Members of the Unite union are holding a meeting in Birmingham today to discuss the latest developments in the long-running bins dispute.

Image source, PA

It comes after a High Court judge rejected Unite's application for a temporary injunction over staffing levels on bin collection lorries, but said it might have the "better of the arguments" at a full trial - expected in May.

Unite had asked Birmingham City Council to stop sending out recycling lorries without an employee of a certain grade on board as it "breached" an agreement.

Union members previously are preparing to walk out two days a week as the council starts fortnightly collections from 18 February until the latest dispute is resolved.

Four people have been arrested following the death of a man at a block of flats in Stoke-on-Trent.

Emergency services were called to an address on Wainwright Walk, Hanley at about 19:25, where they discovered the body of a man.

Three men aged 45, 37 and 27 and a woman aged 47, all from Stoke-on-Trent, remain in custody for questioning, said Staffordshire Police.

The property remains cordoned off while forensics officers examine the scene.

Rich Davis
BBC Weather presenter

After a chilly start, with some patchy mist and fog, it should be a dry fine day with highs of 13C (55F).

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

New technology allows transplanted hearts to continue beating and be transported over long distances.

Engine 75069 had stood unloved and rusting for more than two decades before being restored.

West Midlands Police officer Lee Bartram filmed a young boy while on duty.

A greyhound rescue charity is hoping to find its dogs new owners through a speed dating event.

Kierran Fletcher is made subject to a hospital order after the "unprovoked" attack on Nigel Abbott.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

We'll be back with the news, sport, travel and weather from 07:00 tomorrow.

Shefali Oza
BBC Midlands Today

It should be a dry, clear night with some patchy fog or mist and lows of 0C (32F).

BBC Coventry & Warwickshire Sport

Nuneaton Borough have signed midfielder James Baxendale on a permanent deal after his release by Kidderminster Harriers.

He'd had a loan spell at the club last month.

Image source, Getty Images

Baxendale has played in the Football League for Walsall and also appeared for Mansfield Town.

A chair to lead Telford's independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation should be in place by May, after councillors agreed to start the recruitment process.

Some Conservative politicians, including the MP for Telford, Lucy Allan, have criticised the pace of the inquiry which will investigate the organised grooming of young people in the town.

Image source, Google

The Labour-run authority says the inquiry is moving at a pace the victims are comfortable with and that it's important the process is done correctly.

Hereford Times

Here are three headlines from the Hereford Times today:

• 'Idiotic' drivers flout road closure, external
• Greens pledge to scrap city bypass plans, external
• Talented teen reaches challenge finals, external

West Brom's Dwight Gayle is banned for two matches after accepting a charge of "successful deception of a match official".

BBC Shropshire

A Shropshire greyhound rescue charity has been trying to encourage a bit of doggy romance with a speed dating event.

Hector's Greyhound Rescue organised the event to pair up its dogs with new owners.

And it's encouraged people to bring their own greyhounds along, to see if they form an attachment with their rescued animals.

A charity launches a £500,000 appeal to create a new tribute at the National Memorial Arboretum.

A 26-foot-high (8m) sculpture featuring some 100,000 knives and intended as a tribute to victims of knife crime is to be exhibited in Coventry.

The weapons, seized or handed in to police forces across the country, form the wings on the Knife Angel. Many bear personal messages from the families of those killed.

Image source, British Ironworks Centre

Made at the British Ironworks Centre near Oswestry, in Shropshire, the sculpture, will go on display from 11 March.

Councillor Ed Ruane, Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities organised for the sculpture to come to Coventry, after recent visits to Liverpool and Hull.

"I am sick and I am tired, and I want Coventry to be sick and tired with me," he said.

"I am sick of learning about the stabbings of more young people in our city."

James Bond
Sports Producer, BBC Shropshire

Shropshire snowboarder Gabe Adams has won Great Britain's first medal at the Youth Winter Olympics in Bosnia.

Adams took the bronze in a hard-fought final in the "air style" discipline after narrowly missing out on a medal in the "slopes" event earlier in the week.

Image source, Joe Gray

To cap it all, it's the Bridgnorth-based Wrekin College student's 16th birthday today, and this evening he'll be a guest at the British Embassy in Sarajevo.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

Cuts to a service in Shropshire that helps people quit smoking could be reconsidered, after councillors heard the county has a worse smoking rate than neighbouring Dudley, Staffordshire, Birmingham and Warwickshire.

Shropshire Council is considering reducing the public health budget by £4m, because of budget-pressures and that could threaten the Help2Quit service, which costs £232,540 a year to run.

Image source, PA

The authority's cabinet heard from Dr Kevin Lewis, the service director, who said it had a 46% success rate and that smokers using Help2Quit are four times more likely to be successful than if they try to quit alone.

Councillors said they would look for ways to protect the service.