A crocodile took a dip in a luxury hotel pool in northeastern Australia last weekend, but failed to stir guests relaxing in the sun a few steps away.
Video posted on social media showed the juvenile carnivore lying on the bottom of the pool at the Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort in Port Douglas.
“I don’t want to alarm anyone, but there is a crocodile in the Sheraton pool,” TikTok user Lisa Keller said in a video showing the scaly predator.
Photo: Reuters
A handful of tourists could be seen taking it easy on sun lounges around the edge of the pool, although none ventured into the water.
“Not a single person cares,” Keller said.
The video matched images of the pool on the hotel’s Web site.
Hotel manager Joseph Amerio said the crocodile was spotted early on Saturday morning, and the pool was cordoned off until Queensland state wildlife officers removed it in the afternoon.
“At no time were guests and the baby animal in the pool at the same time,” he said.
State wildlife rangers “rehomed” the animal, and put up crocodile warning signs in the area, an environment department spokesperson said.
It was not immediately clear whether the animal was a saltwater or less aggressive freshwater crocodile.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS