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A decades-long taboo was broken in Germany yesterday with the launch of a feature film in which Adolf Hitler appears for the first time in a central role, not as a ranting demagogue but as a soft-spoken dreamer. The Downfall is a huge shift from the previous tendency in German cinema to show Hitler only as a background figure or a character who does not appear on camera at all. Juliane Köhler as Eva Braun, Bruno Ganz as Hitler and Heino Ferch as Albert Speer It tells the story of the last 12 days of Hitler's life in his 25ft-deep...

Business Booms for Real-Life Fawlty TowersTue May 20, 2003 10:40 AM ET MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - A cafe in northern England has turned itself into a copy of TV's disaster-prone Fawlty Towers and the customers love it, the owner said on Tuesday.Phil Wood, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, said he was abusing staff and arguing with customers, just like hotel owner Basil Fawlty in the classic 1970s BBC sitcom.In the television series, Fawlty, played by actor John Cleese, lurched from one disaster to the next, haranguing his guests and attacking his Spanish waiter Manuel."I like to have a bit of fun with...

Labour rebels claimed yesterday that up to 160 backbenchers will vote against Tony Blair if Britain launches an attack without a fresh UN security council resolution. Amid a growing belief that Robin Cook is planning to resign from the cabinet, a leading rebel predicted that the 122 Labour MPs who voted against the government last month would be joined by a further 40. MPs are expected to vote on Iraq, possibly as early as tomorrow, after the failure of Britain to secure a second resolution. Tony Lloyd, a former Foreign Office minister, told Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "I...

A STRING quartet struck up a jaunty tune. Waiters carried steaming plates of bratwurst. Germany might be experiencing its worst economic crisis since the end of the second world war, but a surprisingly festive air infused a gathering of conservative businessmen in Hanover last week. For the first time in more than a decade Lower Saxony, the home state and strong- hold of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, risks falling to the conservative opposition in an election next month. Unthinkable only a few months ago, the result for which the local business community yearns would inflict a deep political wound on the...