A little brown bear cub shows his doting mum that she is always on parent duty as he uses her as a scratching post. These adorable photographs of two playful bear cubs and their watchful mum were captured by American nature photographer D. Robert Franz, 56, on a visit to Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. 'What we see in these photographs is the interaction between the mother brown bear and her two cubs,' says D. Robert, of Cody, Wyoming.
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 .
HUDDLED together in the hollow of a tree, it would be easy to overlook these two sleepy owls as they blend into the trunk .
TENNIS was a game made for three according to the first Victorian rule book .
The mother of a young woman stabbed 26 times by her ex-partner for having a secret abortion has told how her daughter was cruelly betrayed by her own social worker .
What lies beneath this building site? Britain's great hope of winning the pre-WW2 arms race against Nazi Germany .
A BLIND man was battered with a brick in a sickening attack by two thugs .
LEAPING through the air this determined little mouse is on a mission for food .
VENTURING into the ocean with self-made spears and nets, the fishermen of Zanzibar put their lives on the line when they catch food for their families .
TRYING their best to wriggle away, three adorable tiger cubs receive their health checks at Chester Zoo .
Housands of cushions handmade as gifts for Olympics athletes may go to waste after London 2012 KNITWITS stitched up volunteers by refusing to allow them to hand them out .
WITH the phosphorescent blobs and mesmerising patterns, these spectacular images may look like the hall marks of an enchanted forest but it is in fact the scene of thousands of dancing FIREFLIES .
STARING intently into the camera, a polar bear appears to be lost in thought while relaxing in the snow .