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Saad Al-Kassab (left) was just 14 years old when his school was turned into a refugee camp and family home in Homs, Syria, turned into a battle zone. The teenager (top right) was home-schooled as many of his friends (bottom right) were brutally tortured or killed by mortar shells - but eventually sought refuge with his family-of-six in Australia in 2014. In two years he taught himself how to speak English by watching Federal Parliament and using his father's Arab-English dictionary (inset), and on Monday he was announced dux of his Melbourne school after scoring a near-perfect 96.65 ATAR.

The one-year-old girl who tragically drowned in a backyard swimming pool in Sydney's southwest has been identified as Aria Dunn (pictured left with her mum Holly). Aria was found floating in the pool (right) by her distraught father Craig at their home on Thunderbolt Drive in Raby on Sunday.

England cricket fans have sparked controversy by hijacking a stadium scoreboard in India to post tasteless messages about Adam Johnson, Madeleine McCann and Josef Fritzl. Those watching the fourth Test match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai were invited to send messages of support for their team that were then displayed on the giant screen. But soon sick jokes began to appear that were visible to thousands of spectators inside the stadium.

The sister of a murdered hairdresser who was stabbed 56 times in a frenzied attack by her own husband has spoken of her heartbreak at losing her closest friend. Leila Alavi, 26, (right) was killed by her estranged husband Mokhtar Hosseiniamraei (together, left) in January last year after she left him and took out a domestic violence order against him. Hosseiniamraei was jailed for 21 years earlier following the January 2015 attack, which saw him stab Ms Alavi in the heart with a pair of scissors in a car park below the Sydney hairdressing salon she worked in. Ms Alavi's sister, Mitra Alavi (inset), spoke of her anguish in a harrowing interview on Monday, detailing the suffering she has gone through since losing her sister.

If something breaks, you don't automatically have to throw it away. These geniuses have found unique ways to fix their broken items - with an added twist. From mugs with the handle missing (far left) to a cracked mobile phone case (second from left), graffiti on the walls (second from right) and a torn sofa (far right), there are ways in which you can give your broken items a bit of a re-vamp. You might even leave them looking better than before.

A woman who received death threats after going out without her abaya in Saudi Arabia has been arrested and now faces being lashed. The woman, who has been identified as Malak Al Shehri, shared a photograph of herself without a hijab or abaya - a traditional body covering - on a street in the capital city of Riyadh. The ultra-conservative Muslim country enforces a strict dress code for women in public, banned them from driving and prohibits the mixing of sexes.

When you are confronted with blood-splatted walls, dead animals and murder scenes a strong stomach is a must when you apply to become a crime scene cleaner (left). Josh Marsden, managing director of Australian Forensic Cleaning, started his own commercial cleaning business more than 10 years ago, before he opened his own biohazard and trauma crime cleaning business. When Mr Marsden first got into crime scene cleaning it wasn't dealing with the meth labs, grisly crime scenes or unbelievable messes left by hoarders that struck him. 'My first reaction was how do you get rid of that smell. The first job we did was getting rid of the smell,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'That is the hardest part of the job. The gruesome and graphic scenes do not bother you, it is a prerequisite to the job and most people that apply have a background in the death industries or the police force so it is second nature.'

Rachel Natacha Owens, who was reported missing in May 2011 in North Carolina at the age of 15, was found safe on Friday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio, authorities said (she is pictured left and right). Owens, now 21, had 'left and remained away on her own will' and went 'great lengths to intentionally conceal her whereabouts,' authorities said. The young woman had even assumed a false identity and date of birth, Brunswick County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. At the time of her disappearance (missing person flyer pictured inset), she was last seen getting off her school bus at South Brunswick High School in Boiling Lakes, North Carolina and the FBI had offered a $5,000 reward for information in Owens' disappearance.

A history of Christmas reveals how it has been under siege for almost as long as it has been celebrated, with claims of making children greedy and leading to debauchery dogging it for 1,800 years. Numberous attempt to ban it have been made, among them a 1659 crackdown in Boston (bottom left) on the 'satanic' practice of dressing up to exchange 'gifts and greetings'. Hitler tried to get rid of Christ and St Nicholas and had a Nazi version of silent night, and modern killjoys persist in less evil form (right). But we have now been feasting and celebrating (top left - in the Middle Ages) for two millennia undeterred by killjoys of every color, writes historian Gerry Bowler in his new book, Christmas in the Crosshairs.

A younger man was viciously bashed on a Perth bus after a bearded passenger allegedly threatened and racially abused a Maori teenager and her friends and he (in the yellow cap) decided to stand up to him. The teen, who filmed the fight on the 555 bus in Rockingham, said the man told the group has was 'on crack'. 'He harassed everyone on the bus as well as hitting my friend who's only 17 years old... people like this make me sick,' she said. Police escorted the alleged attacker off the bus near Rockingham Shopping Centre, she said.

Footage taken from inside the takeaway appears to show a man throwing an object at a vehicle on Killinghall Road in Bradford, West Yorkshire, before a gang chased a man into a takeaway. One of the gang pulled out a hammer and started to smash the door and window using the tool. Later in the disturbing video, a man attacked a BMW with a hammer and smashed the passenger's window. Police are now urging witnesses and members of the gang to come forward following the shocking incident.

Author Sam Sykes drew fingers onto a mittens design on a McCafe cup, making it look like a person clasping the cheeks of their posterior. The image went viral online, racking up 20,000 favourites on Twitter. It is unclear as yet where the coffee cups originate from.

A giant alien-like object covered in barnacles that washed up on a New Zealand beach last week has sparked debate online and left locals baffled. Some suggested the object could be a shipwreck or Maori canoe - but experts chimed in to explain it was likely just a huge slab of driftwood covered in gooseneck barnacles.

The latest brainteaser wants you to try and spot the children's toy hidden among the teddies, dinosaurs, trains, cars and spaceships. In this eye-popping puzzle there is a solitary doll that is waiting to be found. So how long did it take you to spot her?

The woman orders the man to 'get a proper job' and threatens to 'kill' him after the pair argue over her fare on a housing estate in southern England. It is not known whether anyone was arrested in relation to the incident, but the video has been viewed nearly 2,000 on LiveLeak in 24 hours. A caption underneath the clip said: ' This Muslim taxi driver faced a double blow, not only did his two drunken passengers refuse to pay him but they also told him to go back to his 'own f****** country'.

Incredible footage shows baby Aryeh high fiving a magnificent male lion from behind the glass of its enclosure at Zoo Atlanta His godfather said: 'The lions were immediately interested in our little lion cub, and it wasn't long before they couldn't stand their curiosity any longer and came right up to the glass. Aryeh was completely unfazed and interacted with the lions for a few minutes.'

The brown bear tears across trees and undergrowth in the Russian wilderness as it charges at the group of hunters, before it is brutally cut down by their rifles. Brown bears are common in Russia, as well as across North America, and are known to be quick on their feet - reaching speeds of up to 30mph.

He was rescued from the streets of New York 12 years ago. Since then Brinks the pitbull has not stopped smiling - and his grin has an uncanny resemblance to a human. His owner Jon Bozak noticed his pooch's rare talent the first moment he met him. He said: 'I think I first discovered brinks could smile the very first day I found him. I'd thrown him in the car and he got in to the front seat and just kind of made himself at home. As soon as I saw him smiling at the world passing by my car, it pretty much was a non - decision. The best decision I made.'

US producer Ami Horowitz travelled to Stockholm in Sweden to film a documentary examining the effects of immigration in the country. But after entering the Husby area of the city, he claims he was immediately set upon by a gang of men who took objection to him filming. A sound recording captures the moment he says he was set upon in an 'unprovoked attack' before being dragged off to a nearby building. The audio goes silent after his microphone goes out of range.

Dozens of campaigners stripped naked and piled together to imitate a heap of animal carcasses in an area popular with tourists in the Spanish city of Barcelona. In the middle of the activists, Luisa Escribano, 53, and her daughter Barbara, 21, held up a sign reading: 'How many lives just for a coat?' Each year over 60 million animals - including over 32 million in the EU - are killed around the world to make coats and other items from their skin, according to international animal rights group AnimaNaturalis which staged the demonstration.

These new photos show the faces of survivors of the Nanjing Massacre 79 years after the bloodbath in 1937. They were published by Chinese state media ahead of the third official Day of Remembrance. Survivors told how they lived through the horrors and how it changed their lives. Most of the survivors were children during the slaughter which killed 300,000 people.

Surrounded by ice, Chernish the dog faced a battle for survival as he paddled for his life in a freezing pond in the Pskov Oblast region of Russia, but thankfully a work crew came to the rescue.

A man dices with death as he plays chicken with an oncoming train along a line in Poland. Incredibly, instead of leaping across the track he simply hops over the rail and misses the carriage by seconds. The mystery daredevil admits: 'I know that's insane but it's lot of cheaper than bungee jumping.'

A German doctor's vacant home and surgery was left behind, filled with spooky belongings. Urologist Doctor Klaus Kraft died in 1988 and his home was left to rot, 30 years after his death. Inside the home, kidneys soak in jars (top left), surgical equipment rusts (bottom left) and a treatment chair moulds (right).

Able, a brown and white moggy, gets around by hopping like a kangaroo. The three-year-old cat's front paws and tail were fried off in an electric shock. He was found lying in an alley in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The accident was so loud that neighbours thought a bomb had gone off. It took two years for Able to fully recover but now he can jump onto high ledges.