Martha Payne, 9, from Lochgilpead in Scotland has become an internet hit after she posted an image online of her measly school lunch. She is leading a campaign to try adn improve the standard of school dinners in a throw back to Jamie Oliver's efforts several years ago.

All nine of these families have lived on, or next to, a single quiet street in leafy Kent. The children have a condition called gastroschisis, which causes developmental abnormalities of the abdomen while the child is still growing in its mother's womb. Children afflicted are born with some or all of their intestines, bowels and, in the case of girls, ovaries, protruding. The results can be corrected, but this can require multiple painful operations, after which sufferers will be on medication for life.

Former pilot Roger Price, 67, and his wife Dr Catherine Bentley-Thomas, 51, pictured left, claim the play area, centre – built around 20 yards from his detached house in Ascot, Berkshire – is ‘severely disrupting’ their life. They are fighting a private prosecution to try to force Winkfield Parish Council to shut it. The local council spent £150,000 adding play equipment to the village recreation field in May last year, but Mr Price said the park was attracting children from outside the area who are too loud. They have been backed by Sky News sports presenter Chris Skudder, right, whose house also borders the field.

Jim Fetherstonhaugh, 49, of Shrewton, Wiltshire, found a method despite experts failing to lock themselves inside a bag for the inquest into Gareth Williams's death. Intrigued by the mysterious case of the MI6 agent, he asked his daughter Izzy, 16, to climb inside an identical North Face bag to test his theory.

After London mayor Boris Johnson was compared to a scruffy-haired alpaca, some of the biggest names in politics are also compared with their wild lookalikes. With the Coalition coming under increasing pressure in recent months, the Prime Minister is beginning to resemble a grumpy dog, pictured.

Morbidly obese Susanne Eman, 32, from Arizona, who is hoping to set a world record for being the fattest human, is planning her wedding to chef, Parker Clack and the dress needs to cover all 800 pounds of her. That is, all except her bulging arms as the 32-year-old says she'd like to be sleeveless for her summer nuptials.

Hundreds of children are being sent home from school clutching letters informing their parents that, according to the controversial National Child Measurement Programme, they are obese. They're happy and healthy - but to the fury of their parents, the NHS insists they're dangerously fat...

GUY WALTERS reveals the fascinating story of the Olympic flame, including its links with the 1936 Berlin Games where Hitler is pictured with Tilly Fleischer who picked up the first gold medal for Germany. London 2012's torch will be lit today at a ceremony in Ancient Olympia. After a short relay around Greece, it will be flown to Britain to be carried around the country by a succession of torchbearers.

Pilot Lee Pibworth, 42 (pictured top left), and his passenger Allan Burnett, 55, (bottom left) were killed after their £20,000 balloon plunged towards earth at more than 60mph before crashing into a field at Midsomer Norton in Somerset. The crash happened on New Year's Day 2011 as the pair were trying to achieve the gold standard in ballooning.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES: Beginning at 8.30 a.m EST, approximately 14 million people from Mexico to Australia followed the brain resection on an unnamed 21-year-old girl as Dr. Dong Kim removed a benign tumour from her posterior right temporal lobe. A veteran of 300 craniotomies a year, Dr. Kim was involved in the team that treated former U.S Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords last year after she was shot in the head at point-blank range.

The masked bandit (pictured left) strolled into the Oasis News store in Wythenshawe, Manchester, and calmly asked the assistant to empty the stock of cigarettes into four bin bags before walking out. He disguised himself in a bandana and a hooded jacket, but he was with an equally nonchalant accomplice (right) who didn't even cover his face despite security cameras capturing every moment of the mid-morning hold-up. Greater Manchester Police released CCTV images of the raid in the hope of identifying the suspects.

Taken in Dublin's Herbert Park, the shots show how the grey heron plucked a tiny duckling from the pond after it became trapped in some wire mesh. While at first it was scared off by the furious mother duck, the heron claimed its prize when the youngster roamed too far on its own. But as these pictures show, the heron finally found its duck takeaway rather hard to swallow.

A class of children sit revising for make-or-break exams to get them into the college of their choice. It’s the sort of scene that could be seen in high schools across the world but for one important difference: The pupils have intravenous drips hanging over their desks. The image is taken from footage that claims to reveal the controversial use of the drips to boost pupils’ ability to study at a school in Xiaogan, Hubei province, China.

The caves are in Ningwu County of Xinzhou City, in north China's Shanxi Province and this one is more than 100m long. Inside it is covered with thick ice that freezes in the winter and remains all year. Huge icicles are formed which hang from the ceiling, in sharp contrast with the green summer foliage outside.

Allison Ellis (left) listens to the heart of her murdered baby granddaughter Karlie as it beats inside three-year-old Faris Samara (right), who received the organ in a transplant when he was 11 months old. Ellis has travelled from Clarksville, Indiana to Chicago, Illinois with her daughter Kara Mellick to meet the boy and his family. The meeting came as solace for both families, with Faris's mother Sam (centre) saying she has struggled with the guilt of knowing another mother lost her child so that her own son could live.

Hannah, 36, an Australian who now lives in LA, made her first mermaid tail at the age of nine, after seeing the film Splash with Daryl Hannah. Now she works as a model, actress and performer, swimming with whales, dolphins, stingrays and even sharks. Hannah can hold her breath for up to two minutes and swim to depths of 45 feet, allowing her to move like a real mermaid, without the restraints of diving gear.

These musical baby bears might seem ready to cut a rug. But the conga line of cubs is actually a tactic used for grooming. Video shot at a bear reservation shows the litter of 10 standing up on their hind legs and one by one filing in line to lick each other's heads.

These intricate engravings, taken from J.W. Buel's 1889 book Sea and Land, show just a few of the ways that humans can meet a grisly end at the hands of Earth's flora and fauna. The murderous creatures - whether historical, contemporary, real or fabled - are all depicted with a liberal dose of sensationalist exaggeration. Published in the U.S. by the Historical Publishing Co., the book's title page promises 'an illustrated history of the wonderful and curious things of nature existing before and since the deluge'.

Zbigniew Filo contacted police in Luczyna, Poland, after discovering that his car had been put into the Willow tree. He has vowed to change his driving ways, but still believes his neighbours had gone too far. People living nearby are keeping quiet about who hoisted the car up, but they have admitted one of the villager's mobile cranes was borrowed for the mission.

The creature looks like nothing seen before, with speculators suggesting it is everything from a jellyfish to the remains of a whale placenta. While, at a quick glance, the description of a jellyfish makes sense, the creature has organs and appendages never spotted on a jellyfish before.