A family of foster carers are facing bankruptcy and homelessness after they signed up to a Government scheme to renovate their house to be used for disabled children's short breaks. Two years ago the Waite family received a grant from Leicestershire County Council to transform their home into a respite centre for severely disabled foster children. But after a dispute arose with the builder over the £75,000 extension to their three bedroom house in Leicestershire, Mark Waite, 44, and his wife Clair, 39, now face losing everything they have worked for. The couple, who represent the third generation in a 100-year family tradition of fostering disabled children, have had to sell all their furniture and clothes on ebay to pay solicitor's fees and say they now face total ruin. They say the council has "left them out in the cold" over the legal wrangle, leaving them responsible for tens of thousands of pounds of debt which will almost certainly result in them ending up on the streets with their two children.
AN American accountant has grown the world's biggest MELON and smashed his way into the record books with his mammoth 350 .
A cheeky gorilla sticks her tongue out and plays up for the camera at Bronx Zoo .
ROLLING across a 65-metre-high viaduct in the Alps, the red carriages of the Bernina Express add a splash of colour to the spectacular snow-covered Swiss surroundings .
A rare manuscript of one of Charlotte Bronte’s earliest poems went under the hammer today and fetched nearly £100,000 – double what it was expected to get .
A diver explores the crystal clear waters of the Silfra canyon in southern Iceland, which is the only place on Earth where you can dive or snorkel between two continental plates .
With their guts spewing and eyes hanging out, these are the cuddly toys children might be reluctant to curl up to .
A British jewellery designer with a passion for London's iconic Gherkin has created a pen with an INK-REDIBLE price tag of £27,500 .
With the vivid red smoke billowing into the sky amid the misty sand dunes, these are the blissful views provided at the break of dawn at a volcano .
NEW DELHI, A woman activist of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party crosses a police barricade near the residence of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi during a protest against the recent rape of a five-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, April 21, 2013 .
THIS ONE of a kind experience brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'a coffee to go' .
Raising his arms above his head and lying flat on his back, a polar bear stretches as he sprawls out across the ice .
WITH A wide smile plastered across his face, this little gecko is ready for his close up .