Articles by Deborah Hardiman

World

The Princess of Wales to visit the West Midlands for Armistice Day at National Memorial Arboretum - tickets sold out

On Tuesday, the Royal visitor will be visiting the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire as it leads the nation in commemorating Armistice Day with a Remembrance service due to be held on the Armed Forces Memorial. The service will include a two-minute silence at 11am to honour those who have who have served the nation, music and poetry performances. The Armed Forces Memorial will be closed to the general public until after the service. Preparations for the event have seen all public tickets to attend on Tuesday fully booked and parking spaces for the morning have also sold out with the organisers warning that visitors without a valid booking will not be able to gain entry to the site. The Arboretum near Alrewas near Lichfield is home to the striking memorial which commemorates those who have been killed on duty or as a result of terrorism from the end of the Second World War to the present. The 150-acre site opened to the public in 2001 and is part of the Royal British Legion. On Remembrance Sunday thousands gathered at the Arboretum to honour and remember the service and sacrifice of war heroes and heroines. A special Service of Remembrance was held at the base of the memorial with musical performances by The Band and Bugles of the Rifles, Arboretum associate partners Birmingham's Black Voices, poet in residence Arji Manuelpillai, and members of Talent in the Ranks the site's Armed Forces artist development project. Armistice Day also known as Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth is marked every year on November 11 to mark the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany in 1918. Last month the King attended the official dedication of the UK’s first national memorial commemorating LGBT armed forces personnel, where he met veterans who were affected by the military’s former “gay ban”.

Technology

'Burglars broke into our brand new Walsall newsagents before we could even open the doors to customers'

Stafford Street News was due to open to the public at 6am on November 10, but remained closed after the newsagents in Walsall town centre suffered a break-in at about 3am on Saturday followed by a door being damaged at about 4am on Monday. In the first incident the stock of vapes, sweets and crisps worth more than £2,000 were stolen and the premises near Travelodge ransacked. In a second incident doors at the premises and neighbouring Bayside laser clinic were damaged. The joint proprietor, Muzammil Nazir, aged 25, said: "We've spent thousands of pounds setting up the business. "We were going to open today, but we'll have to put it off for another month or two because the stock has been stolen and damaged. "We're just in shock because we've put a lot of effort into getting it set up. We only put the signage up on Friday because we were planning to open on Monday morning. "Then on Saturday the CCTV from a neighbouring businesses picked up a group of people climbing over a wall, approach our shop then breaking in. They've stolen just under £3,000 worth of vapes and chocolates and crisps. As they left a lot of sweets fell on the floor and were damaged. We can't sell those." "Then this morning somebody came and kicked in the doors at our shop and the premises next door. Nothing was stolen this time. "We've been left in a terrible situation," Mrs Nazir explained. The incidents have all been reported to West Midlands Police which said: "We were alerted to items being taken after a break-in on Stafford Street sometime between 6.30pm on Friday and 9.40am on Saturday. "We then received a further report of a burglary in the early hours of this morning (November 10). "We’re carrying out inquiries to establish whether these are connected and to identify who was involved. This includes reviewing CCTV in the area." Anyone with information should contact officers via Live Chat on the force website or by phone101 quoting 20/436070/25.

We can’t wait to get back into the main church room after £140k storm damage - says Walsall worshippers

Worshippers and wellwishers will be celebrating the official reopening of a Walsall church which suffered £140,000 worth of damage as a result of Storm Darragh.