Fire destroyed a house in Telford last night.

It started at about 20:45 on Gittens Drive in Aquaduct.

No one was hurt in the incident, said the fire service.

England and South Africa, who both qualified for the semi-finals yesterday, face off for the right to top their group at the Netball World Cup today.

England team beat Trinidad and Tobago to reach the semi-finals

Commonwealth Games champions England are bidding to win the World Cup for the first time.

Coventry Wasps Netball player Jade Clarke said the game holds no fear for them.

BBC Business News

Stonegate Pub, which owns the Slug and Lettuce pub chain, is buying Ei Group - once known as Enterprise Inns - for £1.3bn.

Ei, based in Solihull, is the largest owner of pubs in the UK with over 4,000 properties across England and Wales.

Image source, Google

Robert Walker, chairman of Ei, said: "The commercial benefits of combining the companies are compelling. Stonegate is committed to continuing to invest in the business for the future benefit of the combined business, tenants and employees".

Express and Star

Some of the early headlines on the Express and Star website today are:

• Dwaine Haughton 'ambushed and shot in head in planned killing', external
• Mary Stevens Hospice to create Black Country Monopoly, external
• Village green to be surrounded by more than 160 new homes, external

A wildlife trust is calling for a ban on disposable barbecues after a series of devastating wildfires.

In August last year a fire swept through the Staffordshire Roaches leaving about 20% of the area blackened and lifeless.

It was later discovered that it was started by campers who hadn't put out their fire properly.

As well as a ban, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust is urging local supermarkets and shops to take the barbecues off their shelves.

England's Andy Sullivan hasn't had the best of starts to his opening round at The Open Championship.

Image source, Niall Carson/PA Wire

Teeing-off at 06:57, the Nuneaton player blasted out of bounds on the first and is +2 after the opening hole.

The game's oldest major is being held at Royal Portrush, Northern Ireland, for the first time since 1951.

Staffordshire's Robert Rock tees-off at 15:32.

Darren Clarke got off to a good start and is currently top of the leader board.

You can follow live updates here.

A vigil will be held in Wolverhampton today to remember victims of so-called honour crimes.

Image source, City of Wolverhampton Council

Seven thousand cases were recorded in the UK between 2011 and 2016.

The crime involves violence by one family member against another, supposedly to protect or restore family honour.

There will be a lunchtime vigil starting with a walk from the Prince Albert statue to the bottom of the steps outside St Peter's Collegiate Church where a number of speeches will be made.

Hundreds of people have been arrested for attacking emergency service workers in the West Midlands since it became a criminal offence, new figures show.

Image source, Getty Images

The law, brought in last year, meant offenders faced longer jail terms.

Figures obtained by the BBC showed police across England and Wales have made more than 6,500 arrests for attacks on emergency service workers, with almost 500 in the West Midlands.

Thirty-four out of 43 police forces responded to a BBC Freedom of Information request asking how many arrests there had been under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A masterplan for the development of Worcester over the next 20 years has been agreed by city councillors.

The plan, which aims to create 8,000 jobs and build 3,000 new homes divides the city into four quarters, Riverside, City Heart, Canalside and Shrub Hill and also suggests new offices, restaurants, bars and shops.

Image source, Google

Worcester City Council deputy leader Adrian Gregson said they'd worked to avoid going for the "lowest common denominator" in order to reach an agreement, but the leader of the Green group, Louis Stephen, said he doubted some parts of the plan would ever see the light of day.

"I don’t think it’s perfect for any of us and that probably means we’re in the right sort of area because we are all making compromises," Marc Bayliss, leader of the local authority said.

Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather

Any early rain should clear leaving a bright day with highs of 23C (973F).

Vanessa Pearce
BBC News

Welcome to our live service for Thursday.

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

Fans from around the world explain why they love hit drama Peaky Blinders.

Andy Giddings
BBC News

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

Alex Hamilton
BBC Weather

It's forecast to be another warm and overcast day tomorrow and there's a chance of a bit of rain overnight.

Shropshire Star

Here are three of the stories featuring in the Shropshire Star today:

• Oswestry and Shrewsbury miss out on high streets fund, external
• Driver injured as van explodes on border road, external
• Three arrested in Telford drugs raids, external

The Home Office has given another £5m to a police force testing software that predicts whether someone will commit a crime.

West Midlands Police is trialling the system to analyse data on knife and gun offences, as well as modern slavery.

The National Data Analytics Solution is used to help predict whether someone will commit a crime or become a victim.

Supt Nick Dale, from the force, said: "This technology has the potential to help us understand modern slavery networks, the hidden crime within our communities, so much better, as well as the problems that lead to serious violence that blights communities and affects the lives of victims and perpetrators.

"We are still at an early stage in identifying how best machine learning technology can be used, but it is really important that our work is scrutinised independently from an ethical point of view, and that technology will never replace professional judgment or affect the police's accountability for our actions."

West Midlands Police received £4.5m of Home Office funding for the scheme last year.

Badgers are to be vaccinated in a bid to prevent the spread of TB in cattle.

Nearly 4,000 were culled in Staffordshire last year and another 600 in Cheshire and the wildlife trust said it's looking at alternative solutions.

Image source, Getty Images

It will be carrying out the vaccination on six sites, which include nature reserves and privately-owned land.

Some of the larger sites contain up to five setts.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

A taskforce set up to regenerate five town centres in the West Midlands, says it will listen to business people there, before drawing up a plan.

The West Midlands Combined Authority appointed Jon Bramwell (below, centre) to lead the group and it has £20m to spend on the improvements.

Mr Bramwell said his taskforce was "very open minded" and that it was very difficult to say how the five high streets might change "given the fact that the way people go about shopping these days is changing."

The five town centres are Bilston, the St Thomas Quarter in Dudley, Bordesley Green in Birmingham, the St Matthews Quarter in Walsall and West Bromwich East.

Leia Daunter, 16, cannot return to school in Hereford due to council cuts, says her guardian.

BBC Shropshire

An appeal is being made for people to attend the funeral of an ex-serviceman and member of British Intelligence who has died at the age of 93.

Harold Tracey (pictured below, in 1999) served in the RAF during the war.

Image source, The Spying Game/Uden Associates/Channel Four

He joined MI6 after leaving the RAF and an article written by Paul Reuvers, external for the Crypto Museum in The Netherlands credits him with the invention in 1962 of a scanner which could sweep a room for electronic bugging devices.

Later, in the 1980s and 90s, he worked for West Midlands Police as a civilian at police headquarters, the National Association of Retired Police Officers said.

He had been living at a care home in Oswestry and the service will be held at Emstrey Crematorium in Shrewsbury next Tuesday at 11:30.