Vanessa Pearce
BBC News

Welcome to our live service for Friday.

We'll be bringing you all the news, sport, travel and weather for the West Midlands.

We love to hear from you so share your news, thoughts and photos of the area with us via email, Twitter, external and Facebook., external

Sixteen-year-old Leo Mandella's colourful style has attracted more than 700,000 fans on Instagram.

The new Birmingham Wholesale Market site is being officially opened.

Fashion-conscious Leo Mandella, 16, has amassed a worldwide following with his streetwear styles.

Avian malaria means there is a penguin enclosure at the attraction but no real birds to go in it.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

We'll be back from 07:00 on Friday, but keep an eye out here for more updates before then.

A woman whose death is at the centre of a murder probe died of multiple stab injuries, police say.

Avan Najmadeen, a 32-year-old mother-of-four, was found dead at her home in Glebedale Road, Fenton, on Monday.

A 35-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder remains in custody.

Four projects are sharing almost £50,000 from the Arts Council and Heritage Lottery Fund.

One of the schemes involves international artist Yinka Shonibare, who will be working with local groups to create textile works inspired by some of the mythical creatures on Hereford's world famous Mappa Mundi.

The money will also pay for local groups to recreate a fountain which stood in Ross on Wye during the 18th Century.

Hereford Times

From the Hereford Times:

• Digger rams into cash machine, external
• Illegal cigarettes discovered at Hereford shops, external
• Hereford to Bromyard road closed for resurfacing works, external

BBC Sport

The Brentford manager Dean Smith says he's taking no notice of speculation linking him with the vacant Aston Villa job.

The former Walsall manager is the top of many bookmakers' lists to succeed Steve Bruce.

Image source, Getty Images

Thierry Henry and John Terry are other names to be linked with the job.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Davis

Coventry City Council hopes to make an estimated £675,000 by selling off derelict, overgrown and surplus land for development.

Image source, Google

A list of eight sites have been identified for disposal, most to be sold at auction or direct sale with prior planning consent to make purchases more attractive, a council meeting has heard.

Some of the sites, which the council says are subject to fly-tipping and anti-social behaviour, have been identified as suitable for housing developments.

A Minor Land Disposals report was brought to cabinet on Tuesday with sites to be sold including the former Afro Caribbean Youth Centre in the city centre.

Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

It should be a mainly dry night, with some mist and shallow fog patches towards tomorrow morning with lows of 13C (55F).

The Mayor of the West Midlands says the combined authority would help every 16-24-year-old into an apprenticeship, or other training opportunity, if they want one.

Andy Street said the West Midlands Apprenticeship Promise would help tackle "challenging levels of youth unemployment" in the region.

Image source, West Midlands Combined Authority

Some parts of the West Midlands are among the worst in the UK for levels of unemployment.

The mayor said the Apprenticeship Promise would start as a pilot in Birmingham, before being applied to the wider West Midlands area.

Who should Aston Villa turn to next after sacking Steve Bruce, the manager with the most promotions to the Premier League?

A large amount of Class A drugs have been seized and a 37-year-old man from Stoke-on-Trent has been arrested after police stopped a car with a stinger.

The spiked strip was thrown into the road to stop the Ford Focus on Huntbach Street in Burslem this morning and officers also found a police-style baton in the car, which is thought to be stolen.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

The man, who attempted to flee on foot, is being held for questioning.

More than 1,000 people have signed a council petition, external, calling on the government to intervene to keep Telford's A&E department open overnight.

The Labour-run local authority says the government has the power to solve the staffing-crisis which has led to the closure plan, but claims "Telford and Shropshire appears to have been ignored".

Image source, SATH

The petition, which was launched this afternoon, is on the government's own website and if more than 10,000 people sign it, the government will have to respond.

If 100,000 people sign it, the issue will have to be debated in Parliament.

Birmingham City manager Garry Monk receives a one-match touchline ban after his sending off at Brentford on Tuesday.

BBC Sport

Crewe defender Nicky Hunts says their midweek win over Swindon was important because it's given everyone a lift.

The victory followed a run of three defeats and he said it was vital for morale not to get stuck in a winless run.

Image source, crewealex.net

It was the team's third league win of the season and leaves them three points clear of the relegation zone.

The organisers of a Peaky Blinders event in Digbeth that was branded "disappointing" by some, said it had "always intended" to close the company down after the event, but had made the decision not to do so, so it can "fully assess" complaints.

A Facebook group has been set up calling for refunds for Peaky Blinders Live after some complained of queues, safety concerns and changes to the advertised line-up.

A spokesman for the event said closing down the events company, Peaky Blinders Festival Ltd, which isn't connected to the BBC series, would have been "regular practice for one-off events such as this".

But it said by keeping the company open it hoped to "reassure people that we will be processing their email and responding to them in the next 10 days".

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Coventry City Council is spending almost £17,000 on an "economic engagement" visit to China, in a bid to win hundreds of millions of pounds of investment for the city.

Six representatives will be sent on the five-day trip on 13 October to build trade links, meet with potential investors and promote the city, it said.

Image source, Coventry City Council

The group will visit Shanghai, Jinan, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Beijing, meeting automotive firms Geely, Guangzhou Automotic, Shangai Auto City and EV100.

Andy Williams, head of economic development, told a meeting, external the country's investment's were currently "very significant" in the area, and further investment could be in the "upper hundreds of millions".