These are the fascinating pictures of miniature table sculptures molded around bonsai trees that take up to a painstaking 18 months to create. Japanese illustrator Takanori Aiba, 58, has built the intriguing scale models of windmills, lighthouses and even the Michelin Man.He delicately uses craft paper, plaster, acrylic resin, paint and plastic to create the host of sprawling miniature communities that wrap around the tiny trees.Following his work as an illustrator for Japanese fashion magazine POPYE he has spent the last nine years producing the detailed mini worlds.The creations take at least three months to construct with his Ice Cream Package Tower taking an astonishing 18 months work. Since 2003, he has made eight models, with 10 more planned over the next few years.
A pair of adorable polar bear cubs play-fight with each other in the Alaskan snow .
A young woman who once weighed the same as 12-year-old girl has told how a severely malnourished cat helped save her life and beat her anorexia .
A group of whale sharks gather to feed underneath a fisherman’s boat off the coast of Papua, Indonesia .
SITTING quietly at the edge of the lake, these two baby bears watch and learn as the adults hunt for fish .
Destroyed buildings and overturned cars are seen after a huge tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City, May 20, 2013 .
THEIR gnarling teeth at the ready, these two baboons fight it out for the last piece of fruit .
Enjoying life’s little pleasures is something that many struggle to do .
At least three people have been killed and more than 100 injured, some seriously, in two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon .
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 .
THESE BREATH-TAKING photographs show the natural beauty of Iceland's most famous waterfall .
A man who spent 30 minutes impaled on iron railings after attempting to scale an 8ft fence has told of his agonising ordeal - and how he suffered a similar mishap as a child .
Gabrielle Dale, 26, was subjected to seven years of coercive control and physical abuse at the hands of her violent boyfriend Sean Owen, 29 .