People rescue white shark stranded in shallow water
Melbourne, May 1: Tourist Nash Core admits he felt some fear when he and his 11-year-old son waded into the ocean off the Australian coast to help rescue a 3-metre great white shark stranded in shallow water.
Three local men managed to return the distressed animal from a sand bank into deeper water after an almost hour-long rescue effort on Tuesday near the coastal town of Ardrossan in South Australia state.
“It was either sick or . just tired,” said Core, who was visiting with his family from Gold Coast in Queensland state. “We definitely got it into some deeper water, so hopefully it’s swimming still.” Core came across the unusual human-shark interaction while travelling around Australia with his wife Ash Core and their sons Parker, 11, and Lennox, 7.
Nash Core used his drone to shoot video of the writhing shark before he and Parker decided to help the trio who were struggling to move the shark into deeper water.
‘My heart’s pounding’
“To be honest, I did have some thoughts about, oh, why am I going out here?” Core recalled on Thursday.
“As we were going out, my young son, Parker, turned to me and said … My heart’s pounding.’ I said, Yeah, mine’s beating pretty fast too,’” Core added.
The three men had used crab rakes – a garden rake-like tool for digging small crabs from sand – to move the shark into deeper water by the time the father and son arrived. (AP)
Japan’s imperial palace fires employee for theft
Tokyo, May 1: Japan’s Imperial palace said Thursday that it has fired an employee for stealing cash totalling 3.6 million yen (USD 24,900) from Emperor Naruhito and his family over more than a year.
The Imperial Household Agency identified the suspect as an employee in their 20s who was one of about 80 attendants assigned to the palace or the agency building to serve daily needs of Naruhito and his family.
The theft is an embarrassment for the royal household and its officials said it’s been unheard of in modern history.
The case surfaced in March during an internal investigation by the IHA that started in January when an assistant manager of the department noticed a discrepancy between the cash in the safe and the accounting book.
When an agency official detected the loss of 30,000 yen (USD 207) in late March, the suspect who just ended an overnight duty was asked about it and admitted stealing cash, citing financial difficulty, the agency said.
In all, the suspect admitted to stealing a total of 3.6 million yen in a number of occasions from November 2023 to late March this year, and later returned the money by mid-April, it said.
The money was part of 324 million yen (USD 2.24 million) annual budget allocated as living expenses for the emperor, his wife Masako, their daughter Princess Aiko and Naruhito’s parents – former Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. (AP)