Eight men charged with drugs and sexual offences after police raids
A30 Blackdown Hills: Councillors approve new route
Exeter student found dead on Thai beach after swimming alone, inquest told
Monks who make Buckfast tonic wine linked to violent crime in Scotland raked in a record £8.8m in a year
Plymouth Airport: 'Not viable without subsidy'
Chip shop favourites such as cod, haddock and sole can be caught in greater numbers in UK waters after ministers secured a new deal
The Royal Navy warship HMS Bulwark returns to Devonport
More news, travel and weather from 08:00 on Thursday
Live updates for Devon and Cornwall have finished for the day, but we'll be back at 08:00 on Thursday with the latest news, sport, travel and weather.
Don't forget Spotlight on BBC One later. There will also be news through the night on your BBC Local Radio station.
Jonathan Morris
BBC News Online
The organisation which manages the site where a 17th Century shipwreck has been rediscovered - and which was also used to film a shipwreck scene for BBC TV drama Poldark - says it is "delighted" to work with divers who make such discoveries.
Image source, Mark MilburnThe remains of the Schiedam, which sank in Gunwalloe Cove in 1683, were first found off the coast of Cornwall in 1971 but then buried under shifting sands. Divers David Gibbins and Mark Milburn found them again earlier this year.
Image source, Mammoth Screen LtdHistoric England's maritime archaeologist, Alison James, said such divers "help ensure that England's protected wreck sites are enjoyed and protected for years to come".
She added that Mr Gibbins and Mr Milburn had helped to "ensure that the story of the site is not lost and is known to a wider audience".
David Braine
Weather Forecaster
The cloud will thicken tonight, eventually bringing light outbreaks of rain or drizzle. It will stay mild and frost-free. Minimum temperature: 7C (45F).
Thursday will stay mild but it will be cloudier than today, with light outbreaks of rain or drizzle. Some brightness will develop during the afternoon. Maximum temperature: 12C (54F).
Hamish Marshall
BBC Spotlight
A controversial scheme to upgrade the A30 has been backed by Devon County Council.
It is the most direct route between Cornwall and London and the South East, but a 14-mile section, particularly Honiton and Ilminster, is criticised for being too slow because of single carriageway sections, and twisty.
The 7km kilometre "Orange" route chosen now goes to the government, which will decide whether to fund the £180m cost. But the question is how do you improve it as it goes through the Blackdown Hills, an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Another problem is that, although virtually everyone wants a better road, these projects are never easy, as we know with Goss Moor in Cornwall, or the A30 dualling at Temple, near Bodmin.
Johnny O'Shea
BBC News Online
A serial sex offender who raped four women multiple times and kept a vulnerable man as a sex slave has been jailed for life.
David Harber, 46, met the victims over two decades while living in Honiton, Exeter and Newton Abbot.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall PoliceInvestigating police officers branded the attacks as "sexually motivated torture". His victims included a 14-year-old girl and 21-year-old man with learning difficulties
Harber, of North Hill, Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex was sentenced to life with a minimum of 14 years at Exeter Crown Court. The case was heard in February but could not be reported until a related trial had concluded.
Andrew Segal
Local Live
Police in west Cornwall are advising people to be vigilant after a woman was sexually assaulted by two men in Hayle on Monday.
Officers said the woman was approached by two unknown men speaking with eastern European accents between 13:30 and 13:45 in Water Lane.
They pushed her against a fence, knocking her head. She then managed to kick one of the offenders before they threw her to the ground and ran off down the lane.
Police appealed for witnesses, describing the men as white and about 6ft tall.
BBC Politics
A Devon MP has told the Prime Minister that government support for social care in Devon is coming too slowly.
East Devon Conservative Sir Hugo Swire said waiting until 2019 for funding may be too late for some of his constituents which was a county with a "very high level of elderly people".
Theresa May said the government was looking at such funding, saying: "We do need to look at the issues medium-term of delivery and the longer-term reassurance that we can provide people in ensuring we have a sustainable system of social care."
Image source, GoogleThere's concern the relocation of some of Cornwall's library services will mean the loss of iconic public buildings.
Bodmin Library is to be relocated from the historic Passmore Edwards building out of the town centre.
The move is part of Cornwall Council's bid to make £2m of savings in library services, with many being handed over to town councils, with the the authority saying it is seeking to ensure none of the 31 library services is completely lost.
The Cornwall councillor responsible for libraries, Geoff Brown, said the authority was grateful to town and parish councils, but that it was a time of great change for everyone.
Andrew Segal
Local Live
BBC Politics
The House of Commons has paid tribute to 16 people who lost their lives in the 1981 Penlee Lifeboat Disaster and to the RNLI.
The eight crew of the Solomon Browne lifeboat died attempting to rescue the crew of the Union Star in storms off the west coast of Cornwall on 19 December.
St Ives Conservative MP Derek Thomas told MPs that, 35 years on, the event still had a lasting impact in the area.
Prime Minister Theresa May said she would "absolutely join him" in remembering the tragedy.
Brent Pilnick
BBC Sport
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter says he and Henry Slade have laughed about rumours linking the England back with a summer move to Premiership rivals Bath.
Slade has begun to recapture the form he showed before he broke his leg against Wasps in December 2015.
Image source, Getty ImagesThe 23-year-old has been linked as replacement for George Ford, who has been tipped to leave the Rec.
"I've had a couple of chats with Henry and we've had a bit of a joke about the rumours flying around," Baxter told BBC Sport. "There is no truth in the rumour about him having any interest in going to Bath."
Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he and Henry Slade have laughed about rumours linking the England back with a move to Bath.
Read More
BBC News England
A rail company's appeal for customers to rename its stations with festive monikers has met with a mixed response.
Image source, TwitterSouth West Trains, which runs services in Devon, asked passengers to suggest a yuletide twist for departure boards on its network using the hashtag SWTChristmas. Some got into the Christmas spirit with ideas like Dorchestnut and Brack-Noel.
But others were more Scrooge-like, and used the opportunity to criticise the firm for running no trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Richard Banks tweeted: "Here's one for Boxing Day: Havant-any-trains-running."
BBC News England
A Exeter University student found dead on a beach in Thailand after going swimming alone "saw the beauty in the world and was not ever afraid to chase it", an inquest has heard.
Image source, Sophie FreestoneNineteen-year-old geography student Bryony Freestone (pictured left, with her twin sister, Sophie), from Northamptonshire, died off the coast of Koh Chang on 14 August.
The inquest, at Northampton County Hall, heard a tribute paid by her mother, Fiona Freestone, who described Ms Freestone as "gregarious, a loving personality". She added: "We love and miss her very much."
Senior coroner Anne Pember concluded she drowned and her death was accidental.
Andrew Segal
Local Live
A fisheries minister says EU quotas for fishing catches have been cut in South West waters as part of work to ensure a profitable and sustainable fishing industry.
Minister and Camborne, Redruth & Hayle MP George Eustice said: "There have been some challenges, especially on stocks like bass and cod in the South West, where action to curtail catches has been necessary."
He added: "But we have worked hard to secure an agreement striking the right balance that delivers for both our marine environment and coastal communities."
Andrew Segal
Local Live
People who were at the scenes of a 17th Century shipwreck at Gunwalloe Cove in Cornwall in 1683 and filming of a shipwreck scene for BBC drama Poldark in the same cove would have seen striking similarities, a diver says.
Image source, Mammoth Screen LtdThe Schiedam was carrying ordnance, tools, horses and people back from Tangier when it sank in 1683. The makers of Poldark filmed the shipwreck scene (pictured) in summer 2014.
The Schiedam's remains were first found in 1971 but have been rediscovered after being buried under shifting sands. The wreck predates the setting of Poldark by about a century.
However, diver Mark Milburn, who rediscovered it, said: "You would have seen local people lining the shore just as the film crew were that day in 2014, and flotsam coming ashore at exactly the same place."
Leaves are still being picked at UK's only plantation three months after the season was supposed to end, external.
Andrew Segal
Local Live
Eight men who have been charged with drugs and sexual offences have been remanded in custody after appearing before magistrates in Plymouth.
The eight were arrested after police carried out a number of raids across the city on Tuesday.
The men, aged between 25 and 32 and all living in the city, have been charged with offences including suspicion of conspiracy to supply class A and class B drugs, and rape. They are due to appear at the city's Crown Court on 27 January.
Andrew Segal
Local Live
A colony of bizarre-looking cuttlefish has gone on display at Newquay’s Blue Reef Aquarium.
The new display features baby common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis, which are close relatives of the octopus.
Image source, Blue Reef AquariumStaff said that, like their eight-tentacled cousins, they can change colour, body shape, and escape predators by releasing a cloud of ink. They added that, in spite of their cute appearance, they are also highly efficient predators with a deadly pair of tentacles which they shoot out to catch their prey.
Jenny Kumah, Devon Political Reporter
Campaigners for fairer funding for schools are giving a cautious welcome to government proposals for a new funding formula.
Schools in Devon currently get £270 less per pupil than the national average. But today the government's announced plans to slice the cake up differently.
Lobby group F40 said the devil was in the detail but it appeared that the government had listened and was proposing a fairer deal for areas such as like Devon and other parts of the South West.
Highways England will complete or lift 448 miles of roadworks across the country, including a number in Devon and Cornwall – leaving 98% of its 9,534-mile network free of roadworks in time for the Christmas getaway, bosses say, external.
