THUG WHO BEAT UP SOLDIER JAILED FOR 9 YEARS
N evil mugger who battered a Birmingham old soldier and fled with just £40 has been jailed for nine years. Frail Bill Hopkins, 79, suffered a broken jaw in the cowardly attack outside his home last November. Mugger Richard Christie , 48, pounced on the pensioner from behind, repeatedly punching and kicking him in the head. He ran off with the OAP's wallet - which contained the cash, bank cards and a card from his late wife's memorial service.
Other great stories
AMAZING AURORA BOREALIS
A GLOWING range of greens and blues sweep across the sky in a spectacular display of light .
BIKINI SWIM WITH JELLYFISH
A BIKINI swim with jellyfish sounds like the most painful past-time on the planet .
ABANDONED HOBBIT HOUSE
IN THE not so MISTY MOUNTAINS of Wiltshire, there lies an abandoned hobbit house .
SEXY WEIGHTLIFTER LOSES 12ST AFTER SWAPPING BISCUITS FOR BICEPS
A weightlifter has lost a whopping 12st after swapping biscuits for biceps .
AMAZING PEN ART
FROM THE world famous Girl with a Pearl Earring painting to a jaguar in the grass, these incredible drawings are created from coloured ballpoint pens .
REAL LIFE ELF - WOMAN HAS EARS POINTED TO LOOK LIKE AN ELF
A Canadian woman who is obsessed with all things mythical has had her ears cut and shaped to look like an ELF .
WOMAN LOSES 11ST AFTER £11K GASTRIC SLEEVE OP
A woman has shed half her body weight after undergoing a gastric sleeve op to shrink her stomach .
COUPLE CELEBRATE THEIR 70TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY AND RECEIVE SPECIAL CARD FROM NEWLY CROWNED KING CHARLES
A couple celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last week and have received a special card from newly crowned King Charles and Queen Camilla .
EYE-CATCHING TRIBAL HAIRSTYLES
BRAIDED, sculpted and beaded, these are the eye-catching hairstyles worn by the tribal women of Angola .
RECORD BREAKING WATERMELON
AN American accountant has grown the world's biggest MELON and smashed his way into the record books with his mammoth 350 .
RECORD BREAKING GRAN'S COLLECTION OF NEARLY 800 SHEEP
RECORD BREAKING GRAN'S COLLECTION OF NEARLY 800 SHEEP HOTSPOT MEDIA – WITH PICS 0121 551 1004 By Katie Thompson A record-breaking baa-rmy gran with a love for sheep has amassed a collection of nearly 800 woolly wonders .
INTIMATE PORTRAITS OF INDIANS
An Italian photographer travelled to northern India where he visited poverty stricken suburbs and captured ordinary people in a series of intimate and expressive portraits .