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German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech as she attends a so called 'Leaders Meeting' of German Newspaper 'Sueddeutsche Zeitung' in Berlin, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013. Merkel says she is prepared to accept demands for a national minimum wage in order to forge a coalition that would give her a third term in office. Merkel and her conservative Union bloc had opposed the center-left Social Democrats' call for an 8.50 euro ($11.50) minimum wage ahead of the country's recent general election. But lacking the seats to form a government on its own, Merkel's bloc has been negotiating a "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats for the past two months. She told an audience of political and business leaders in Berlin on Thursday that she saw forming a new government as a "responsibility" that would require concessions. (AP Photo/ Markus Schreiber)