Openreach is to create around 40 new jobs in Herefordshire and Worcestershire to help extend its fibre broadband network. 

Trainee engineers will be based in Bromsgrove, Evesham, Hereford, Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester. 

The company is using virtual reality technology to show candidates what the job involves, as they recruit 1,500 trainee engineers across the UK over the next eight months.  

A man claims his wife will be homeless if deported to the Philippines as the Home Office is threatening.

Satnam Rana
BBC Midlands Today

A new film adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is being shot in the Midlands. 

The love story is traditionally set in the wilds of the Yorkshire Moors. 

But this version features locations in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

A national boxing champion who trains at Droitwich Amatuer Boxing Academy has been selected to represent England in the European Championships in Ukraine in May. 

17-year-old Sian O'Toole (first on the left) was crowned ABA youth national champion last month and has just learned she was successful at the selection camp at Team GB headquarters in Sheffield a few weeks ago. 

Image source, Jayson Doyle

Major changes are being made to car parks in Bromsgrove from next month, in response to customer demand, the council say.

The railway station car park is being renamed Aston Fields and will be free for shoppers to use for up to two hours, provided they display a "free" ticket obtained from the machine. 

The car park in Hanover Street car park is also being renamed - it will be known as St John Street Car Park and is being re-designated for use for short stays, as well as for Waitrose customers, who'll be eligible for a £1 refund from the store.  

Image source, Google

New Road, Parkside and Recreation Road South car parks will also be redesignated to long stay car parks, with New Road and Parkside being available for use by long-stay season-ticket holders.  

A man's been treated in hospital after falling down a railway embankment in Bewdley and hitting his head on a sleeper. 

The incident happened a few hundred yards from the Severn Valley Railway station, just before noon yesterday. 

He was treated at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital for a cut to his head.

Image source, Severn Valley Railway

Nicola Goodwin
Reporter, BBC Hereford & Worcester

A grant of £748,200 has been awarded to Herefordshire to boost the area's arts and culture, ahead of the county's bid to become UK City of Culture in 2021.

The money from Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund's Great Place scheme , external has been given to the Hereford-based Rural Media Company to spend over the next three years. 

The company will work with local artists and cultural groups with the aim of transforming the view of culture within local communities. 

Image source, Dan Haworth-Salter

Hereford is one of 16 places across England to receive a grant through the Great Place scheme, a £20m initiative inspired by the government's culture white paper.

BBC Weather Watchers

Even though the heavens opened this morning, the BBC's army of Weather Watchers have been out getting photos.

Postman Les took his indoors at Bromyard, while Cloudgazer took his shot in Bransford.

Image source, Postman les

Image source, Cloudgazer

James Pearson
Journalist, BBC Hereford & Worcester

A former Mayor of Malvern has avoided jail after pleading guilty to downloading well over a thousand pornographic images of children. 

54-year-old Julian Roskams, who stood down as a town and district councillor earlier this year, was given a 16-month suspended prison sentence at Worcester Crown Court this afternoon. 

He'll also have to sign the sex offenders register, and carry out community service. 

Jerry Chester
BBC News Online

Four years without a case of hospital-acquired MRSA , external bacteraemia infection in its hospitals - making it the top performer in the West Midlands - is being celebrated by the Wye Valley NHS Trust.

Only one other hospital in England has achieved a longer period of time without an infection. 

Reducing MRSA bacteraemia is a national target across the NHS.  

Ben Godfrey
BBC Midlands Today

A Hereford man says his wife, who's from the Phillippines, is devastated as she faces being deported from the UK. 

Marinel Bristow was arrested and taken to a detention centre last week without warning. 

Her husband Rob, who married her in Herefordshire eight years ago, says it's all because of a visa mix-up.

The Home Office say all applications are considered on their individual merits and in line with the Immigration Rules.

BBC Radio 5 live

A 73-year-old woman from Cornwall who fell over in the street and broke her ankle, was saved by a couple after their son in Worcester saw her lying in the street on a webcam. 

Paul and Becky Galvin were speaking to their son on the phone, when they suggested waving to him, using the webcam belonging to a nearby pub in the town of Boscastle. 

As their son watched via the webcam, he told his parents he could see a woman in the background lying in the street. 

Paul and Becky rushed over to help the woman, Frances Davies, and then took her back to their home.   

Image source, Google

The trust run more than 70 nature reserved across Worcestershire - these flowers are in one near Redditch.

Kidderminster Shuttle

Two former pupils have returned to their old Stourport school , external which is being restored as part of a multi-million pound retirement living development.  

Worcester Warriors' centre, Ben Te'o, says he hopes his first experience of a Six Nations tournament will lead to many more appearances for England. 

Te'o made his first start against Italy and has come off the bench in the four other matches. 

Having been part of a Six Nations winning team, he now hopes to impress England head coach Eddie Jones with his performances for Warriors.

Image source, Getty Images

Claudia Berry
Producer, BBC Hereford & Worcester

Local historians in the Lickey Hills , external have been given £10,000 to research military buildings on Bilberry Hill in the Lickey Hills Country Park that date from World War One. 

The collection of buildings include two gun butts for testing field guns, a partially demolished munitions store, a gun emplacement, two army mess rooms and a toilet block. 

The project is being led by volunteers from the Lickey Hills Local History Society, external and the information they gather will be used to create interpretation boards, a leaflet and a teachers' pack for school visits. 

Image source, Lickey Hills Local History Society

Image source, Lickey Hills Local History Society

Worcester News

Almost one in four Worcester children are in poverty, external - with the figures described as "shocking".  

Satnam Rana
BBC Midlands Today

A new film version of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, which is set in the wilds of the Yorkshire Moors, is being filmed in the Midlands, with several scenes in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. 

The director sold her house to realise her dream of making the film. 

Find out more on Midlands Today at 13:30 on BBC One. 

Old Wyche Road in Malvern has been named the second steepest in the country , with a gradient of 17.54º.

The precipitous road climbs up the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills to the Wyche Cutting - a winding path thought to have once formed part of an Iron Age salt route.

The steepest is Vale Street in Bristol with an incline of 22º.

BBC Midlands Today

An increase in house prices nationally is being driven by the Midlands and no longer the London commuter belt. 

The online estate agents Rightmove reports record sales and in-demand properties going to sealed bids. 

Across the West Midlands, the average asking price in March was £213,000.