The week at a glance...Europe

Moorland, United Kingdom

Flood emergency: Thousands of acres of southwest England have been under-water for weeks after the wettest winter in nearly 250 years. Railroad tracks and roads were submerged, cutting off the west from the rest of the country, and the Thames burst its banks in several places. Many residents of towns in Somerset county evacuated as water reached chest level in the streets and power was lost. Politicians blamed one another for the disaster. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron said the flooding was a result of a previous Labor government’s refusal to dredge rivers, while a local Tory politician said he’d like to take the chief of the Environment Agency, “stick his head down the loo, and flush.” The Environment Agency, in turn, blamed Conservative budget cuts.

Copenhagen, Denmark

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Giraffe fed to lions: Copenhagen zookeepers are getting death threats after they shot Marius the giraffe, dissected him in front of children, and fed him to the lions. Vets doing the autopsy held up body parts to show the kids. Zoo official Bengt Holst brushed aside the global outrage and criticism, saying zoos were meant to educate, “not to make nature into a Disney World.” He said Marius, a healthy 2-year-old, was euthanized because his genetic history made him unsuitable for the zoo’s breeding program. The only zoos that offered to take him, Holst said, did not have “the same ethical standards” that the Copenhagen facility has.