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.
A BLIND man was battered with a brick in a sickening attack by two thugs .
BEHIND the doors of this building, with its stacks of mattresses and discarded remains of wheelchairs, lies another victim of austerity cuts .
MEET the underwater British seal who is so friendly he loves to grapple divers like a friendly puppy dog .
STARING intently into the camera, a polar bear appears to be lost in thought while relaxing in the snow .
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 .
These beautiful photographs show how these playful pods of dolphins make their own fun by gliding, flipping and spinning through the air whilst enjoying the sun on their backs .
A terrifying prankster has given unsuspecting urban explorers the fright of their lives .
A trout manages to escape the jaws of a hungry cormorant - only to find itself back inside the bird's long beak .
SPURTING water 20ft into the air, this is one well you wouldn't want to dip your bucket into .
A blanket of fog is lit up by the colourful glowing lights of the city below .