Andrew Segal
Local Live

A cow has been rescued from a cesspit in Devon with the help of a mini digger, firefighters say, external.

A fire crew from Holsworthy and a specialist rescue team from Barnstaple were called to the scene behind Pyworthy Village Hall at about 07:45.

Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service said the locally-sourced digger was used to gain access to the pit before it and lifting strops were used to rescue the animal.

BBC News Travel

In Paignton, there's slow traffic on Brixham Road due to a two-vehicle collision near Yalberton Road

Sarah Ransome
BBC Radio 5 live

Image source, Apex

Police have confirmed a 43-year-old mother and her twin children died as a result of a road collision in North Devon on Monday morning.

The children's stepfather and another brother witnessed the crash from a car in front.

The family of five from the Milton Keynes area were travelling towards Barnstaple on the A361 North Devon Link Road in two separate cars when the collision happened with a lorry heading in the opposite direction.

The 43-year-old mother died at the scene, her 12-year-old daughter and son died later in hospital.

The woman's husband was driving in front with her older son when they saw the crash happen in their car mirrors.

Police said that, for some "unknown reason", the mother's car drifted across the centre white line and hit the oncoming truck.

The road was closed for nine hours and a police investigation is continuing.

John Ayres
BBC Spotlight

A new children's TV programme featuring talking animals starts this month, and it was all filmed at Paignton Zoo.

Image source, BBC/DHX Media

The Zoo is a cross between a fly-on-the-wall documentary (although we don't think any flies are among the exhibits) and a comedy, where we get to hear what the animals really think of what is going on around them.

Image source, BBC/DHX Media

Filmed over three months, it is narrated by Outnumbered and Mock The Week star Hugh Dennis, and also co-stars the zoo's keepers.

It will be broadcast on CBBC from 14 August.

BBC Spotlight

Nearly £10m has been awarded to Devon and Cornwall to refurbish roads as part of a £75m national multimillion-pound government investment.

Cornwall will receive £5m for "targeted repair works" at 53 sites, the Department for Transport said.

In Devon, £4.25m has been allocated to refurbish "the A361 linking the M5, Tiverton and northern Devon", the department added.

The money is part of £20m announced today for the wider South West.

Donna Birrell
BBC Radio Cornwall

The departing Bishop of Truro, the Right Reverend Tim Thornton, joined me for the last time at BBC Radio Cornwall this weekend.

Here's a look back at some of the highlights over the last few years at Sunday Breakfast.

It was announced in April that he had been appointed to a top job in the Church of England as the new Bishop at Lambeth.

His duties will include supporting the Archbishop of Canterbury's work in the House of Bishops, General Synod and the Archbishop's Council.

BBC Radio Cornwall

Andrew Segal
Local Live

Police in east Devon say they are reassuring local residents after it was revealed that convicted terrorist Ciaran Maxwell hid explosives and other items in local woodland.

Image source, Metropolitan Police

The former Taunton-based Royal Marine, from Northern Ireland, was jailed for 18 years yesterday after making bombs for dissident Irish republicans. The 31-year-old from Larne, who had lived in Exminster, admitted a series of terror charges.

After his arrest last year, police found 43 weapons hides across England and and Northern Ireland. A search of Powderham New Plantation in Devon (pictured) revealed weapons stashes which contained: improvised explosive devices, chemicals, tools, electronic storage devices, hand-written notes and a small cannabis factory.

Supt Jacqui Hawley, of Devon and Cornwall Police, external, said: "I am sure many local residents are shocked by what has been revealed at the Old Bailey during the sentencing of Ciaran Maxwell, and by the scale of what was discovered buried at the New Powderham Plantation.

"I want to reassure the public that at no time has there been any credible links to targets in Devon and Cornwall in connection to the weapons located near Exminster."

BBC Radio Devon

Stagecoach bus staff across a large area of the company's Devon and South West operations are to be balloted by a union in a dispute over pay.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers announced that member were to be asked if they would take part in strike action and action short of a strike.

The RMT said the ballot would cover more than 750 bus drivers, cleaners and engineers at depots in Exeter, Torquay and Barnstaple.

BBC Spotlight

A Devon-based scheme to stop children going hungry in the school holidays is having to double in size.

Volunteers in Plymouth will be distributing more than 1,200 food parcels every week during the summer holidays.

All the food is donated by local suppliers and prepared in school kitchens before being taken to distribution points around the city.

Organisers said that, without these free meals, many city children would go hungry during the holidays.

BBC Sport

Image source, Getty Images

Exeter City have signed Plymouth Argyle striker Ryan Brunt on an undisclosed-length contract following a trial.

Brunt, 24, has not played a competitive game since damaging cruciate knee ligaments in March 2016.

He has yet to play 90 minutes for the League Two Grecians, but scored in a friendly against Taunton Town.

"We are confident that we will get him back to full fitness and he will be an important member of our squad," said Exeter boss Paul Tisdale.

Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.

BBC Spotlight

BBC News Travel

• In Cornwall, on the A30 at Eastern Green, Penzance, there are reports of a broken-down vehicle
• One lane is closed on the A30 eastbound around Bodmin due to a broken-down car at Carminow Cross
• In Devon, the Teign Valley Road at Christow is closed in both directions due to an accident and recovery work between Village Road and the B3344
• In Torquay, St Marychurch Road is partially blocked due to an accident at Forest Road

BBC Newsbeat

New figures from the RNLI show August is the worst month for coastal water deaths in the South West, with 26 during that month over the past five years.

Andrew Segal
Local Live

More than 400 knives and bladed items have been handed in to police during a knife amnesty last month, Devon and Cornwall Police say.

Image source, Devon and Cornwall Police

Officers said, external it was "twice as many" as were surrendered during a similar week-long police amnesty held in November 2016.

Items handed in included two blades which were hidden inside walking sticks (pictured).

Image source, Devon and Cornwall Police

Det Ch Insp Craig McWhinnie said he was "very pleased with the response" and the weapons would be destroyed.

He added: "People who carry knives for no good reason risk arrest. If a knife is used in a confrontation, the balance of probability is that the person carrying it is highly likely to be injured from it themselves."

Jonathan Morris
BBC News Online

An inscription of a World War One heroine's name on a memorial is to be removed after it broke planning laws.

The name of Kitty Trevelyan, who left her Dartmoor home aged 17 to join the war, was added to the memorial at Meavy in February.

But Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) said it was the wrong font, "not very sympathetic", and no permission had been given.

The name was added after a campaign to include women's names on war memorials.

BBC Radio Devon

The cancellation of this year's North Devon Show is "the right decision", the area's MP says.

Organisers of the show said yesterday they took the "difficult decision" to cancel the event near Barnstaple on Wednesday because of weather forecasts and the current state of the site.

North Devon Conservative MP Peter Heaton-Jones said: "It was a very difficult decision.

"Paramount in this is when you cannot guarantee the safety of the thousands of visitors, all the exhibitors and the livestock because of muddy conditions. So that has to come first on the list."

He also welcomed the early decision, saying it could have been more inconvenient for people if they had decided to leave it another 24 hours.

Andrew Segal
Local Live

Image source, Apex

Two children who died with their mother as the result of a road crash on the A361 in Devon were twins, Devon and Cornwall Police have confirmed, external.

Officers were called to the scene near Barnstaple at 08:25 on Monday after the woman's car hit an oncoming lorry.

The 43-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Her 12-year-old daughter was pronounced dead on arrival at North Devon District Hospital, and her 12-year-old son, taken to hospital via air ambulance, died shortly after his arrival.

The road was closed for nine hours for a police investigation.

Plymouth Herald

A Plymouth woman who claimed she hadn't had her bins collected for more than 12 weeks, external said she was "angry, sick and tired" of the smell emanating from the waste left at her home.