Introducing your new favourite emoticon - the Merkel-Raute

From today onwards we'll all be typing this a lot:

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That's because Angela Merkel's 'triangle of power' hand gesture now has its own emoticon.

The gesture, known as the Merkel-Raute (Merkel Rhombus) in Germany is something of a trademark, so much so that even Gordon Brown wasn't beneath imitating the German chancellor at G8 summits.

We have Christian Brandes to thank for all of this.

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Now all we need is a new emoticon for when Merkel celebrates Germany scoring.