Ten years to the day after a man was fatally stabbed in his home, police say they are confident there are witnesses who know who murdered him and are urging them to come forward., external

Image source, West Mercia Police

David Currier was found dead by officers in the house on Birmingham Road, Bromsgrove, early on 7 February 2009.

Police say the 35-year-old's then six-year-old son was discovered asleep upstairs at the time.

In today's fresh appeal, they say there were signs of forced entry to the house and "clear evidence" of several people inside at the time of his murder.

Officers are also trying to trace a white Ford transit van and a dark red hatch-back car seen in the area earlier that morning.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

A giant knife angel sculpture has arrived in Hull this week, to raise awareness of knife crime in the city.

It stands over 26 feet tall and was created by artist Alfie Bradley at the British Ironworks Centre near Oswestry, Shropshire, in 2017.

It features more than 100,000 knives handed over or seized by police forces around the country and is dedicated to the victims of knife crime.

The statue, which stood outside Liverpool Anglican Cathedral over Christmas, is in Hull at the request of the city's No More Knives, external campaign and Humberside Police.

BBC News England

Strikes on Northern rail have been suspended after a "major breakthrough" in a long-running dispute over plans to axe guards on trains, a union said.

Image source, Northern Rail

The operator runs several services between Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester., external

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) have taken 47 days of industrial action and were due to walk out on the next two Saturdays.

Passengers have faced huge disruption since the dispute began two years ago.

The RMT said the company had now offered a guarantee of a conductor on all trains.

The union claimed imposing driver-only services was a risk to public safety.

A prison where some inmates said they were "living in fear", choosing to stay in their cells 24 hours a day, has been praised for showing "significant improvement" since the last inspection.

Image source, PA

In his latest report, external, Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke said HMP Featherstone's work on rehabilitating inmates was now sufficiently good and inspectors found a calm atmosphere when they visited in October 2018.

The prison, near Wolverhampton, is still not safe enough, he added, with a quarter of prisoners telling them violence remains high, but there was evidence of improvement.

"A range of initiatives had been put in place to confront violence and its causes and there were some encouraging indications that this work was having an impact," he said.

"The prison had come a considerable distance in a relatively brief period of time," the report concludes.

BBC Hereford and Worcester

With strong winds already forecast by the Met Office for tomorrow, external, the bad weather's already started to have an impact.

This tree's been brought down at Worcester Racecourse, smashing into a railing:

Other trees have been brought down across the Midlands, blocking roads, including in the Acocks Green area of Birmingham.

Meanwhile, hundreds of homes and businesses were left without power after a series of cuts overnight and in the early hours.

Supplies have since been restored in most cases, including homes in Worcester, Kenilworth and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Birmingham Live

Some of today's Birmingham Live headlines include:

• The scandal of Birmingham's drug addicted babies, external
• Woman's terror as masked burglar stabs her during raid, external
• Arrests and cars seized as cops get tough on kerb crawlers, external

Drivers are being warned of snow in Cheshire, especially on higher ground.

Image source, Cheshire East Council

Cheshire East Council says it has gritters out treating routes in those areas, especially around the Cat and Fiddle areas.

It adds that the A54 Buxton Road and the A537 are both currently shut , externaldue to the weather conditions with snow falling in the Peak District.

Image source, Mr Twister

BBC News

Fatal accidents and disasters are, unfortunately, nothing new.

What is new is people coming across these scenes and taking out their smartphones to photograph the dead.

Image source, Getty Images

People can lose their jobs, reputation and even liberty over it. So what makes them do it?

BBC News has been taking a look.

A new album by The Specials, 37 years after the release of Ghost Town, and 40 years after forming in Coventry is beating Busted to the top spot in the album charts.

Encore has now edged ahead of the fourth album by Busted, Half Way There, according to the official charts. , external

The band announced it would be playing two dates in Coventry's historic cathedral ruins on 10 and 11 July.

Ozzy Osbourne has been admitted to hospital after suffering from flu, wife Sharon has said said.

Image source, Getty Images

The Birmingham-born performer was forced to call off the UK and European legs of his No More Tours 2 after taking advice from his doctors, organisers said.

The ex Black Sabbath star had been suffering from flu and was diagnosed with a severe upper-respiratory infection, according to a 29 January statement on his website.

Sharon tweeted the news, thanking fans for their "concern and love".

There's severe congestion on the M54 in Staffordshire after an earlier crash involving three cars.

The road was closed for a time between J2 and J3 to allow debris to be removed from the road.

All lanes have just reopened.

About 350 people are without power across the West Midlands, including about 200 in the Coventry area.

Properties in Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon, Hereford and Worcester are also affected.

Western Power Distribution said it's working to restore supplies.

Express and Star

Here are a few of the early headlines on the Express & Star website:

• Shotgun attacker jailed for 15 years, external after Heath Town flat shooting
• HMP Featherstone improves dramatically but still faces major drug problem, external
• Deaths of five mothers to be probed by hospital trust, external

More trouble on the roads, caused by strong winds.

A fallen tree is causing congestion in the Acocks Green area of Birmingham.

Image source, @AcocksGreenBID

The area's business improvement district tweets, external that it would be best to avoid the junction of Botteville Road and Shirley Road.

A new weather warning, external for strong winds has been issued by the Met office for the whole of the West Midlands, covering Friday afternoon and Saturday.

Cake sales, nightclub bucket collections and non-uniform days are all being held in Stafford to help the family of four children who died in a house fire.

Image source, Getty Images

Fundraiser Stephen Glover, whose online appeal has raised more than £25,000 said it had been a "fantastic community response".

"Everybody in the whole district has rallied together," he said.

"All the schools on Friday are doing a non-uniform day where they're raising money for the family.

Image source, Getty Images

"The local football club, Stafford Rangers, have donated money, there's family fun days.

"We've been inundated with furniture and clothes," he added.

Food has also been donated to emergency services working at the site.

Mr Glover said he "can't comprehend the pain and suffering" that the the family are going through and face in the future.

"We just want to do anything we can just to help them start again and move on with life and get support with life really."

Community support for the family affected by a fatal house fire in Stafford on Tuesday has been "phenomenal", according to the man who started an online appeal.

Emergency services are expected to spend days at the scene in the Highfields area carrying out investigations.

Riley Holt, eight, Keegan Unitt, six, Tilly Rose Unitt, four, and Olly Unitt, three, were killed in the blaze on Tuesday morning.

The children's mother and her partner leapt from a first-floor window with the siblings' two-year-old brother.

Natalie Unitt, 24, Chris Moulton, 28, and two-year-old Jack remain in hospital but their injuries are not life-threatening.

More than £25,000 has now been raised by the online appeal.

Stephen Glover, whose daughter attends the same school as some of the children, said he'd been prompted to set up by the page to "quickly raise some cash", for the family.

"But there's so much going on in the community as well," he said, including schools holding non-uniform days to support the family.

"For me, and lots of others in the community, we just want to help give them a brand new start to life."

The interim chief executive of Birmingham City Council, is to be honoured at Buckingham Palace later.

Image source, Birmingham City Council

Stella Manzie is being named a Dame for services to local government.

The awards will be presented by the Prince of Wales at the palace.

A yellow warning for wind, external remains in place for the whole of the West Midlands until at least 09:00 today.

Some parts of the Midlands seem to have been particularly badly hit overnight. Let us know if you've been affected.

The Met office said they may cause travel disruption and some short term loss of power.

A further warning has been issued between 12:00 on Friday and 18:00 on Saturday.

The first tram tracks are being laid in Victoria Square in Birmingham today, as part of the expansion of the West Midlands Metro.

Image source, WMCA

It's an important stage in the construction of the Birmingham Westside Metro Extension, between Grand Central and Centenary Square, said the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Work is already under way on the second phase which will take trams along Broad Street to Edgbaston Five Ways.