Cornish party Mebyon Kernow not putting candidates forward for general election
Chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police cleared of misconduct
Exeter Chiefs Sandy Park Stadium open despite smoke damage from fire
Exeter's multimillion-pound flood defences branded 'ugly'
Murder accused says internet search on decomposition was 'accident'
Teenage drink-drive victim’s ‘life ruined’
More news, sport, travel and weather from 08:00 on Friday
Victoria Gould
BBC News Online
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.
The family of a Devon teenager has been describing how her life has been devastated after she was hit by a drink-driver.
Ashley Godber, 27, from Plymouth has admitted drink driving on Christmas Eve - he was more than twice the legal alcohol limit.
He crashed into Ruby-Tuesday Hobbs outside Drakes Circus at around 60mph and she has undergone a number of operations to her legs.
Mr Godber has been bailed and will be sentenced next week.
After a cloudy afternoon with scattered showers cloud will thicken again tonight as further outbreaks of occasionally heavy, showery rain move in from the south.
There is also a risk of thunder in the heaviest showers and patches of misty low cloud may affect the south coast.
Winds will be quite variable, but will become moderate or fresh on the south coast for a time. Minimum temperature 9C (48F).
An inquest is to be held into the deaths of two people who died when their car entered a Devon lake, external.
Rob England
BBC News Online
A Royal Marine groped a student who was having her photo taken at a university graduation ball, a court heard.
Image source, Irving of ExeterThomas Telford, 23, allegedly put his hand on her abdomen and touched her outside her underwear whilst the photo was being taken.
Telford, 23, of Golf Road, Kenley, Surrey, denied one count of sexual assault at Exeter Crown Court.
The victim, a 21-year-old woman, was celebrating her graduation in July 2016.
UKIP says it will only field one candidate in Cornwall in the general election - in Truro and Falmouth.
The party says it has "no wish to stand against the other five sitting MPs in Cornwall who are all pro Brexit and who we campaigned with during the referendum campaign and who support our views on the EU".
The UKIP candidate for Truro and Falmouth Duncan Odgers said it would be "silly for the party to risk losing Brexit orientated MPs to either the Liberal Democrats or possibly even Labour".
He will compete for the seat against Conservative Sarah Newton, Labour's Jane Kirkham, Rob Nolan for the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party's Amanda Pennington.
Children spray-painting on roads and pavements is usually frowned upon, but a group of Helston children have been decorating the town with yellow fish to help the local river, external.
Victoria Gould
BBC News Online
The bus workers union the RMT is balloting more than 400 staff in Devon on strike action over what it claims is the "victimisation and sacking of a branch official".
The majority of the affected staff, which includes bus drivers, engineers, clerks, cleaners and controllers are based in Exeter with the rest in Exmouth and Sidmouth.
The union claims it has repeatedly refuted the serious allegations levelled at one of its members by Stagecoach bosses, but says the management have chosen to ignore the facts and confirm the dismissal which the union says is grossly unfair and wholly disproportionate.
The ballot closes on the 18 May.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: "This ballot has been forced on us by Stagecoach's wholesale refusal to listen to reason throughout the disciplinary procedure.
"The union would appeal once again to see sense, get back around the table and negotiate a settlement with us."
The BBC has approached Stagecoach for comment.
A Bulgarian man accused of murdering his former partner in Exeter has denied trying to put people of the scent in the days after her death.
Kostadin Kostov denies killing Gergana Prodanova, stripping her body and putting her into a suitcase which was found by a railway line last August.
at Exeter Crown Court it was put to Mr Kostov that he was using social media accounts to make it look as if Gergana was still alive.
He is also alleged to have encouraged his mother in Bulgaria to tell her new partner that she was alive and not to contact police.
He said this was not the case.
The court was told that Ms Prodanova's clothes were found in rubbish at Mr Kostov's home in Mount Pleasant Road.
Scissors inside had fibres of her clothes on them.
He flatly denied the charges on a number of occasions and said he had been set up.
The trial continues.
Thugs used a rock to smash a Devon taxi , externalcausing hundreds of pounds worth of damage and stealing the cabbie's phone and wallet.
Exeter City Council is handing out free reusable cups to coffee lovers in the hope they'll stop using disposable ones.
The council says takeaway cups cannot be recycled, and in the UK seven million of them are thrown away every day.
It's giving away free limited edition Denis the Dustcart KeepCups at a series of events across the city.
Victoria Gould
BBC News Online
Image source, ShelterboxThe Cornwall-based charity Shelterbox has been working in Mozambique to help communities rebuild after it was struck by a cyclone earlier this year.
Cyclone Dineo was the first tropical cyclone to hit the southern African country since 2008. It destroyed 20,000 homes and affected more than 130,000 people.
Working with the Red Cross Shelterbox has been distributing ShelterKits to residents.
They contain materials to help repair basic dwellings, including tarpaulins, tools and fixings along with machetes and mosquito nets.
Image source, Shelterbox
Johnny O'Shea
BBC News Online
A judge has attacked contactless bank cards as making life too easy for criminals.
Recorder David Bartlett said it was "quite ludicrous that the banks have allowed this to happen", after hearing how a card was used in a newsagent soon after being stolen.
Robert Vipond was jailed for 18 months at Exeter Crown Court after admitting a series of fraud offences.
He used the contactless card to buy £23 of tobacco and groceries in Exeter.
Image source, Devon and Cornwall PoliceContactless cards can be used for transactions of up to £30 and don't require a PIN number.
In sentencing, the judge said: "You can make these contactless payments now. It seems quite ludicrous that banks allow this to happen. It seems anyone who steals a card can wave it around until it is reported as stolen."
Vipond, 34, of Gissons Lane, Kennford, admitted handling stolen bank cards, theft, and four counts of fraud.
A fundraising page set up to pay for a South Devon little boy's bucket list has surpassed its initial target not once, but twice , external– in less than a week.
BBC Radio Cornwall's Ross Elllis hears from Newsnight's John Sweeney as he tries to track down Andrea Leadsom.
The Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is apparently on the campaign trail in Cornwall - but John has been struggling to track her down.
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James Law
BBC Sport Online
Graham Dawe says he has "no emotion" ahead of his Cornwall side's County Championship game on Saturday at Devon, who he previously played for and coached.
The ex-England hooker, 57, won the competition with Devon in 2004 as a player and as coach in 2007, and played in Cornwall's triumphant 1991 campaign.
Image source, Brian tempestDawe, who lives near the Devon-Cornwall border, has been Cornwall head coach since 2013, leading them to victories in the 2015 and 2016 Twickenham finals.
"It's a nice local game for me, but I'm travelling as a Cornishman," he said. "I'm 100% behind Cornwall, there's no emotion at all."
Rob England
BBC News Online
Seven-year-old Kenny from Plymouth lost his hearing in 2012, and now his father, also Kenny, has copied his son’s cochlear implants in the form of a tattoo.
After noticing people staring at his son in public Mr Rapson, 35, told the BBC he wanted Kenny to see "someone close to him have something similar" outside of school.
Image source, Kenny RapsonKenny junior lost his hearing after being diagnosed with Meningitis.
Mr Rapson, who now lives in Stoke, said: "He's my son, I'd do anything for him."
Rob Byrne
BBC News Online
Toddler Brandon Green was photographed smiling behind the wheel of his mother’s car, after he was accidentally locked in.
Now, 14-month-old Brandon and his mum, Kirsty, are to be reunited with the crew that freed him next week.
The photo by the Bude Community Fire Station has been shared more than 75 times on twitter, and attracted comments from as far away as West Virginia and California in the USA.
Image source, Bude Fire and Rescue ServiceThe number of people on zero hours contracts in the South West has fallen, but one million people are still on them., external
Victoria Gould
BBC News Online
A hundred litres of sodium hydroxide has been spilled on a road in the Marsh Barton Industrial Estate in Exeter.
Fire engines from Exeter along with an environmental protection unit from Newton Abbot were sent to the scene at 09:40 this morning.
The chemical had leaked from a drum on a delivery lorry.
Firefighters contained the leak before a specialist company was called to clear the spill.
