West Brom's Northern Ireland international Chris Brunt signs a deal tying him to the club until at least 2018.

West Bromwich Albion's Allan Nyom says coach Hugo Broos told him not to play for Cameroon at the Africa Cup of Nations. And Nyom says he has no regrets about missing out on the tournament, despite Cameroon's success.

That's all from us on Thursday. 

Join us again from 08:00 on Friday for more news, sport, travel and weather updates and look out for breaking news here in the meantime.  

Rebecca Wood
BBC Weather

It's going to be a cold night, with the chance of some flurries of snow in parts of the region and frost by morning.

BBC WM Sport

Walsall midfielder Reece Flanagan is likely to miss the rest of the season after suffering a shoulder injury.

The 22-year-old hasn't played since last April following knee surgery and he may now require a further operation on his dislocated shoulder. 

Image source, Rex Features

In other Saddlers news, defender Jason McCarthy has been named the PFA League One fans' player of the month for January.  

A drunk plane passenger had to be tied to a seat with a mask over his mouth during a flight from Dubai to Birmingham, magistrates heard.

Khalid Mir, 39, swore and threw drink over passengers and crew on the flight in November. He was restrained after ignoring the pilot's warnings.

Image source, PA

He spat in the face of a steward who came to give him a drink.

Mir, of Havelock Road, Saltley, Birmingham, admitted being drunk on an aircraft and failing to obey the pilot.

He will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on 8 March.  

BBC Midlands Today

The headteacher of a school in Birmingham has written to parents, warning them not to allow their children out in the local area after dark. 

It follows an attack on a group of Year 10 pupils on Friday night in which a teenager was wounded with a knife. 

A local shopkeeper and a cyclist were also attacked during a series of assaults.  

Our reporter will be live from the school on BBC1 from 18:30.

Image source, Google

The gang hit a shopkeeper with a hammer and stabbed a schoolboy in a series of attacks, police say.

A shopkeeper who fought off a gunman targeting the store he runs is a former Kurdish special forces soldier. 

CCTV shows Shikha Mahsum spraying animal repellent into the armed man's eyes, forcing him to flee the Walsall store empty-handed.  

As a Kurdish peshmerga, he was unintimidated - he had been taught to handle an AK47 from the age of 11.   

He said the gunman had picked on "100% the wrong shop".   

Severn Trent says a burst water pipe is affecting supply in Tanhouse Avenue, Great Barr.

It says a team is currently on site and working to fix it. 

A schoolboy who sustained a knife wound to the back when a group of about 20 youths carried out a series of assaults at sites across Birmingham and over the Worcestershire border is "doing really well", his headmaster says.

Barry Doherty, head at Colmers School and Sixth Form College in Rednal, Birmingham, has written two letters to parents since the attacks which injured several boys and other members of the public on Friday evening.

In the latest, he said: "I am pleased to report that the boy who was the main victim of the attack is doing really well and we look forward to him returning to school very shortly.

"He and the others boys affected remain in our care as we seek to look after them and help them get over a really horrible experience that is hard to truly understand or explain." 

BBC Sport

West Brom travel to West Ham for Saturday's game and speaking in a pre-match conference Hammers boss Slaven Bilic said the Baggies would be tough opposition. 

"West Brom are a very strong team and hard to beat. They are great at set-pieces and very versatile. It will be a tough game."

West Ham are ninth in the Premier League with 31 points from 24 games and are five points and one place behind West Brom. 

The man also had a mask placed over his mouth, but spat at a steward who was giving him a drink.

Louise Hancock
Newsreader, BBC WM

Nine libraries across Walsall will close at the end of June after the borough council agreed its budget plans last night. 

Libraries at Beechdale, Blakenall, New Invention, Pelsall, Pleck, Pheasey, Rushall, South Walsall and Walsall Wood will shut. 

A £3.5m Arts Council bid has also been submitted to try to secure the future of the New Art Gallery. 

The Council says that after consultation, it's amended its initial proposals and saved around 90 jobs in the process.

A schoolboy sustained a knife wound and a man was hit by a hammer during a "series of assaults" by a group of about 20 youths, police say.

Several boys from Colmers School and Sixth Form College in Rednal, Birmingham, were victims of a "really horrible experience", said their headteacher who has called for curfews to protect their peers.

Image source, Google

The violence, in which other members of the public were injured, happened in the Longbridge area of the city and on the Worcestershire border.

In one of two letters to parents, headteacher Barry Doherty said the boys had been chased before being set upon, with one "kicked and punched" and another "wounded with a knife" - in the back, according to police.

Mr Doherty wrote "I ask that you [parents and carers] prevent your children from being in a public place during the hours of darkness".

Before the boys were targeted, officers were called to a convenience store in Frankley, Worcestershire, where a shopkeeper sustained a head injury from a hammer when he challenged youths in store. A man on a bike was then assaulted near a branch of McDonald's on Bristol Road South, Rubery, Worcestershire.

Five people aged 16 and 17 arrested near Longbridge railway station on suspicion of assault and robbery have been bailed while investigations continue.

Lisa Wright
Journalist, BBC News Online

A man charged with the murder of his partner has been in court today. 

Ronald Cooke, 54, of Granville Road, Cradley Heath, appeared before magistrates in Dudley and has been remanded in custody.

He is accused of the murder of Tina Billingham, 54, who on Monday arrived at Rowley Healthcare, Rowley Regis, with stab wounds and died a short while later. 

Cooke is due to appear before Wolverhampton Crown Court on 13 February. 

The 1925 resting place of the man behind Norton Motorcycles has fallen into disrepair.

Walsall's Reece Flanagan dislocates his shoulder in his comeback game, after returning from a knee ligament injury.

BBC Midlands Today

Walsall Council is appealing for help to find those responsible for dumping an entire lorry load of old fridges and freezers in a quiet lane in Walsall. 

More than 20 machines were dumped in Barrs Lake Lane, Aldridge. 

They've all now been cleared up. 

Our reporter Bob Hockenhull will have more on BBC1 from 13:30. 

Image source, Walsall Council

Express and Star

The relocation of Wolverhampton University’s Stafford base has moved a step closer after plans were approved., external