A middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy. Jacopo Rigotti, of Val Di Cembra, Trento, Italy, photographed the bird as she flew towards her nest, located in the trunk of a black pine tree, before feeding her hungry chicks a beakful of insects. The 25-year-old photographer says: "I decided to set up the camera on a tripod at the base of the tree, along with a flash that would help to prevent shadows in the photographs."
CARRYING a fully grown goat on his back, this five-year-old boy is a child shepherd in the mountains of northern Ethiopia .
NOT YOUR everyday selfie, this plucky diver poses with some of the scariest predators in the ocean .
A man who conned tax officials out of £34 million and funded a lavish lifestyle of luxury hotels and restaurants has been jailed for one of the longest sentences in British criminal fraud history .
A photographer from the United Arab Emirates travelled to Pakistan where he captured the lives of local people in a series of expressive portraits .
A makeup artist from the West Midlands magically transforms herself into famous cartoon characters using body paint .
Armed with a snorkel, flippers and her skimpy bikini, an intrepid female free diver swims alongside an array of reef sharks .
A BROWN bear wades through waters in Alaska and waits for his lunch .
Here's a collection of art for the DIGIT-AL age as these fascinating illusions of landmarks, places and even a banana are made using just a pair of hands .
Animal rescue volunteers have told how a cat riddled with cancer was forced to ripped off its own ears after it was abandoned by its owners .
HUDDLED together on a branch, a pair of adorable Javan scops owls soak up the sun .
Daniel Blore, 21, of Innage Crescent, Bridgnorth, stabbed his mother three times in the attack on January 11 this year, Stafford Crown Court heard .