HERE'S your evening news round up for the Black Country and north Worcestershire.

Councillors in Lye say they fear human trafficking and modern day slavery is going on in plain sight in the town and they are urging for action to tackle the problem.

Members of the public also spoke out with their concerns at a community forum meeting this week at Withymoor Primary School after Cradley and Wollescote councillor Tim Crumpton called called on residents to tell what they've been experiencing in the town, which has over the last two years become home to a large Roma community of up to around 400.

To read the full story click here.

A burglar told a have-a-go hero he had AIDS as he scratched him with a hypodermic syringe during a raid on an elderly couple's Dudley home.

Mark Jones had taken the couple, who are both in their 80s, back to their Hillcrest Road home when they saw 42-year-old Scott Pooler inside the property.

He sprang into action and got hold of Pooler - a man with 77 previous crimes on his record including 28 burglaries - in a bear hug and he hung on, said Paul Spratt, prosecuting, at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

To read the full court report click here.

Police have taken “another knife off our streets” after arresting two suspected drug dealers in Oldbury town centre.

The men, who had nearly £3,000 in cash, drugs and a lock knife, were detained just after 3pm in Freeth Street on March 16.

To read more click here.

"Delaying this means people are dying sooner" - those were the harrowing words of Dudley North MP Ian Austin as he argued the case for making the wonder drug Orkambi freely available to cystic fibrosis sufferers.

The Labour MP took part in a three-hour debate in Westminster Hall on Monday, where he hammered home the importance of people getting access to the drug, which was licensed in the UK in November 2015.

The drug targets the genetic mutations that cause the life-shortening disease, however the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) opted not to recommend the drug to the NHS due to uncertainty around its long-term impact and its high cost.

To read the full story click here.

An appeal has been launched to find a Redditch man who faces charges of criminal damage at a property in Bromsgrove.

But police have warned the public "not to approach him".

Adam Sapwelll, from Redditch, failed to appear at Worcester Crown Court on October 19, 2017 and a warrant has now been issued for his arrest.

To read more click here.

Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG is facing legal action over accusations it could be unlawfully forcing patients into care homes in a bid to save costs.

The local clinical commissioning group is one of 13 across the country accused of moving people into care homes if the cost of their care at home is too much.

To read the full story click here.

A Bewdley pub and hotel has been closed after a fire broke out in the cellar.

Firefighters from Bewdley and Stourport were called to the George Hotel in Load Street, shortly after 5.10pm yesterday evening (March 21).

For more details click here.