Evening news round-up for the Black Country and North Worcestershire

UKIP leader Nigel Farage has announced he'll be jumping on the Brexit bandwagon for a stop-off in Dudley tomorrow (Tuesday May 24).

The boss of the purple party will be heading into town's Market Place at around 10.30am on the UKIP battle bus with the theme tune from from The Great Escape blaring from speakers.

Mr Farage will be also teaming up with West Midlands UKIP activists for a walkabout in Dudley to try to persuade people to vote for Britain’s exit from the EU.

To read more click here.

Dudley Zoo's youngest snow leopard will soon be moving almost 5,000 miles away.

Two-year-old Makalu will soon be leaving the Castle Hill attraction for Darjeeling Zoo, as part of a global breeding programme which could potentially see his descendants released into the wild.

Zoo curator Richard Brown said: “This is an incredibly exciting move for Makalu and the snow leopard species in general, as he'll be playing an important role in securing the future of their endangered species.

To read more on this story click here.

Plans are underway for two families of refugees fleeing the Syrian war to be resettled in Kidderminster.

Council bosses are liaising with the Home Office to arrange for the families to arrive in two properties in mid-July, with a further two set for Redditch.

The news comes after Worcestershire County Council announced in January that they will resettle 50 refugees in 2016 as part of the Syrian Vulnerable Person Resettlement scheme.

To read more click here.

Meanwhile - residents in Alcester are being invited to a meeting to find out more about the ongoing refugee crisis.

The aim of the meeting is to inform people in more detail about what is going on currently in Syria and Iraq.

There will be two expert speakers, including Shashank Joshi, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, and there will be the chance for a question and answer session afterwards.

To read more click here.

A Stourbridge man who told a court he was making love to his partner at the time of an attempted burglary he was accused of committing in Hagley has been cleared by a jury.

Paul Reeve said he had been wrongly identified by CCTV on garage roof near the home of Joanne Mole in Summervale Road, Hagley.

He claimed at Worcester Crown Court that Police Sgt Stephen Mason had a grudge against him and that he had been "stitched up" as the possible culprit for the attempted burglary.

Reeve, aged 36, of Murcroft Road, Wollescote, pleaded not guilty to committing the offence in November last year.

To read the full court report click here.