Police stop a car in a car park after a woman suffers multiple knife wounds in Stoke-on-Trent.

Zaheer Sadiq admitted breaching the Equality Act for refusing to carry a blind woman.

A 48-year-old man has been arrested in Wales on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with a woman's stabbing in Stoke-on-Trent earlier.

Image source, SAMANTHA BROWNLIE

The man, from Longton, was arrested at 17:20 after officers stopped a car in an Asda car park in Queensferry, north Wales.

At 14:00 at a property on Foley Road, Longton, a woman sustained multiple stab wounds in what the Staffordshire force called a domestic-related incident.

She is being treated at Royal Stoke University Hospital.

Three people have been arrested after a "Samurai-style" sword and a loaded handgun were found in a flat in Druids Heath, Birmingham, police say.

Image source, West Midlands Police

The West Midlands force said the weapons were wrapped in a sheet and hidden behind a water tank at a property on Kimpton Close.

Armed police seized the items on Monday, the force said, after a man called 999 reporting he had been threatened.

Two men from Nechells and Druids Heath, aged 32 and 36, and a 28-year-old woman from Crewe have been arrested and remain in police custody.

Det Serg John Mawhinney said: “Any seizure of an illegally-held firearm is significant as it means we’ve potentially saved a life – and even more so when that gun is loaded".

Two men arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with a fatal stabbing in Hereford on Monday have been released without charge.

A man and woman arrested on suspicion of attempting to pervert the course of justice have also been released.

Robert Eacock, 33, died in hospital on Monday evening from a single stab wound, a post-mortem examination has revealed.

A 48-year-old man from Hereford arrested last night on suspicion of assisting an offender remains in police custody.

Telford Tigers head coach Tom Watkins is stepping down from his role with the Great Britain ice hockey team.

The former GB player has been working as assistant coach for six years and also worked with the under-20s team, but said he wanted more time with the family.

Image source, Steve Brodie

As well as coaching the Telford Tigers, Watkins is now the clubs general manager and felt the GB role was taking up too much of his free time.

The GB head coach Pete Russell said he had been "my right arm for years" and he would "miss him hugely".

Alistair Binney
Reporter, BBC Hereford & Worcester

Two people have been arrested by police investigating a robbery in Hereford.

A man in his 20s was threatened on Greyfriars Avenue and had money taken at about 19:30 on Monday. He was unhurt, said the West Mercia force which is also investigating an attempted robbery about half an hour earlier at The Welcome Fish Bar on Widemarsh Street.

In both, police said, a weapon appearing to be a gun was used. The force said a BB gun had been recovered in connection with the investigation.

A 30-year-old man and a 26-year-old woman, both from Hereford, have been arrested on suspicion of robbery.

Image source, Google

Andy Giddings
BBC News

Every tree in the southern half of Telford is going to be recorded on a map, to allow council workmen to keep up with the millions that were planted when the town was created in the 1960s.

Telford and Wrekin Council says it has attempted to thin them out, but that "not been enough to address the sheer number of these trees planted and they have begun to dominate some parts of the New Town estates."

Image source, Telford and Wrekin Council

The council said the survey will record every tree’s "location, type, proximity to buildings, overall health, current height and spread, eventual height and spread as well as any impact on local residents and their properties."

Police have stopped a car in north Wales in connection with what the Staffordshire force called a "domestic-related incident" in which a woman suffered multiple stab wounds.

The force said it wanted to speak to the driver who was pulled over by Welsh colleagues in a supermarket car park in Queensferry.

The woman suffered multiple stab wounds at Foley Road, Longton, this afternoon.

She is being treated at Royal Stoke Hospital.

Image source, Samantha Brownlie

Motorists are being asked to avoid the area near Asda in Queensferry due to "major congestion".

A 34-year-old man has been jailed for having sex with a child,

Image source, Google

Steven McCready, of Keynsham Walk, Smallthorne, in Stoke-on-Trent was jailed for four years after he admitted three counts of sex with a 14-year-old girl at the city's crown court.

McCready was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Robert Eacock, 33, died after being stabbed in Hereford city centre on Monday.

Phase Two of the controversial plan to run high speed rail services through a swathe of England is being discussed in the Commons.

This second part of the HS2 project aims to link the service between Birmingham and Crewe.

Conservative MP Dame Cheryl Gillian has criticised plans for HS2, saying the new line is being built using "old technology".

Image source, HS2

"We appear to be building something that is from the last century and not something for the future," the Chesham and Amersham MP said as the HS2 bill was debated earlier.

Her criticism is based on a Japanese train, the Maglev, which beat HS2 speed records in 2015.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling said he had travelled on a Maglev train but said: "I don't believe it is the right project for the country and nor do I believe that it could deliver the level and capacity that High Speed 2 will deliver".

A taxi driver claimed he did not pick up a blind woman and her guide dog because he could not see it was an assistance animal, a council says.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council - whose licensing officers investigated the woman's complaint - said Zaheer Ahmed Sadiq blamed it on poor weather.

Sadiq, 41, from Normacot, Stoke-on-Trent, has been fined £100 for breaching the Equality Act, which he admitted.

Image source, PA

The authority said it would be meeting to review his taxi licence.

Masked raiders tried to hold up a heavy goods vehicle in Stoke-on-Trent.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

The HGV was carrying non-hazardous chemicals which police say fell into the road when the driver tried to escape two masked offenders with knives.

The incident happened at an industrial unit on Navigation Road in Burslem at about 20:25 GMT, Monday.

Police believe the men escaped on foot before making a getaway in a car in the direction of Middleport.

BBC Business News

On the day of its liquidation, Carillion was the main contractor on 57 construction projects worth a total of £5.7bn, new figures from Barbour ABI suggest.

Image source, Barbour ABI

The research firm says that ten of the projects were each individually worth more than £150m, such as the Royal Liverpool hospital worth £450m. It also had a £1.3bn HS2 contract.

Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, says: “The sector where Carillion had the largest presence was infrastructure - road and rail projects were a particular speciality for the firm.

"In addition, Carillion were in the process of delivering two new hospitals and were also responsible for various school improvement projects. What happens to these projects is a matter for conjecture."

Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather

Cloud will thicken overnight with rain spreading south eastwards in the early hours and lows of 4C (39F).

Peter Plisner
BBC Midlands Today

Office and residential development development is at record levels in Birmingham according to the Crane Survey.

The Crane Survey examines the link between development and prosperity , externaland is comissioned by Deloitte.

The last decade has been a roller coaster ride for the city with a sharp decline in building work followed more recently by big increases new development. Last year there was almost one and a half million square feet of new office space.

More development can only mean more cranes, so I've come up one of many in Birmingham for look around (not down).

MPs are debating the second part of the propsed HS2 line, which will carry high speed trains between Birmingham and Crewe.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling says this next phase is an important step towards creating a railway fit for the 21st Century.

But Lichfield's Conservative MP Michael Fabricant says the wrong option has been chosen.

Joanna Tidman
BBC WM

A 17-year-old boy accused of murder "was defending himself", a court had been told.

Image source, West Midlands Police

Andrew Smith QC said the teenager, who cannot be named, "panicked" during the altercation in Aldridge, which he claims was started by James Brindley who delivered a "karate style kick".

"The first aggressive act was on the part of James Brindley," he told the jury at Birmingham Crown Court.

The 17-year-old denies murder and his co-accused 21-year-old Aaron Kharod denies manslaughter.

Mr Brindley was stabbed once in the heart as he walked home.

A community has been left "devastated bewildered and angry" by an incident where a woman was shot dead in Newport, Shropshire.

Image source, google

The local church, St Andrews, in Church Aston has been open for people to take comfort, after Cheryl Hooper, 51 died from shotgun wounds.

She was found inside a car outside her home.

The Rev Zoe Hemming said people have been left "unsettled that this sort of thing could happen so near".

"With it being a small market town - people know each other," she said.

"People are, horrified, devastated bewildered and angry - all of those things."

A man, currently in hospital with shotgun wounds, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.