Blogs

Red hot lava flows down Mount Etna as it erupts. The Italian volcano erupted three times over a 36-hour period (Photo by Olycom SPA / Rex Features)

This adorable snail takes cover from the rain under a makeshift flower umbrella. The photo was snapped by Vyacheslav Mischenko, who specialises in this type of photography (Caters)

A woman is rescued from deadly floodwater by a man standing on top of her car during heavy rains in Athens, Greece. The storm is the worst to hit the Mediterranean country in 50 years (Reuters)

This golden tortoise beetle can change colour by altering the reflectivity of its outer layer. The close-up snap was taken by photographer Chime Tsetan in Mundgod, India (Chime Tsetan/Caters)

Traffic lights are covered in snow and ice in Yakutsk. The Oymyakon valley in the Republic of Sakha, north-east Russia is the coldest place in the northern hemisphere. Temperatures can tumble to lows of -67.8C - but people still live here. The village of Oymyakon and the city of Yakutsk are the coldest inhabited places on Earth. In Oymyakon, where 500 people live, few modern luxuries are enjoyed - for instance a mobile phone will not work in the extreme cold, while most people still burn coal and wood to heat their homes (Reuters)

China now has two spectacular great walls. Josh Chalmon stands in front of a giant mosaic made from 85,794 Rubik's Cubes, Macau, China. The wall is 220ft long and 13ft tall and shows the skyline of Macau. Canadian Josh Chalmon had to hand twist all of the Rubik's Cubes before assembling the wall - which is now in the Guinness World Records as the 'Largest Rubik's Cube Mosaic Ever Created' (Solent News/Rex Features)

The 'Shed of the Year 2013' competition has begun and nearly 2,000 entries have already been submitted. From Tardis outbuildings to Chinese pagoda sheds, British garden tinkerers have thought of clever and creative ways to decorate their shacks. This shed by Amy Williams has a royal British theme and is decorated with 40 cups and saucers commemorating the royal family - and an impressive portrait of Winston Churchill overlooking the room (Shed of the Year)

The canal at Diksmuide in Belgium, photographed soon after the end of World War One, circa March 1919. This image is from a rare series documenting the damage and devastation that was caused to towns and villages along the Western Front in France and Belgium during the First World War. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Bungling workers made a terrible spelling error when they erected a sign for an historic Welsh bridge. The yellow sign for the Grade II listed "Whelsh" Bridge in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, was supposed to alert divers it was closed. A spokesperson for National Grid said: "The typo was noticed by our workers upon arrival at the bridge on Sunday. However, we thought it would be better to put it up than not - so we could at least advise road users what was going on." (SWNS)

Yang Guang, a male giant panda, looks into the enclosure of female giant panda Tian Tian, at Edinburgh Zoo. Experts say the pair will mate in a matter of weeks as both bears have started to display courtship signs. Yuan Guang has been doing handstands in his enclosure to mark his scent as high as possible while Tian Tian has started calling out to him - a common sign during mating season. Female pandas are only in season for less than 48 hours every year. The pair did not mate last year (Reuters)

The lowest temperatures in the northern hemisphere have been recorded in the Oymyakon valley, where a value of -67.8C was registered in 1933. In this picture local resident Ruslan, 35, loads blocks of ice onto a truck outside Yakutsk, Sakha (Reuters)

Religious ice sculptures on the Lena river near the city Yakutsk, in Sakha. Yakutsk has the lowest winter temperatures for any city in the world (Reuters)

The roof of a house is covered with snow in the village of Tomtor in the Oymyakon valley in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia, January 24, 2013. The coldest temperatures in the northern hemisphere have been recorded in the Oymyakon valley, where according to the United Kingdom Met Office a temperature of -67.8 degrees Celsius (-90 degrees Fahrenheit) was registered in 1933 - the coldest on record in the northern hemisphere since the beginning of the 20th century. Yet despite the harsh climate, people live in the valley, and the area is equipped with schools, a post office, a bank, and even an airport runway (albeit open only in the summer). Picture taken January 24, 2013. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov (RUSSIA - Tags: SOCIETY ENVIRONMENT) ATTENTION EDITORS: PICTURE 2 OF 27 FOR PACKAGE 'THE POLE OF COLD' SEARCH 'MAXIM COLD' FOR ALL IMAGES

A girl poses for a picture in the village of Oymyakon. Known as the 'Pole of Cold', it is the coldest place in the northern hemisphere. Despite temperatures so cold the ground never thaws, there are people living and working in the village (Reuters)

A car drives through the thick snow at night near Vostochnaya meteorological station in the Republic of Sakha, northeast Russia. (Reuters)