minister who took over from Britain's Baroness Catherine Ashton as the top EU diplomat on 1 November, was visiting against a backdrop of surging Israeli-Palestinian tensions in annexed east Jerusalem.

She voiced hope that Gaza would avoid another major conflict.

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"It is not only the people of Gaza that can't afford having a fourth war, all the world cannot afford this," she said.

"We cannot just sit and wait. If we sit and wait it will go on for another 40 years. We have to have action now."

Palestinians are seeking to achieve statehood in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank with east Jerusalem as the capital.

Sweden last month became the first EU member in western Europe to officially recognise the state of Palestine.

Asked whether the EU might do the same, Ms Mogherini said that such a move was "not among the competences" of the 28-nation bloc.

Her visit came as a 22-year-old was shot dead by security forces In the village of Kfar Kana in northern Israel after intervening in the dawn arrest of one of his relatives, brandishing a knife, according to police.

Dozens of angry youths later erected barricades and set fire to tyres on the outskirts of the village as police deployed reinforcements.

The shooting followed another night of clashes in east Jerusalem with youths throwing stones and firecrackers against police who used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas.

The spike in violence came after a driver rammed his car into a crowd of pedestrians in east Jerusalem on Wednesday before getting out and attacking people with a metal bar - killing a policeman and injuring nine other people before he was shot dead.

On Friday, a young Israeli also died of injuries sustained in the attack.

Speaking during her first official visit to Jerusalem, Ms Mogherini said there was a real "urgency" to pick up and advance the moribund peace process.

She also flagged up Israel's settlement building on lands the Palestinians want for a future state as an "obstacle" to a negotiated peace.

Shortly afterwards, the Italian politician met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who tersely dismissed all criticism of his settlement policy.

Ms Mogherini had been scheduled to meet Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah in Gaza but he cancelled his trip after a series of bombs there on Friday hit the homes and cars of Fatah officials.

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