Kay Nolan, 45, left, wrote a text message before pulling out of a layby in Higham, Lancashire, when she clipped a car then knocked down and killed Stuart Mather, 60, right. She was due to face trial for causing death by dangerous driving but admitted to causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving - an offence that carries a much shorter prison sentence.

Bondi was among several popular beaches around Sydney, Australia, which had to be closed after an algae bloom transformed the sea into something resembling a scene from a Jaws movie. Despite the warnings a number of intrepid beachgoers were seen venturing into the water and swimming through the red surface.

Graham Hughes yesterday trudged into Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to end the epic four-year journey that began in his hometown of Liverpool on New Year's Day 2009. The 33-year-old used buses, taxis, trains and his own two feet to travel 160,000 miles in exactly 1,426 days - all on a shoestring of just $100 a week.

Mr Yummy Zeheer Ramzan, 32, pictured top left,was so furious at Mr Whippy Mohammed Mulla, 41, pictured bottom left, trading in the same area of Blackburn, he jumped out of his vehicle armed with a tyre jack, smashed the window of his rival's van, pictured right, and attacked him. Ramzan, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, was today facing jail after being found guilty of assault, possession of an offensive weapon and criminal damage.

Nurse Neil Riley, 54, pictured right, had been arrested on suspicion of voyeurism after claims he set up hidden cameras in a bedroom to spy on female colleagues at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, pictured left, where boarding school fees cost up to £28,443 per year. Mr Riley was later questioned and released on bail but five days later he was found dead at his home in Great Harwood, Blackburn, following concerns for his welfare.

The footage shows Aaron Bradford, 18, pictured, as he skulks around a room in victim Rosalinde Potter's home in Yelverton, Devon, guided by the light from his phone. She saw the house had been ransacked and called police unaware that Bradford was still in her home and when police arrived he stayed quiet in his hiding place. But what he did not know is that after previous break-ins - including one by Bradford - Ms Potter had installed the CCTV cameras.

NEW RAF veteran Gary Norton, 75, of Coventry, was disowned by her family after she underwent a gender reassignment, but says it left her trapped in the wrong body. Gary, who is still legally and physically, a woman, has now ditched her wardrobe of women's clothes to live as a man again and is on the waiting list for a mastectomy.

WARNING: Graphic content. The gruesome footage has become a surprise online hit with almost 66,000 people already watching it. The hapless creature is expelled by the anaconda as it writhes in the Brazilian water. It is not known why the giant snake decided to give up its meal.

Chris Downes, 26, had spent 18 months doing-up his 'pride and joy' and restoring the 1990 model, which he kept outside his home in Nottingham. The car, which he bought for just £500 without wheels, was obliterated by a 30ft concrete post.

Mother Emma Gregory, 20, was handed a suspended jail term at Manchester Magistrates' Court for allowing her dog to maul the boy as he walked home from school with his mother. The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was left needing plastic surgery after suffering serious bite injuries to his cheek, arm and leg.

The official announcement came after an old ruined mill rumoured to have once been the home of Serbia's most famous vampire collapsed. Sava Savanovic (right) was believed to have lived in the mill (left) on the Rogacica river in the municipality of Bajina Basta. It is said he drank the blood of anybody that came to mill their grain. Mayor Miodrag Vujetic admitted: 'People are worried. Everybody knows the legend of this vampire and the thought that he is now homeless and looking for somewhere else and possibly other victims is terrifying people.'

After 100 years of climate change, only 25 out of the 150 glaciers recorded at the Glacier National Park in Montana still exist. As these pictures show, places where the ice was once many metres thick have been replaced with sediment, pastures and lakes. Dr Dan Fagre, who leads the U.S. Geological Survey Team responsible for researching glaciers in the park, predicts that its glaciers will completely disappear in the coming decades.

Helen Stephens (pictured), 50, from Wednesbury, West Midlands, who suffers from one-in-a-million Stiff-Person Syndrome, knows that her ailment - which strikes in minutes - could prove deadly. The grandmother suffered a major attack earlier this month and saw her weight shoot up a staggering five stone and neck swell by four inches.

At its peak, Villacanas was a bustling town manufacturing millions of wooden doors to cater for the housing boom in Spain. But all that’s left now is a ghost town with an abandoned factory (pictured) that used to employ 5,700 people. It is a stark reminder of more prosperous times when the town's population was part of Spain's middle class with high wages and permanent jobs. Since the housing bubble burst, Villacanas is one of the many former buoyant industrial Spanish towns that is now struggling with huge unemployment problems.

The cubs were born at West Midlands Safari Park, in Bewdley, Worcester, in 2008 but will spend their adult lives entertaining crowds in the Far East. The animals were given to British businessman Jim Clubb who runs Amazing Animals, which also goes by the name Heythrop Zoological Gardens, in Chipping Norton, Oxon.

A weapon, disguised as a Parker pen and demonstrated to CNN reporters by South Korea's answer to Q, was one of three found on a would-be assassin in Seoul who was targeting Park Sang-hak, an anti North Korea activist. Like something straight out of a James Bond film, the pen actually contains a deadly poison which, if injected, leads to almost instant muscle paralysis which in turn leads to suffocation and death.

These images show the just-released Cocoon Tree hovering between trees thanks to a system of suspension wires. A large mattress and a custom made duvet can be placed inside it, accommodating two people, or even a couple with two small children.

Amateur photographer Dr Serhat Demiroglu, 44, could not believe his luck when the cat pounced on the big game watchers' 4x4 in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve and posed for pictures. The doctor, from Turkey, was able to take a number of close-ups of the cat through the vehicle's sun roof before it left and jumped on a second truck.

Very few Chinese people own clothes dryers so the majority simply hang their clothes out to dry naturally like these tenants at Hubei University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

A Virginia company is advertising a new type of living arrangement for elderly parents: a 12 by 24 feet popup 'Granny Pod' that fits easily into the back yard of a standard American home.

Lu Zhenghai is so afraid of rumours that the Mayans predicted a global disaster on December 21 he has spent £100,000 designing his own apocalypse-proof vessel. Lu, from Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, admits it's not much to look at, but is confident it will serve its purpose.