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Germany

Snacking Burglar Betrayed By Sausage Bite Nine Years Later

Snacking Burglar Betrayed By Sausage Bite Nine Years Later
Bertrand Hauger

The proof, this time around, was not in the proverbial pudding. It was in the sausage.

As daily Berliner Kurier reports, police this week said they have identified the culprit in a 2012 break-in that happened in the western German town of Gevelsberg after the man's DNA was found on a piece of sausage he'd left behind.

Nine years ago, there had been no match when the half-chewed piece of forensic evidence was originally put through for analysis. But this week, after a 30-year-old native of Albania was arrested in France, a standard cross-check of international DNA databases matched him to the (long) leftover bit of sausage in Germany.

Although French police released the suspect, German authorities say they will reopen the cold case of burglary in Gevelsberg.

Oddly enough, this is not the first time German police report a hungry burglar's appetite coming back to bite him in den Arsch. According to German news website Der Westen, in February 2015 in Ansbach, a man who broke into a grocery store was snacking on sausage during his crime, leading to his arrest a couple of months later based on the DNA found in a meaty bite left behind.

It only goes to prove that, in Germany at least, some burglars really are the wurst.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Will Winter Crack The Western Alliance In Ukraine?

Kyiv's troops are facing bitter cold and snow on the frontline, but the coming season also poses longer term political questions for Ukraine's allies. It may be now or never.

Ukraine soldier in winer firing a large canon with snow falling

Ukraine soldier firing a large cannon in winter.

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — Weather is a weapon of war. And one place where that’s undoubtedly true right now is Ukraine. A record cold wave has gripped the country in recent days, with violent winds in the south that have cut off electricity of areas under both Russian and Ukrainian control. It's a nightmare for troops on the frontline, and survival itself is at stake, with supplies and movement cut off.

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This is the reality of winter warfare in this part of Europe, and important in both tactical and strategic terms. What Ukraine fears most in these circumstances are Russian missile or drone attacks on energy infrastructures, designed to plunge civilian populations into cold and darkness.

The Ukrainian General Staff took advantage of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's visit to Kyiv to ask the West to provide as many air defense systems as possible to protect these vital infrastructures. According to Kyiv, 90% of Russian missile launches are intercepted; but Ukraine claims that Moscow has received new weapon deliveries from North Korea and Iran, and has large amounts of stocks to strike Ukraine in the coming weeks.

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