Weekly round-up: Five stories you may have missed
New Forest Wildlife ParkWolves returning to a Hampshire wildlife park and theaxing of a stage at Reading Festival were among our most popular stories this week.
The theme park smells expert also hit the headlines.
In case you missed it, we have picked five articles from the past seven days across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Berkshire and Oxfordshire to keep you up to date.
'I make the smells that scare you at theme parks'
Graveyard, bubblegum and mummified body are just some of the smells sitting in bottles on a bookshelf in the flat of Liam Findlay's lounge.
In the comfort of his own home in Weymouth, Dorset, the 32-year-old gets paid to design different smells which get used at theme parks.
"Theme park guests might not realise it but smells hold incredible power over their memories and emotions," he says.
Wolves return to park two years after pack deaths
New Forest Wildlife ParkWolves have returned to a wildlife park nearly two years after the last remaining members of its previous pack died.
The two European grey wolves travelled to New Forest Wildlife Park, in Hampshire, from zoos in Europe and will live in a new purpose-built enclosure.
The park said it had always intended for wolves to return but had faced post-Brexit paperwork challenges in moving them from Europe.
The new pair includes a two-year-old female from the Reserve d'Animaux Sauvages in Belgium and a one-year-old male from Parc Animalier de Sainte Croix in France.
BBC Introducing stage axed from Reading Festival
A stage at Reading Festival which previously hosted up-and-coming musicians, including Ed Sheeran and Florence + the Machine, has been axed.
Organisers Festival Republic announced an overhaul of stages last week, saying it would now be open to a "much wider pool of emerging talent".
As part of the plans, it said it would no longer host a BBC Introducing stage, despite the scheme having supported roughly 70% of all the UK artists on this year's line-up.
Tommy Longhurst, lead singer of Reading band Only the Poets, said the move was "sad news" for young musicians.
Maggie May soloist buys charity shop mandolin
Getty ImagesA rare and sought-after mandolin has sold for nearly £3,000 from a high street charity shop.
Ray Jackson, a musician best known for his solo on Rod Stewart's 1971 hit song Maggie May, purchased the instrument from an Oxfam shop in Abingdon after it was spotted by his partner.
The mandolin, a Northfield model handmade in Missouri in the United States, had been donated to the shop about two weeks before it was sold for £2,800.
"This mandolin is beautiful - it's got a fantastic sound," Jackson said.
Eleven guilty in £40m cocaine smuggling plot
NCAEleven people have been convicted over a plot to smuggle £40m cocaine into the UK - which was dropped into the sea from a passing ship.
David Paterson, 49, sailed out from Haslar Marina, Portsmouth, into international waters off the Isle of Wight on 17 August 2024 to collect the 500kg consignment. He failed but Adil Nolan succeeded after setting out from Eastbourne Harbour the next day.
Three men out of the 11 plotters were found guilty of conspiring to smuggle cocaine at a trial at Portsmouth Crown Court, while one woman was found guilty of assisting an organised crime group. Seven others previously admitted their roles, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.
They will be sentenced in November.
