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BBC Radio Stoke
The RSPCA in south Cheshire is making an urgent appeal for towels and bedding.
It's team at Stapeley Grange uses them to care for sick animals, but is unable to re-use them, because of the risk of spreading disease.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe charity says it needs the extra towels and bedding, because it has seen an increase in the number of baby birds and other animals recently.
The restoration of Coventry Cathedral is explored in a new exhibition looking at how cultural heritage is attacked, saved and protected during war.
Image source, Imperial War MuseumThe What Remains exhibition at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London includes more than 50 photographs, oral histories, documents, objects and artworks.
Image source, Imperial War MuseumPart of the display, curated in partnership with Historic England, looks at the different ways in which Coventry Cathedral and Dresden Frauenkirche were rebuilt and restored following the conflict in which they were both ruined.
The free exhibition opens today and runs until January 2020.
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Plans for nearly 300 homes on a former Birmingham sewage works have been approved, nine years after proposals to develop the land were first put forward.
The city council's own housing trust put forward the plans to develop the 33-acre site at Cole Hall Lane in Shard End.
Image source, BM3 ArchitectureMost of the homes will have two or three bedrooms and 148 will be put up for sale, with the remaining 150 being made available to rent.
The site was first earmarked for housing in 2010 as part of the council's Draft Core Strategy.
A judge said the gang was behind the most prolific modern-day slavery network ever exposed in the UK.
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Rebecca Wood
BBC Midlands Today
It will be a dry night with long clear spells and lows of 11C (52F).
Latest weather for the West Midlands
Here are three of the stories in the Worcester News today:
BBC News Travel
A f, externalault with signals between Leamington Spa and Banbury is still causing disruption to services between these stations, the National Rail website reports.
Alterations, cancellations and delays of up to 40 minutes could continue until 20:00.
Chiltern, CrossCountry and Great Western Railway services are affected.
Jaguar Land Rover's chief executive, Professor Ralph Speth, has called on the government to put more effort into providing charging points for electric cars.
The company has announced it's investing hundreds of millions of pounds to build a range of electric vehicles at its Castle Bromwich plant in Birmingham.
"The current charging infrastructure is not really sufficient to cover the country, nor the hotspots of the cities," he said.
"The government has to govern the process," he added.
'Not sufficient' charging points for electric cars
League One side Shrewsbury Town sign Bristol City goalkeeper Max O'Leary on a season-long loan.
Read MoreA Birmingham MP has left her 10-year-old son on Downing Street steps as part of a protest against funding cuts forcing schools to close early.
Image source, PAThe Save Our Schools group say hundreds of schools are affected across the country, with 27 closing early in Birmingham.
Labour Birmingham Yardley MP, Jess Phillips said she took the brief symbolic action because "schools just cannot cope any more".
"Education cuts mean that lots of children like my son Danny will not be able to go to school five days a week."
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Thousands of people are expected to visit Birmingham's annual city centre food festival.
Image source, Colmore Business District
Image source, Colmore Business DistrictDishes at Colmore Food Festival in Victoria Square are capped at £4 and drinks at £5.
Visitors to the event, which features food and drink from proprietors all around the Colmore Row area, can also expect music acts and wandering performers.
The festival is open until Sunday.
A number schools have moved to a shorter working week because of funding shortages.
Read MoreLocal Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Davis
Two new eateries could open at Cannon Park Shopping Centre in Coventry.
Image source, GooglePlans for a single-storey extension onto Lynchgate Road, which will provide space for an unnamed coffee shop and a restaurant, have been approved.
The extension will build around a protected oak tree in the current courtyard, next to the car park.
A police officer at Helen Bailey's inquest said she was "absolutely certain" the girl was murdered.
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Coventry Live
Some of today's Coventry Live headlines are:
The latest news, sport, travel and weather across the West Midlands and south Cheshire.
Read MoreParents and children will gather in Parliament square this afternoon to protest over schools being forced to close early, protesters say.
Kate Taylor, from the Save Our Schools Campaign, says about 27 schools in Birmingham will end the school week early.
The parent of one child affected, Samira Dar said the school had taken the decision as a "last resort."
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Margaret Bailey says she still talks about daughter Helen, more than 40 years after her death.
Read MoreLocal Democracy Reporting Service
Tom Davis
Plans for an indoor bowls facility in Coventry have been deferred after a planning committee said it was "not convinced" on the location.
Image source, GoogleCouncillors also described checks into other possible locations as unsatisfactory, urging for all alternative sites to be “exhausted” before a decision is made.
Campaigners hailed the outcome “a great result” for the city, having fought for the past 18 months for the council to look at "more suitable" sites across the city.
Residents packed into a near two-hour-long meeting on Thursday against proposals for the £2m facility at the Avenue Bowls Club on Gaveston Road, Coundon.
Residents raised concerns of "serious safety issues" due to poor access, the 42-space car park, and potential overspill on to narrow residential streets.
Cheshire Police have found insufficient evidence to prosecute anyone over the death of foxes during hunts in Cheshire earlier this year.
It started an investigation in January after complaints about a hunt at Hack Green near Nantwich and two others, one near Winsford and the other near Chester.
Officers gathered video evidence and interviewed witnesses, but was unable to conclude the incidents "amounted to deliberate and intentional hunting, as required by the Hunting Act 2004."
