Two officials in Germany are under investigation for suspected negligent homicide over slow evacuations during floods that killed 141 people in their state.
The western Rhineland-Palatinate state took the brunt of Germany's most lethal floods in six decades that killed more than 170 people, cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes and left a repair bill of more than €6 billion ($7 billion).
The state's Office of Criminal Investigation said initial work by the public prosecutor's office in the city of Koblenz indicated that evacuations had been delayed and two officials in the western district of Ahrweiler were being investigated.
After reconstructing events, investigators found that forecasts about the impeding floods should have led officials to sound the warning and move residents living near the swollen Ahr river by 8.39pm on July 14.
"This – according to the initial suspicion – was obviously either not carried out, or not carried out with the required clarity or only carried out belatedly, such that it could amount to negligence," prosecutors said.
The pair, who were not named, were suspected of negligent homicide and bodily harm because of negligence, authorities said
Documents and data from the Ahrweiler crisis team and personal communication tools were taken for analysis.
The floods have shaken up German politics ahead of a national election in September, raising uncomfortable questions about why Europe's largest economy was caught flat-footed and how to prepare for the effects of global warming.
Two thirds of Germans believe that federal and regional politicians should have done more to protect communities, a survey late last month for German newspaper Bild showed.
"At present there is only an initial suspicion, which is naturally based on a state of knowledge that is fraught with uncertainties and gaps," the Office of Criminal Investigation said.
As well as the death toll, more than 700 people were injured by the floods in Rhineland-Palatinate.
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Packages which the US Secret Service said contained possible explosive devices were sent to:
- Former first lady Hillary Clinton
- Former US president Barack Obama
- Philanthropist and businessman George Soros
- Former CIA director John Brennan at CNN's New York bureau
- Former Attorney General Eric Holder (delivered to former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz)
- California Congresswoman Maxine Waters (two devices)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Five healthy carbs and how to eat them
Brown rice: consume an amount that fits in the palm of your hand
Non-starchy vegetables, such as broccoli: consume raw or at low temperatures, and don’t reheat
Oatmeal: look out for pure whole oat grains or kernels, which are locally grown and packaged; avoid those that have travelled from afar
Fruit: a medium bowl a day and no more, and never fruit juices
Lentils and lentil pasta: soak these well and cook them at a low temperature; refrain from eating highly processed pasta variants
Courtesy Roma Megchiani, functional nutritionist at Dubai’s 77 Veggie Boutique
What is a calorie?
A food calorie, or kilocalorie, is a measure of nutritional energy generated from what is consumed.
One calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C.
A kilocalorie represents a 1,000 true calories of energy.
Energy density figures are often quoted as calories per serving, with one gram of fat in food containing nine calories, and a gram of protein or carbohydrate providing about four.
Alcohol contains about seven calories a gram.
South Africa World Cup squad
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Name: Yousef Al Bahar
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Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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