BoomTown Fair Festival Fire Destroys More Than 80 Cars

An investigation has been launched after a blaze tore through a car park at a music festival, destroying more than 80 cars.

At its height, six fire crews battled the inferno at the BoomTown Fair Festival near Winchester in Hampshire on Friday afternoon.

The blaze, which broke out on the second day of the four-day festival where Leftfield, Damian Marley, Madness and the Levellers were due to perform, left behind it the burnt-out wrecks of dozens of cars.

The fire sent a plume of thick grey smoke into the summer sky

It is the latest incident to blight the event in recent years.

In 2014, a 31-year-old woman found slumped unconscious in a toilet at the festival later died in hospital.

The previous year Oxfam steward Ellie Rowe, 18, from Glastonbury, Somerset, died at after taking the horse tranquilliser ketamine.

An inquiry is under way into the cause of the blaze, which started shortly before 4.15pm.

An investigation is under way into the cause of the devastating blaze. Pic: @SCAS_HART

A fire and rescue spokesman said: "On arrival firefighters were faced with a large blaze involving approximately 80 vehicles, all of which were destroyed in the fire, but fortunately no injuries were reported.

"The Boomtique campsite next to the car park was evacuated as a precaution, but suffered no damage."

During the fire, festivalgoer Luke Machin tweeted: "Things are really heating up @BoomTownFair as a car fire takes hold."

Deadly Flooding Spreads Across Louisiana And Mississippi

At least two people have died due to flash and river flooding caused by severe weather in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Officials said the body of a 68-year-old man was recovered near Baker, Louisiana, near the state capital of Baton Rouge, after he drowned while attempting to escape floodwater.

In northern Louisiana, the body of an unidentified man was recovered from a pick-up truck that had been swept off a highway near the town of Greensburg.

Torrential rain over the past two days has led Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency and hundreds of residents have been forced to evacuate homes.

The boys are lifted into a boat by rescuers

Leroy Hansford, his wife and stepson were among dozens of people rescued on Friday near Gloster in southwest Mississippi.

He and his family were rescued by emergency workers in a large military-style truck after 10 inches of rain fell overnight.

"We woke up and the water kept on coming," Mr Hansford said. "It came up to my waist."

The National Weather Service issued a flash floods warning into the weekend for parts of southern Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana, including New Orleans.

The severe weather comes five months after flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi that left at least four dead and thousands of homes damaged.

Blocked Facebook ads unblocked, for now

Almost every penny Facebook makes comes through advertising - and so any threat to that model really does put the entire company at risk.

Which is why Facebook is moving quickly to get ahead in its running battle with Adblock Plus, a company that offers software that blocks ads from appearing to its 100 million or so users. 

Last week, Facebook made tweaks to its news feed so that the way Adblock Plus (and other similar software) “spotted” ads no longer worked, essentially tricking the blocking software into thinking ads were just normal posts. 

In response, Adblock Plus - drawing on the open source community - came up with a workaround. 

The company wrote on Thursday that “for this round of the cat-and-mouse contest, looks like the mouse won." 

The mouse was barely into its cheese when Facebook vowed to hit back.

The firm’s head of advertising, Andrew Bosworth - known as Boz - wrote on Twitter that "these new attempts don’t just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages. 

"We plan to address the issue." 

Blunt instrument

Boz and his advertising team didn’t take long. By Thursday evening, only a few hours after Adblock Plus made its workaround public, the site began rolling out new code that meant Adblock Plus's workaround no longer worked.

“We’re disappointed that ad blocking companies are punishing people on Facebook as these new attempts don’t just block ads but also posts from friends and Pages," the company said in a statement.

"Ad blockers are a blunt instrument, which is why we’ve instead focused on building tools like ad preferences to put control in people’s hands.” 

Adblock Plus is a controversial company. While initial ad blockers were all about stopping annoying, sometimes harmful, pop-up ads - Adblock Plus is a far more sophisticated fare. It’s able to skim out pre-roll adverts on videos, as well as remove some non-intrusive advertising on pages. 

Non-intrusive is a matter of opinion, of course - some would consider any advertising a unwelcome part of their browsing experience. Particularly in the case of Google and Facebook who have built their vast fortunes on producing targeted ads that require masses of data collection and tracking. 

But it’s why Google and Facebook are free to use - and most certainly always will be. The money has to come from somewhere, and right now it’s advertising. 

Adblock's whitelist

Where Adblock Plus stirs real controversy is in its business model. 

The software doesn’t block ads on all sites. The company has a whitelist. To get on it, a site has to pay Adblock Plus. 

Some call it extortion - the company disagrees, saying it plays an important role in keeping online advertising in check. 

Facebook has said it will not be paying to be whitelisted, Boz wrote earlier this week. 

"Rather than paying ad blocking companies to unblock the ads we show - as some of these companies have invited us to do in the past - we’re putting control in people’s hands with our updated ad preferences and our other advertising controls."

Tourists Warned After Bomb Blasts In Thai Resorts

Visitors to Thailand are being warned to be cautious and avoid public places after a series of bomb attacks in which four people died.

Government offices, police stations and popular tourist spots in the south of the country were all targeted.

Dozens of people were wounded in the blasts on Thursday and Friday, including 11 foreigners.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which followed a referendum held last weekend on a new constitution.

However, they appeared to be aimed at damaging the tourism industry, which provides vital income for the government.

Popular tourist destinations have been targeted in the attacks

One small bomb exploded on a beach in Patong on the island of Phuket and four others went off in the seaside resort of Hua Hin, emptying the streets.

Police said firebombs also triggered blazes at markets and shops in six other places, including Trang and Surat Thani.

Thailand's economy has slumped since the military coup in 2014, but tourism has remained one of the few bright spots with visitor numbers increasing.

Following the blasts, the British embassy updated its travel advice and warned holidaymakers to "exercise extreme caution".

In a televised address on Friday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the attacks "struck at the hearts of all Thai people."

He said it was unclear who carried them out but the government would do its best to find out.

Police said earlier they were investigating all leads, but had ruled out links to international militant groups.

The violence began on Thursday afternoon when a bomb exploded in the province of Trang, killing one person and injuring six, according to police.

On Thursday night, attackers in Hua Hin set off bombs in a busy street filled with bars and restaurants.

They were hidden inside two potted plants and detonated by mobile phones about half an hour apart

One Thai woman was killed and about 20 people were wounded, 11 of them tourists.

Police said four were from Germany, two from Italy and one from Austria. The Netherlands said four of its citizens were also wounded.

Hua Hin was hit by another two bombs in quick succession on Friday morning near a clock tower, killing one person and wounding four more.

Separate blasts were reported elsewhere in the south on Friday morning.

One bomb exploded on Loma Beach in Phuket city's Patong district, injuring one person.

Two others went off half an hour apart in front of two police stations in Surat Thani, killing one person and wounding three.

Two blasts outside a market in Phang Nga damaged two vehicles but no-one was hurt.

Tourists Warned After Bomb Blasts In Thai Resorts

Visitors to Thailand are being warned to be cautious and avoid public places after a series of bomb attacks in which four people died.

Government offices, police stations and popular tourist spots in the south of the country were all targeted.

Dozens of people were wounded in the blasts on Thursday and Friday, including 11 foreigners.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which followed a referendum held last weekend on a new constitution.

However, they appeared to be aimed at damaging the tourism industry, which provides vital income for the government.

Popular tourist destinations have been targeted in the attacks

One small bomb exploded on a beach in Patong on the island of Phuket and four others went off in the seaside resort of Hua Hin, emptying the streets.

Police said firebombs also triggered blazes at markets and shops in six other places, including Trang and Surat Thani.

Thailand's economy has slumped since the military coup in 2014, but tourism has remained one of the few bright spots with visitor numbers increasing.

Following the blasts, the British embassy updated its travel advice and warned holidaymakers to "exercise extreme caution".

In a televised address on Friday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the attacks "struck at the hearts of all Thai people."

He said it was unclear who carried them out but the government would do its best to find out.

Police said earlier they were investigating all leads, but had ruled out links to international militant groups.

The violence began on Thursday afternoon when a bomb exploded in the province of Trang, killing one person and injuring six, according to police.

On Thursday night, attackers in Hua Hin set off bombs in a busy street filled with bars and restaurants.

They were hidden inside two potted plants and detonated by mobile phones about half an hour apart

One Thai woman was killed and about 20 people were wounded, 11 of them tourists.

Police said four were from Germany, two from Italy and one from Austria. The Netherlands said four of its citizens were also wounded.

Hua Hin was hit by another two bombs in quick succession on Friday morning near a clock tower, killing one person and wounding four more.

Separate blasts were reported elsewhere in the south on Friday morning.

One bomb exploded on Loma Beach in Phuket city's Patong district, injuring one person.

Two others went off half an hour apart in front of two police stations in Surat Thani, killing one person and wounding three.

Two blasts outside a market in Phang Nga damaged two vehicles but no-one was hurt.

Tourists Warned After Bomb Blasts In Thai Resorts

Visitors to Thailand are being warned to be cautious and avoid public places after a series of bomb attacks in which four people died.

Government offices, police stations and popular tourist spots in the south of the country were all targeted.

Dozens of people were wounded in the blasts on Thursday and Friday, including 11 foreigners.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which followed a referendum held last weekend on a new constitution.

However, they appeared to be aimed at damaging the tourism industry, which provides vital income for the government.

Popular tourist destinations have been targeted in the attacks

One small bomb exploded on a beach in Patong on the island of Phuket and four others went off in the seaside resort of Hua Hin, emptying the streets.

Police said firebombs also triggered blazes at markets and shops in six other places, including Trang and Surat Thani.

Thailand's economy has slumped since the military coup in 2014, but tourism has remained one of the few bright spots with visitor numbers increasing.

Following the blasts, the British embassy updated its travel advice and warned holidaymakers to "exercise extreme caution".

In a televised address on Friday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the attacks "struck at the hearts of all Thai people."

He said it was unclear who carried them out but the government would do its best to find out.

Police said earlier they were investigating all leads, but had ruled out links to international militant groups.

The violence began on Thursday afternoon when a bomb exploded in the province of Trang, killing one person and injuring six, according to police.

On Thursday night, attackers in Hua Hin set off bombs in a busy street filled with bars and restaurants.

They were hidden inside two potted plants and detonated by mobile phones about half an hour apart

One Thai woman was killed and about 20 people were wounded, 11 of them tourists.

Police said four were from Germany, two from Italy and one from Austria. The Netherlands said four of its citizens were also wounded.

Hua Hin was hit by another two bombs in quick succession on Friday morning near a clock tower, killing one person and wounding four more.

Separate blasts were reported elsewhere in the south on Friday morning.

One bomb exploded on Loma Beach in Phuket city's Patong district, injuring one person.

Two others went off half an hour apart in front of two police stations in Surat Thani, killing one person and wounding three.

Two blasts outside a market in Phang Nga damaged two vehicles but no-one was hurt.

Tourists Warned After Bomb Blasts In Thai Resorts

Visitors to Thailand are being warned to be cautious and avoid public places after a series of bomb attacks in which four people died.

Government offices, police stations and popular tourist spots in the south of the country were all targeted.

Dozens of people were wounded in the blasts on Thursday and Friday, including 11 foreigners.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which followed a referendum held last weekend on a new constitution.

However, they appeared to be aimed at damaging the tourism industry, which provides vital income for the government.

Popular tourist destinations have been targeted in the attacks

One small bomb exploded on a beach in Patong on the island of Phuket and four others went off in the seaside resort of Hua Hin, emptying the streets.

Police said firebombs also triggered blazes at markets and shops in six other places, including Trang and Surat Thani.

Thailand's economy has slumped since the military coup in 2014, but tourism has remained one of the few bright spots with visitor numbers increasing.

Following the blasts, the British embassy updated its travel advice and warned holidaymakers to "exercise extreme caution".

In a televised address on Friday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the attacks "struck at the hearts of all Thai people."

He said it was unclear who carried them out but the government would do its best to find out.

Police said earlier they were investigating all leads, but had ruled out links to international militant groups.

The violence began on Thursday afternoon when a bomb exploded in the province of Trang, killing one person and injuring six, according to police.

On Thursday night, attackers in Hua Hin set off bombs in a busy street filled with bars and restaurants.

They were hidden inside two potted plants and detonated by mobile phones about half an hour apart

One Thai woman was killed and about 20 people were wounded, 11 of them tourists.

Police said four were from Germany, two from Italy and one from Austria. The Netherlands said four of its citizens were also wounded.

Hua Hin was hit by another two bombs in quick succession on Friday morning near a clock tower, killing one person and wounding four more.

Separate blasts were reported elsewhere in the south on Friday morning.

One bomb exploded on Loma Beach in Phuket city's Patong district, injuring one person.

Two others went off half an hour apart in front of two police stations in Surat Thani, killing one person and wounding three.

Two blasts outside a market in Phang Nga damaged two vehicles but no-one was hurt.