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Shadowy Merkel image goes viral

AN IMAGE of German chancellor Angela Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone viral - for all of the wrong reasons. The unfortunate snap showing Mr Netanyahu accidentally giving the German politician a Hitler-like shadow moustache has flooded social media websites across the world.

The image was captured when Mr Netanyahu pointed across the stage of a news conference in Jerusalem, inadvertently casting the shadow across the Ms Merkel's face.

The picture was taken at a ceremony to commemorate 50 years of diplomatic ties between Germany and Israel on Tuesday - but has since gone viral.

The image was captured by Marc Israel Sellem, a photographer for the Jerusalem Post.

Originally the newspaper said it would not be publishing the photo because "it inadvertently shows Merkel in an embarrassing light and publishing it would be making a statement that we have no intention of making".

But it later decided to publish it after a screen-grabbed image of the shot went viral on the internet.