Andy Giddings
BBC News

Shropshire Council has completed the purchase of Shrewsbury’s three main shopping centres for about £51m.

The authority said it wanted to have greater control over the town centre and that buying them will "support economic growth and regeneration" as well as generating £2.7m by the time of next year's budget.

The council said it would bring in a specialist property management company to run the centres.

And it confirmed the purchase had been made via an offshore trust in Jersey.

Allen Cook
BBC News

More than £30,000 of cash and other items have been stolen, external in a burglary in Stoke-on-Trent.

The break-in happened in the Catchems Corner area of Meir on Tuesday afternoon when police say a glass panel was smashed in a back door.

Officers say the burglars ransacked bedrooms and took £13,000 in cash, along with jewellery, electrical items and men's designer clothes.

They say they also took a velvet bag containing the ashes of a deceased family member.

Allen Cook
BBC News

A van's had to be towed out of flood water in Wolverhampton, external this morning.

Image source, West Midlands Police

It happened at the the bridge on Greenfield Lane and police say they were safely rescued.

The force says the council's going to block off the roads at the bridge.

Lee Blakeman
Newsreader, BBC Radio Stoke

Staffordshire University has secured funding for a £17m project to increase the number of digital apprenticeships, external in the West Midlands.

It says the money will pay for a new digital skills hub at its Stoke-on-Trent campus, due to open in 2020.

Under the plans, it'll be managed by the Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce and its target will be to deliver 6,500 new apprenticeships over the next 10 years.

Police investigating the death of eight-year-old Mylee Billingham from Brownhills have arrested a 54-year-old man on suspicion of murder.

She died after being found with knife wounds at a house in Valley View on Saturday and the man was arrested yesterday afternoon.

Image source, Family handout

The police said the 54-year-old man was in a serious but stable condition in hospital and he will be interviewed when he is deemed medically fit.

Worcester Warriors' injury woes deepen, with Pierce Phillips, Perry Humphreys and Michael Dowsett to miss several weeks.

The Sentinel

The Sentinel newspaper's covering these stories today:

• Mum banned from school after leading revolt over flavoured water in packed lunches, external
• Man was five times the drink-drive limit when his BMW ploughed into car, external
• Traffic wardens to 'actively patrol' car park when pay-and-display charges come in, external

Critics of planned changes to Shropshire's hospitals say they fear there has been another delay.

The plans, known as Future Fit, aren't on the agenda for a meeting of the NHS Improvement body today, leading the anti-cuts group Shropshire Defend Our NHS to suggests the long-awaited public consultation won't start any time soon.

The plans have to get the approval of a number of NHS bodies, including NHS Improvement, to go ahead.

Image source, SATH

Publicly, local health officials aren't moving beyond their position of "waiting to hear", and aren't getting drawn in to whether they expected progress today.

They remain convinced that making the changes, which would include making Shrewsbury the county's main centre for emergency care, is the way to make Shropshire's health service stronger.

A 24-year-old man from Bedworth has been charged with rape, making threats to kill and possession of a knife in a public place, external following an incident in the town on 19 January.

He was arrested on Sunday, following an armed police operation.

The man was also charged with assault and criminal damage following an incident in Nuneaton on Christmas Day.

Robyn Birdsell found a man filling a rucksack with valuables at her home.

BBC News Health

Public Health England is starting a review into the "growing problem" of prescription drug addiction.

Image source, Xesai

NHS data suggests one in every 11 patients in England is being prescribed medication that could be addictive, or difficult to come off.

Judy (not her real name), who is 43 and from Shropshire, was prescribed diazepam at the age of 30 to treat anxiety. She still takes it now.

BBC Weather Watchers

The heavy rain overnight's just added to the water levels in our local rivers and waterways.

These photos are from BBC Weather Watchers Eskimodens lens in Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, and Shropshire Lass, in Ludlow:

Image source, Eskimodens lens

Image source, Shropshire Lass

Allen Cook
BBC News

Fans of the West Bromwich Albion, Coventry City and Aston Villa striker Cyrille Regis are being offered the chance to be at a celebration of his life next week., external

Image source, Reuters

He died at the age of 59 earlier this month and his funeral will take place on 30 January.

On the same day, West Brom are hosting a celebration service from 10:45 and offering 1,800 tickets to his fans and the general public.

Brendon Batson, who played alongsite Regis, and John Sillett, who managed Coventry City when Regis won the FA Cup with them, will be among the guest speakers at the event.

A study finds that just under half of all children in the city centre are living in poverty.

Great Western Railway says the line between Oxford and Worcester has now reopened.

It's after a fallen tree blocked the track earlier today.

A body has been found at the scene of a house fire in Shropshire.

The house at Oreton, near Cleobury Mortimer, was badly damaged by the fire on Monday night and search teams had been going through the wreckage, looking for a man believed to live there.

Michele Paduano
Health correspondent, BBC Midlands Today

A pancreatic cancer patient who had surgery cancelled three times at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital has had an operation this morning.

Image source, Getty Images

The 65-year-old former shop assistant from Sutton Coldfield, whose family have asked is not identified, was admitted as an emergency to Good Hope Hospital last week after vomiting blood.

Surgery to remove a tumour was cancelled on 7 December, 4 January and 5 January.

Her family claim the cancer has spread to her stomach and bowel and she requires more radical surgery than was first planned.

A spokesperson for the Birmingham health trust confirmed the patient's notes said she was due to have a total pancreatectomy - major surgery which is more than just the removal of the pancreas.

The trust admits the liver department has cancelled 25 cancer operations in two months due to pressure on beds.

A 38-year-old man, who is also an inmate at the Worcestershire prison, is arrested on suspicion of murder.

Trish Adudu
BBC Coventry & Warwickshire

A fingertip search of parts of a country park is continuing this morning as a private firm restarts its attempts to locate a woman who went missing more than 26 years ago.

Nicola Payne, an 18-year-old mother of one, went missing while walking across wasteland near her parents' house in Coventry on 14 December 1991.

Her family said in an appeal in December, they just wanted to be able to lay her to rest.

Ms Payne's body has never been found and a team of ex-military specialists has been using sonar and ground radar equipment around Coombe Country park in Warwickshire.

The death of an inmate at HMP Hewell in Worcestershire yesterday afternoon is being treated as suspected murder.

A 39-year-old inmate was killed and a 38-year-old, also resident at the jail, is being held in police custody while investigations continue, West Mercia Police says.

The force was told of the death at 17:15 and said his next of kin had been informed.