The British ex-pat discovered a nasty surprise in her outdoor tree on Thursday, when she came home from work to find a three-metre (10-foot) python coiled around the potted evergreen.

Snake catcher Jack Hogan, 19, was called out to a home on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, on New Year's Eve after a family found a snake in their Christmas tree.

But for one woman in Australia, the seasonal theme was very big snakes, when she got home to find a 10-foot python adorning her tree. Thick smoke from wildfires shroud the Opera House in Sydney ...