Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron during the commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day in Compiegne, France. Photo: ReutersOne hundred years after the guns of World War 1 fell silent, the leaders of France and Germany held hands and rested their heads against one another in a poignant ceremony to mark the signing of the Armistice peace agreement. More than 3 million French and German troops were among an estimated 10 million soldiers who died in the Great War of 1914-1918. In a powerful show of unity, Macron and Merkel sat inside the reconstructed teak-lined rail wagon in which the peace charter was signed and looked through a book of remembrance. Since World War 2, France and Germany have driven tighter European cooperation and the European Union has become the world's largest trading bloc.

Source: Otago Daily Times November 10, 2018 18:56 UTC