Amy Cole
BBC Midlands Today

Pupils at a school in Birmingham have been building robots from Lego so they can compete in a special tournament.

The students at Woodrush High School, in Hollywood, who designed the robots, have been working out how to tackle challenges such as an obstacle course. 

They'll take part in the West Midlands regional heat of the Lego League later today; it's a worldwide research and engineering competition.

Staff at Birmingham's Royal Mail sorting office are dealing with three million cards and parcels a day in the run-up to Christmas.

Birmingham Mail

A patient was left to wait more than 21 hours on a trolley, external by a Birmingham and Solihull hospital trust.  

Johnny Cantor
BBC Sussex commentator

Image source, @OfficialBHAFC Twitter

Albion will be wary of the arrival of Gianfranco Zola at St Andrews just three days before the game but the Seagulls passed the test of Blackburn in midweek and will want to maintain the gap between them and third place if possible. 

Unbeaten in 15 league matches, Chris Hughton’s side have won the last three games against Birmingham.

They have a range of options up front with Tomer Hemed vying with top scorer Glenn Murray for a place alongside Sam Baldock.

BBC Sport

BBC journalist Pat Murphy said Birmingham’s decision to replace Gary Rowett with Gianfranco Zola shows “the star syndrome's gone mad, autograph hunters in charge of football clubs”.

Former Chelsea and Italy striker Zola, 50, has signed a two-and-half-year contract with the West Midlands club.

Blues, who are seventh in the table, sacked Rowett on Wednesday after he spent more than two years in charge.

Club director Panos Pavlakis said Zola's "pedigree" fits with Blues' ambition to "move in a new direction".

Monica Rimmer
Journalist, BBC Online

A former West Midlands Police officer of more than 30 years has died aged 72, following a long battle with cancer. 

Dave Cross joined Birmingham city police as a special constable back in 1962 and joined the regular force three years later. 

Image source, West Midlands Police

Retiring in November 1994, during the final year of his service, Dave began establishing the police museum in Sparkhill and quickly developed a comprehensive collection of artefacts.

West Midlands Police Chief Superintendent Sally Bourner paid tribute to a "larger than life character".

The West Midlands Police flag will be flown at half-mast over Sparkhill police station until his funeral.

BBC Weather

It will be a cloudier day than on Wednesday and there will be sporadic outbreaks of rain or drizzle accompanied by some low cloud and hill fog. 

It will stay fairly mild with a southerly breeze. Highs of 10C (50F). 

Monica Rimmer
Journalist, BBC Online

A van driver from Birmingham has been attacked in a late night road rage incident. 

He was driving on the A75 near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, when he was overtaken by an articulated lorry which pulled up sharply in front of him.

Image source, Google

The lorry driver then approached the van and assaulted the victim. 

The man suffered cuts to his face but did not need medical attention. 

Police say the attacker was between 40 and 50, about 5ft 8in (1.7m), of a stocky build and had short grey hair, a goatee beard and moustache. 

A woman has died after a two-car crash in Aldridge this morning. 

It happened near the junction of Stubbers Green Road and Wharf Approach just after 07.00. 

The driver of the other car, a 58-year-old woman, was taken to hospital with a minor injury.

BBC WM

Campaigners say they'll fight all the way to save three leisure centres in Dudley. 

They protested last night as councillors agreed to a review which could see leisure centres in Halesowen, Dudley and Stourbridge closed and replaced with two new ones.

The council says no decision has been made and no changes will be made for three years.

Giles Latcham
BBC Midlands Today

A Birmingham man who tried and failed to join the so-called Islamic state in Syria has been convicted of terrorist offences.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Humza Ali, 20, has also been found guilty of distributing terrorist material and sending abusive and threatening messages to a Muslim Labour councillor.   

The trainee bricklayer was described in court as being "fully on board" with the IS message and "ready to join" at the right moment. 

He tried to go to Syria last year but was turned back by officials at Istanbul airport in Turkey.

Ali is due to be sentenced in January. 

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

A man's had his jaw and eye socket broken in what police are calling, external "violence" at a bar in Staffordshire. 

Image source, Google

Staffordshire Police say it's believed to have happened inside the Shrew bar on Market Street, Rugeley in the early hours of Sunday morning. 

They say the 24-year-old victim needed surgery for his "serious facial injuries".

BBC WM

Gianfranco Zola, Birmingham City's new boss will be unveiled to the media at a press conference this afternoon.

We're going to have reporters there and from 13:00 they will be streaming a live question and answer session.

You can watch it here. , external

Image source, Getty Images

Watford and West Brom are each given a £45,000 fine by the Football Association for failing to control their players.

David Schaffer
BBC News

More than 60 drivers in Staffordshire have been prosecuted in a new scheme designed to protect refuse collectors from dangerous drivers. 

A lorry has been fitted with a CCTV camera and is recording drivers in Cannock who are putting refuse collectors at risk by mounting pavements to get round rubbish lorries.

Waste firm Biffa recorded more than 4,000 incidents in the UK in a month.

Now it has begun a campaign to raise awareness of the danger and sending footage to police for possible prosecution.

Warwickshire appoint former Bears captain Jim Troughton as first-team coach at Edgbaston.

Allen Cook
BBC Local Live

A fox that was rescued after getting tangled up in a football net has died.

The RSPCA says the young animal had been left "very weak from the ordeal" and passed away yesterday. 

Image source, RSPCA

The fox was found with its entire entire body tangled up on Sunday night, external at a school in Hednesford Road, Cannock, Staffordshire. 

It was taken to the RSPCA's centre in Stapeley Grange, Nantwich for treatment but died there. 

The animal charity says it's repeating its urge for people to put sports netting away, saying that it poses "a real hazard to our wildlife".

The jury in the case of a 101-year-old man on trial accused of child sex abuse, has retired to consider its verdicts.

Image source, JOE GIDDENS

Ralph Clarke, who was born in March 1915, pleaded guilty part-way through his trial to nine sexual offences committed against a young boy in the 1970s.

Clarke, of Holly Lane, Erdington, Birmingham, denies a total of 22 counts of indecent assault and indecency relating to two other complainants in the case, claiming they invented lies about his past.  

A van driver is the victim of a night time road rage attack on the A75 near Castle Douglas.

Former Wimbledon singles champion Ann Jones says she did not expect to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1969.