Attacks on WWI graves cloud meeting

The desecration of dozens of graves of Germans killed in the First World War and buried in a French cemetery clouded a historic meeting by the leaders of the two nations, who urged Europeans to set aside economic worries and deepen their union.

In the medieval cathedral in Reims, France, a city battered by the two world wars, French president Francois Hollande and German chancellor Angela Merkel marked the 50th anniversary of a meeting between France’s Charles de Gaulle and Germany’s Konrad Adenauer that paved the way for decades of cross-border partnership.

On Jul 8, 1962, De Gaulle and Adenauer shook hands in a symbolic gesture to bury generations of enmity between France and Germany. Yesterday, Merkel and Hollande exchanged kisses on the cheek.