BBC Radio Shropshire Sport

AFC Telford United fans can enjoy a pint while watching their team from now on.

The club has been given licensing permission to allow fans to take out drinks bought in the Learning Centre Bar, as long as they use plastic cups and drink them on the East Terrace.

Image source, Getty Images

Supporters won't be able to take their drinks to other parts of the ground and the rule changes start this Saturday when Telford host Farsley Celtic in the FA Trophy.

Birmingham Live

These are some of Birmingham Live's headlines today:

• Boy, 13, arrested after three teenagers stabbed near school in Selly Oak, external
• This is how Sandwell's new £60m swimming pool complex will look, external
• Where runaway fraudster Zahid Khan flew to after skipping Birmingham trial, external

This otter cub, which was found freezing and dehydrated at the side of a road, is being nursed back to health by the RSPCA in Nantwich.

He's thought to be around six weeks old and has been given the name Santa's Little Helper by staff.

Image source, RSPCA

Image source, RSPCA

The animal charity thinks he was washed away during flooding caused by Storm Diana and said it would release him back into the wild when he'd regained his strength.

Santa's Little Helper is now on a diet of 200g mashed up trout every day and it is going to cost around £1,500 to care for him.

Shropshire Star

Headlines from the Shropshire Star:

• Hunt hound hit by Santa Special steam train, external
• MPs urge May to re-negotiate Brexit deal, external
• Three injured in Christmas party fight, external

The home in which a Cheadle woman stabbed her mother to death was described as a "powder keg" by a defence lawyer.

Charles Miskin QC said the stabbing was "the product of sustained stress over a long period."

Earlier, 25-year-old Charlene Sargeant was given a life sentence for murdering her mother Rocky Sargeant. Stafford Crown Court heard it happened during a heated argument about debts.

Image source, Staffordshire Police

The court was also told Sargeant was a carer for her mother and that Rocky Sargeant mentally and physically abused her daughter for years.

But Judge Michael Chambers QC said this was the deliberate killing of someone she was caring for in her own home, even if she was subjected to years of abuse.

Former West Brom star Brendon Batson, known for his campaigning against racism in football, is to be awarded an honorary degree., external

The full-back was a formidable defender who played in one of West Brom's most exciting teams in the late 70s.

Along with fellow footballers Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis, the trio were dubbed the Three Degrees by then boss Ron Atkinson.

Image source, University of Warwick

The University of Warwick is also awarding physicist Professor Brian Cox an honorary Doctor of Science award and BBC broadcaster Ritula Shah a Doctor of Letters.

Image source, University of Warwick

Rashid Bhayat, the founder of Coventry's Positive Youth Foundation, which supports young people in the city, will also receive an honorary Doctor of Letters.

The awards will be given out in January.

Tom Edwards
Reporter, BBC Hereford & Worcester

A multi-millionaire property developer from Kidderminster has been told to expect a lengthy jail sentence after pleading guilty to beating his girlfriend to death.

John Broadhurst, aged 40, from Wolverley, has been on trial at Birmingham Crown Court after his partner Natalie Connolly was found dead at a house in Kinver in December 2016.

Image source, Google

She was found lying dead in a pool of blood, having suffered more than 40 injuries and Broadhurst was charged with her murder.

But after three weeks of evidence, the prosecution and the jury today accepted a lesser charge of manslaughter.

He’ll be sentenced on Monday, with the judge, Mr Justice Julian Knowles, warning him to expect a “lengthy custodial sentence.

The gold pedant is of a craftsmanship which would have been "almost unequalled" in the period.

Residents in Saltley Birmingham are being warned of a training exercise by fire crews.

...because it takes 21 minutes of running to burn off the calories in a mince pie.

Or 33 minutes of walking to expend the calories found in a small glass of mulled wine.

Image source, University of Birmingham

University of Birmingham researchers carried out a trial that aimed to prevent participants from gaining weight over the festive season by arming them with tips and techniques to avoid overindulging.

The results can be found here, external.

A former nurse has been appointed as the new chief executive of the NHS trust that runs Worcestershire's main hospitals.

Matthew Hopkins led Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals out of special measures last year, but stepped down earlier this year.

Image source, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

The current chief executive of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Michelle McKay, is returning home to Australia before Christmas and Matthew Hopkins will take up his new role in January.

The hospital trust is currently rated inadequate by the CQC.

BBC Radio Stoke

A woman has been given a life sentence for stabbing her mother to death.

Charlene Sargeant, 25, was found guilty at Stafford Crown Court of killing 53-year-old Rocky Sargeant at their home in Sun Street, Cheadle, in Staffordshire, in March.

Image source, Google

She'll serve a minimum term of 13 years 97 days in prison.

Plans to build a training base in Leamington Spa are being finalised, Wasps Rugby has announced.

Image source, Google

The Premiership club, who relocated to Coventry's Ricoh Arena in 2014, hope to establish a new training ground at the Old Leamingtonian RFC.

Old Leamingtonians RFC and Wasps agreed and finalised legal contracts, providing Wasps with a long lease and the ability to create purpose-built, state-of-the-art facilities, said the club.

Wasps, who currently train at Broadstreet RFC in Coventry, will begin working on a planning application.

Armed forces veterans will be offered the chance to help build their own homes at Leominster in Herefordshire.

The Community Self Build Agency, external, along with charities including The Royal British Legion and SSAFA, are planning to build 19 houses on the site of disused properties on Waterworks Lane.

This is part of the Veterans Self Build project, which says it aims to help veterans and families "out of housing crisis and back into employment and education."

Andy Giddings
BBC News

Archaeological excavations could take place on farmland where a Bronze Age pendant was found earlier this year.

The exact location is being kept a secret but Peter Reavill from the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme said they want to know why it was left there and what else might be there.

Image source, British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme

It is unlikely an item of this value was simply dropped because it would have been a carefully looked after ceremonial piece, he said.

The craftsmanship involved means it would have been worn by someone of high status and its likely it was "not too far away" from being among the crown jewels of its day, he added.

Funding to pay for the excavations is being put together and Mr Reavill speculated it could have been left in the ground deliberately, as an offering to the gods.

Two Bornean orangutans at Dudley Zoo have received Christmas gifts, hand-picked by a four-year-old fan.

Image source, Dudley Zoo

Harriet Beech brought in the presents for Sprout and Dave, two animals she "loves and regards as her friends", said her mum Nicola.

"She chose some decking rope so keepers can make a scratching post for Dave and a hessian sack for Sprout to play with."

Curator Richard Brown said: “This was so lovely of Harriet and we really appreciate her thoughtfulness."

"We’ll make sure Sprout and Dave get their gifts in time for the big day."

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Dozens of teaching assistants are facing pay cuts at six Staffordshire primary schools.

They are being consulted over the plan which would see them no longer paid during school holidays.

Image source, Google

The affected schools are run by St Chad’s Academies Trust and include the Bishop Lonsdale Academy in Eccleshall and St John’s Primary Academy, in Stafford.

The academy trust says the changes will help bring equality across its schools.

Local Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Davis

Up to 81 homes could be built on former green belt land in Coventry.

Image source, Google

An application to demolish Chestnut and Hawkesmill Nurseries and build a new 81-home development will be heard by the council on Thursday.

The highways department previously lodged a dozen objections, citing poor visibility due to a nearby "blind bend", as well as three fatal crashes near the site in the past five years.

The developer has since agreed to pay Section 106 contributions for a mini roundabout.

Birmingham Live

Headlines from Birmingham Live:

• Three teenagers stabbed in shocking incident near school, external
• Community centre on brink of closure after £20,000 rent hike, external
• Plea for emergency help as 45,000 new migrants settle in city, external

Andy Giddings
BBC News

A pendant, described as "one of the most significant pieces of Bronze Age gold metalwork discovered in the British Isles", has been found in Shropshire.

The artefact is known as a bulla, which comes from the Latin for bubble, and is formed of gold sheet.

Image source, British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme

It was found in May by a metal detectorist who wants to remain anonymous and after archaeologists have drawn up a report on it, the Shropshire coroner will decide if it should be classified as treasure.

The British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, which catalogues and evaluates artefacts like this, also said it was "amazingly rare" with only one similar item thought to be in existence.