24/01/2017 Midlands Today

Good evening. and Emily Thornberry of Labour.

Police have increased patrols on buses in the West Midlands

in an attempt to reassure the public, after a man

was stabbed to death on a bus in Birmingham last night.

The victim, who was in his 30s, was attacked on the top deck

of the bus in the Handsworth area of the city

Searching for evidence in the Handsworth area

Police are trying to work out why a man was stabbed to death

while travelling on a bus in a seemingly random attack.

Police believe the two men didn't know each other. It was a chance

altercation. They say the victim was already on the bus and then the

other man got on and sort of us at him. At some point a verbal

altercation started which turned into a physical one, knife was

produced in the victim was stabbed. When emergency services got

to Rookery Road at around 10:45pm last night, they found the man,

a 35-year-old from Smethwick, slumped over one of the seats

on the top deck of the bus. We know there were five people sat

around with the two males on the top deck and we managed to speak to one

of the people. The other four people left the bus shortly after the

altercation. It might be they didn't realise how serious the matter was

and they just wanted to get out of the way which is understandable but

I would ask them to come forward and speak to the police.

Extra patrols were added to buses across the city today,

including the 11A, the route the man was travelling when he was stabbed.

The aim of officers from the West Midlands Safer Travel Partnership

In Handsworth, concern too from people living close by.

It does worry me a lot. What happens if I'm on the bus with my children

and somebody gets stabbed? It's very scary. Everybody in this road is

worried about it. It is absolutely terrible. If you can't be safe on

the bus way can you be safe? Police says they're looking

for a black man aged between 25 and 30 with short dreadlocks,

in connection with the murder. He was last seen wearing a puffa

jacket, had headphones over a baseball cap and was

carrying a duffel type bag. Worcestershire children's

services is inadequate. A report from OFSTED showed

vulnerable children are at risk It's the fourth local authority

in the West Midlands to have their children's services

department rated inadequate. Joan Cummins is in

Worcester for us now. As you say the findings were

inadequate but they said they also discovered widespread and serious

failures. Some of the reasons for that have been identified as a high

staff turnover and overreliance on agency staff and also a surge in

demand for the specialist services that are provided by children's

services. The NSPCC has said it is concerned the situation in

Worcestershire remains fragile. To get inadequate on child protection

on your work with care leavers, on your work with children in care and

your overall leadership is a damning indictment so lots more work for was

to share to do and our view is keep the focus on the child and outcomes

for the child and learn from other authorities where they have turned

things around successfully. What has been the response from the council?

The council are taking this report seriously. They say that Ofsted have

identified that some progress is being made. But the woman in charge

of children's services and the entire council in Worcestershire

says she simply wanted to apologise to children and their families for

not doing good enough. The thing I would like to say first and foremost

is sorry to those children and families who feel they have been let

down by the services. My commitment is to ensure that we pick up the

pace of that plan and we are confident the leadership we have put

in place is the right leadership. The council say that from April the

going to invest an extra ?3.5 million specifically in children's

services which they hope will improve the situation.

A cancer surgeon has pleaded not guilty to fraud after claiming

that he had performed 88 keyhole surgery operations.

Sudip Sarker was alleged to have made the false claim

during an interview for a consultant job at the Alexandra Hospital

Mr Sarker was suspended a year later and eventually

dismissed, following concerns about his surgical ability.

A young mother has received abuse online after posting video of giving

crucial physiotherapy to her new born baby.

Sam Carrier's daughter Daisy has cystic fibrosis and needs a type

of vigorous massaging called "percussion" every day.

She put video of the technique on social media to try to raise

But the pictures sparked hatred and abuse.

You do it with your hand to try and create a pocket of air. It doesn't

hurt at all. It's called percussion and experts

say it can be the difference between life and death for 15

week old Daisy. She has cystic fibrosis

and the physio her mum Sam gives her twice a day helps break up

mucus on her chest which could The first time we started doing this

she was three weeks old and they came to our house to show us and

they started doing it and I just cried. It was devastating to see but

this is what you have to do to try and keep your children alive. She is

happy all the time. She is a smiley baby.

Daisy was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis just a few weeks

It was Christmas Eve and Sam decided to post a physio session

on her Facebook page, in a bid to raise public awareness.

But by Boxing Day the trolling had begun.

It had loads of views and we started getting nasty messages and death

threats saying we should be killed. Lots of foul language which I can't

repeat. We got told we were child abusers and we were going to break

her ribs. She's never replied to the trollers

except to forward details of cystic fibrosis, which affects one in every

2,500 babies in the UK. Historically, half of all

children with the condition Sam's hopeful new research and fund

raising will change that. Landlocked Birmingham is the last

place you would expect to find But today a diver has been hard

at work under the city, making sure our canal network

is running smoothly. Here's our Environment

Correspondent, David Gregory-Kumar. This is the Grand Union Canal

on the east side of Birmingham. But the team won't be

diving the canal. They're going much, much deeper

under the canal into the hidden network of pipes and culverts that

keep our canals working. The canal and river trust employee

divers across the country to undertake specialised work. There is

a lot of infrastructure below the canals the general public don't know

about. Today's dive is about

checking on some vital But the diving will only start once

the diver gets down this 15 metre shaft to reach the water

inside the culvert. That black shape is that bundle that

going to block of the covert so they can Trinidad the pubs. The diver

himself is going to in the about five hours today. We have to get all

their out of it. It is buoyant under the water.

It's hard work but finally the bung goes in and the team up top

But why would anyone want to work underwater

I couldn't see myself doing anything else for a living. It is not

everyone's cup of tea though. So how is the Victorian

engineering doing? Surprisingly good because it has not

been exposed to the frost and whatever. They covered itself tends

to be in a good condition. The water and the silt in the bottom has

helped preserve the state of the brickwork.

And with care like this, this vital hidden network should

easily celebrate its double century.

I'll leave you with the weather forecast from Shefali.

Good evening. A beautiful selection of weather Watchers pictures to give

you a picture summary of what's been going on today. Dense freezing frog

patches which lifted to give us decent spells of sunshine across the

region. That led to a lovely sunset and from that sunset we saw the fog

reforming. We may do all of this all over again by tomorrow but we have

at the moment got warnings in place the fog and also for ice.

Temperatures will start the planet. In rural spots cabbages will fall

below freezing. Dense freezing fog in the south-east corner so

Warwickshire and around Coventry. Along the 42 and a 45 routes, that

is with you will see the fog tomorrow morning. Elsewhere

temperatures above freezing. A cloudy start to the day tomorrow.

Foggy in places. With that frost and ice on untreated stretches of road.

Cloud will dominate the eastern half of the region with the sunshine in

the West. For all of us, it'll get colder and

then milder again come the