Devon & Cornwall Live: As it happened

Torbay Council has reminded residents to "recycle as much paper and card as you can" over the Christmas and New Year period, including wrapping paper.

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The announcement comes after Exeter residents were told not to put "low quality" Christmas wrapping paper in recycling bins, with the city council saying it was too time consuming and expensive to separate it from better quality paper.

North Devon is also refusing wrapping paper, while most other councils across the South West won't take sparkly, plastic, or metallic paper.

Torquay United's takeover by Swindon-based Gaming International (GI) ends months of speculation about the future of the Gulls, who were facing financial difficulties.

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"There is relief that the club is saved," outgoing chairman David Phillips told BBC Sport. 

The deal is subject to ratification by the National League.

• A stunt show company is fined £100,000 and its director given a 12-month community order for safety breaches which resulted in the death of a "human cannonball" stuntman
• A retrial is ordered after a jury is discharged in the trial of two people from Devon accused of murdering a man whose body had not been found
• A 91-year-old woman dies after a car crash in Barnstaple on Saturday night
• A renewed appeal is made to find missing Newquay man Chad Gibson a year after his disappearance
• A man appears in court charged with murder after the discovery of a body at a flat in Plymouth
• Torquay United Football Club are taken over by Swindon-based Gaming International 
• The dumping of excess fish from ring nets is described as "not illegal, but not something we want to see happening" by the Marine Conservation Society after large numbers of small fish wash up on Cornish beaches
• The Isles of Scilly Steamship Group lodges an objection to reinstate a helicopter service between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly

An award-winning landlady who helps transform the lives of ex-convicts and addicts has vowed not to throw in the towel despite being the victim of a vicious assault.

It will be staying cloudy with occasional outbreaks of patchy rain at first tonight, but this becoming more persistent as a rain band moves east during the latter half of the night. Minimum temperature: 6C (43F).

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Bright at first on Wednesday, before a further band of rain, perhaps heavy at times, follows from the west, with clearer weather then spreading in towards evening. Maximum temperature: 11C (52F).

The Legion d'Honneur is the highest military and civil decoration in France.

The French government said in 2014 it wanted to recognise the selfless acts of heroism and determination displayed by all surviving veterans of the D-Day landings, and of the wider campaigns to liberate France in 1944, by awarding people involved with the honour.

A human cannonball stuntman who died because a safety net malfunctioned was "a genuine guy", his family said after the company he worked for was fined over safety breaches.

Matthew Cranch (pictured), 24, from Newquay, died during Scott May's Daredevil Stunt Show at the Kent County Showground in April 2011. In court in Maidstone, Scott May, 40, of Higher Bosavern, St Just, near Penzance, and the company Stunts UK Ltd admitted failing to ensure the safety of workers at the event.

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Matthew's family - his mother, Pauline; his father, Michael; and older sister Elena said the case was "about getting justice for Matthew. It has always been about that".

They added: "Matthew was a ‘free spirit’, who truly was a genuine guy. He brought to the world a kindness, gentleness, sensitivity, fairness and incredible sense of humour, an unforgettable smile and the very best of big hugs... the loss of our son is a matter we can never accept or recover from."

A Devon estate agent crashed his Range Rover into a county council van and destroyed a wall in the middle of the night, a court heard.

An artist who was on Marazion Beach when thousands of dead fish washed ashore has given her reaction to the fact they were dumped legally by ring netters who had caught more than they could handle.

Katrina Slack said: "The safety of fishermen is an absolute priority but my initial thoughts on ring netting are it demonstrates completely our utter disregard for life and our total irresponsibility towards any other species other than our own.

"Surely this situation should be avoided in the first place by using smaller nets that are not going to endanger a fishing boat and its crew."

Katrina SlackCopyright: Katrina Slack

The fish are sometimes released as a safety measure by fishermen if they feel the boat is in danger of being pulled down by the weight.

Police have reissued a description of a missing man from Newquay a year on from his disappearance in a renewed appeal to try to trace him.

Thirty-two-year-old Chad Gibson was last seen in Fore Street in the town at about 18:00 on 19 December 2015. He had been in St Austell earlier that day. His mother has offered a reward of £2,000 for information about his whereabouts.

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He is described as:

• 6ft 2in tall
• Of athletic build, with brown eyes, short black hair, a black goatee beard. He may be unshaven
• Has a tattoo on the left side of his neck saying "ANNAI" 
• Has a scar from his right wrist to his elbow
• Was last seen wearing a sky-blue hooded top, with a full frontal white zip and stitching; a denim blue shirt, dark denim jeans, and blue and beige shoes styled like ankle boots
• He has links to St Austell, Newquay and the wider Cornwall area

Exeter-based airline Flybe has named its new chief executive.

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Former Air France and City Jet exec Christine Ourmieres-Widener will take on the role from mid January.

Previous boss Saad Hammad left by "mutual agreement" in October after more than three years with the company.

Outgoing Torquay United chairman David Phillips says the club had to be sold to Gaming International.

The Swindon-based firm have completed its takeover, subject to approval from the National League.

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"We were looking at a serous financial situation," he told BBC Sport.

"All of the other people that were supposedly in the background, I've spoken to Chinese, Hong Kong and American, we asked them to to put some money in to save the club and it was never forthcoming."

The Isles of Scilly Steamship Group has lodged an objection to the planning application for a reinstated helicopter service between Penzance and the Isles of Scilly, according to www.thisisscilly.com.

The website reports the steamship group's claim that the proposals would cause "considerable damage" to the company by eating into its market share by as much as 45%.

The dumping of excess fish from ring nets has been described as "not illegal, but not something we want to see happening" by the Marine Conservation Society.

There have been two incidents this month of large numbers of small fish washing up on Cornish beaches.

The most likely cause is ring netters catching too many fish and so having to release some from the bottom of the nets, causing them to die, experts have told the BBC.

Louise BattyCopyright: Louise Batty

Simon Cadman from the Cornwall Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority said: "This is not good in any respect and fishermen, like anybody else, don't want to see this amount of fish ending up as seagull fodder".

"We are talking to them about what has gone wrong to try and stop it happening again."

A dog which works with Cornwall Search & Rescue Team has been praised for his part in finding a missing woman in dense undergrowth in Falmouth.

Cornwall Search & Rescue TeamCopyright: Cornwall Search & Rescue Team

Blitz was involved in a search for a 51-year-old woman on Sunday night who had gone missing in the Swanpool area of Falmouth. She was taken to hospital in a critical condition with significant injuries after Blitz located her.

The team said: "Once again this demonstrates the importance of our search dogs, making the months and years of training so worthwhile."

Some £20m of government money is to be made available to build houses in areas of the South West affected by high levels of second home ownership. 

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Community-led housing groups will be able to apply for the cash from the Community Housing Fund through their local authority, Housing Minister Gavin Barwell said. 

In the first year, the money could be used by groups to plan and review housing needs, he said. But, in the second year, the cash must be spent delivering housing.

As the Christmas party season gets under way, health professionals are asking people to keep an eye on the amount they're drinking. 

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Figures suggest one in three people across the South West are drinking more than the government's recommended amounts, according to recent research. 

Guidelines published in January say men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week - equivalent to six pints of average strength beer or seven glasses of wine - in order to keep their health risks low.

In Cornwall alone, there are an estimated 84,000 binge drinkers and nearly 5,000 dependent drinkers. Campaigners said the national cost to the NHS and the economy runs into the billions.