Amid stock market panic in China, many of the country's most prominent billionaires are disappearing without a trace. This week, Zhou Chengjian, the chairman of the clothing company Metersbonwe became the most recent wealthy Chinese businessperson to go missing. Metersbonwe said in a statement on Thursday that it would be suspending its shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and that they were unaware of Chengjian's whereabouts.

According to Bloomberg, as many as 36 companies reported executives missing from January to September.

Just a few weeks ago, Chang Xiaobing, the CEO of the state-owned telecoms giant China Telecom, resigned and then went missing. There were rumors that Xiaobing was taken by police or government agents in a widening corruption investigation that is touching every corner of the Chinese economy.

Six police chiefs publicly accused the local sheriff on Friday of stealing drugs from their departments and lying about his involvement with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The police chiefs also blamed the state's attorney general and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) of stalling the investigation for political purposes.

In April 2015, Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer met with Police Chief Mark Kaufman at Bellevue Police Department and allegedly told the police chief that he was collecting drugs for the DEA. Loosely managed by the DEA, the drug disposal boxes at Bellevue and the surrounding police departments were intended to keep unused pills, including antibiotics and painkillers, from being improperly discarded or illicitly sold.

Relatively new to the job, Chief Kaufman agreed to hand the drugs over to the sheriff without verifying his claims. Unbeknownst to Kaufman, the sheriff subsequently appeared two more times to steal drugs without his presence.

Adolf Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf was an instant sellout when it hit bookstores in Germany for the first time since the Second World War.

More than 15,000 advance orders were placed, despite the initial print of 4,000 copies, with one copy even put up for resale on Amazon.de for €9,999.99 (£7,521.43).

Mein Kampf, which means My Struggle, returned into the public domain on January 1.

An armed group who arrived at an Oregon wildlife refuge swiftly departed after the leader of the occupation movement said they were "not needed." The occupation group is now negotiating with the FBI.

The self-styled militias from around the Pacific Northwest were asked to leave, as those occupying the wildlife refuge did not want to inflame the situation even further. The leader of the occupation movement, Ammon Bundy, had not asked the armed men to come.

"This was the last thing in the world they wanted to see happen," Todd MacFarlane, a Utah lawyer who is acting as a mediator, told the Oregonian, as cited by AP.

He added that Bundy, who has his own group of around two dozen men, had "tried to put out the word: 'We don't need you.'"

The members of Bundy's group, who call themselves Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, held a cordial meeting with the FBI, in which both sides conveyed what they wanted in a calm manner. During the discussion, the occupation movement mentioned to the Feds that they didn't want the direct support of the regional militia groups.

An explosion at Dow Chemical plant in northeastern Massachusetts injured four people and damaged part of the building Thursday afternoon.

Firefighters, paramedics and police responded to the plant in North Andover at about 2:30 p.m.

Several people were injured and rushed to the hospital.

The State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan said a chemical reacted with water in a lab in Dow Chemical, which caused the explosion.

The chemical called Tri Methyl Aluminum is used to make electronics, things like circuit boards and LED lights. Fire officials say it's not the same chemical that exploded in 2013, killing a Dow worker at the same plant.

What caused Thursday's reaction and explosion is unclear. Fire officials in North Andover say the town works closely with Dow and after an event like this is ready to help. Lt. Bone said, "One of the techs will meet us and give us guidance on what we are doing and dealing with." Coan said no nearby residents were in danger, but four employees received critical burns and shrapnel like wounds. The victims were rushed to the hospital.

Baltimore native Keith Davis Jr. was shot in the face by police after an alleged attempted robbery in June 2015. But according to Davis' girlfriend Kelly Holsey, the evidence found at the scene supports neither the police's story nor the charges he faces.

According to The Baltimore Sun, Police Officers Catherine Filippou and Lane Eskins received a call at 10:00am on June 7. Responding to a car accident, the officers were informed by an unlicensed cab driver, or hack, that he was being robbed. According to Baltimore City Paper, the police affidavit claims that Keith Davis Jr., 23, ran into a garage with his gun drawn and proceeded to point the weapon at police. When Davis entered the garage, police opened fire.

By the time police finished shooting, they fired 44 bullets, three of which hit Davis - including once in his jaw.

However, the version Davis gave to Holsey tells a very different story.

First, Davis claims he did not rob the driver. Rather, he and a group of people were checking out a hit-and-run car accident when a police officer approached the crowd with his gun drawn. As Holsey explained to RT, "It wasn't [pointed at] Keith in specific, it was at the crowd." As a result, the crowd scattered.

Davis and a group of others ran to seek shelter at a nearby auto garage. Davis was then shot in the arm and called Holsey. Holsey described hearing a "constant pop-pop-pop" while Davis told her, "Babe, I'm gonna die." The phone call ran for one minute and seven seconds before Kelly heard one last gunshot and the call dropped.

Photos of Davis with his face badly wounded have circled around social media. Baltimore police claim that he told officers he would put his gun down if the officers would stop firing. The officers agreed and entered the garage to find him shot in the face and a .22 caliber gun nearby.

Emails show that high-ranking officials in Michigan were aware of elevated lead levels in Flint's water six months before the state of emergency was declared. Calls are mounting for the governor to resign or face criminal charges.

Internal emails, obtained by NBC News, were written by Governor Rick Snyder's former chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, to the state health department saying he was frustrated by the water issue in Flint.

"These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we're just not sympathizing with their plight)," Muchmore wrote in the email, according to NBC News.

"I really don't think people are getting the benefit of the doubt," Muchmore continued. "Now they are concerned and rightfully so about the lead level studies they are receiving."

This mania, so generally condemned, has never been properly studied. No one has realized that it is the opium of the poor. Did not the lottery, the mightiest fairy in the world, work up magical hopes? The roll of the roulette wheel that made the gamblers glimpse masses of gold and delights did not last longer than a lightning flash; whereas the lottery spread the magnificent blaze of lightning over five whole days. Where is the social force today that, for forty sous, can make you happy for five days and bestow on you—at least in fancy—all the delights that civilization holds?

Balzac, La Rabouilleuse, 1842

The jackpot in the US Powerball lottery has hit $800 million, since there were no winners in Wednesday's drawing. In the current round, which began on December 2, over 431 million tickets have been sold, a figure substantially larger than America's population.

Go into any corner store in America and you will see workers of every age and race waiting in line to buy lottery tickets. With the current round, the lines are longer than ever. Americans spend over $70 billion on lottery tickets each year. In West Virginia, America's second-poorest state, the average person spent $658.46 on lottery tickets last year.

Powerball players pick six random numbers when they purchase their tickets, with a certain percentage of sales going to the jackpot. If no winning ticket is sold, the jackpot rolls over to the next round.

The totals for the Mega Millions and Powerball national lotteries have been growing every year. This year's jackpot has eclipsed 2012's record of $656.5 million, the $390 million payout in 2007 and the $363 million prize in 2000. The jackpots have grown in direct proportion to ticket sales.

State-run gambling programs such as Powerball have been promoted by Democrats and Republicans alike as a solution to state budget shortfalls, even as the politicians slash taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals and gut social programs. From the standpoint of government revenue, lotteries and casinos are nothing more than a back-door regressive tax, soaking up money from the poor in proportion to the growth of social misery.

The boom in lotteries is global. Lottery sales grew 9.9 percent worldwide in 2014, after growing 4.9 percent in 2013.

Psychology Professor Kate Sweeny has noted that lottery sales grow when people feel a lack of control over their lives, particularly over their economic condition. "That feeling of self-control is very important to psychological well-being," Sweeny says.

There is ample reason for American workers to feel they have no control over their lives. According a recent survey by Bankrate.com, more than half of Americans do not have enough cash to cover an unexpected expense of $500 or more—roughly the price of four name-brand tires.

A massive fire broke out after a chemical plant exploded in the city of Lengshuijiang, in China's southeastern Hunan province, local media reports.

Firefighters managed to contain the blaze, local media reported, adding that there were no casualties as a result of the incident.

While there is no information available about the cause of the explosion, specialists are monitoring the air near the plant to check whether there has been any chemical contamination.

Last year, China was hit by a wave of explosions rocking its industrial facilities.

In December, a blast was reported at a pesticide plant in the city of Jilin in northeastern China. Authorities were forced to issue a warning to locals not to approach the plant.

In November, an explosion was reported at a chemical factory in Fushun, also in northeastern China. While no casualties were reported during this incident, a previous blast in October at a civilian-use explosives factory in eastern China left two people injured and nine were reported missing.

New Jersey high school student Bethany Koval has gained thousands of followers in social media overnight following accusations of bullying over her pro-Palestine messages.

The 16-year Israeli-American high school student with Jewish roots prompted public interest earlier this week after her anti-Israel tweets where she railed against the Netanyahu government's treatment with Palestine. Legality of her brave actions have been, however, put under consideration by Fair Lawn High School which she is attending after an alleged complaint by a classmate over the Christmas holiday.

On Wednesday, school officials called Koval down to discuss her activity on the internet, she live tweeted updates to her account, later making it private.

#IStand WithBenny went viral on Twitter as Koval's followers blamed the school administration and the large Jewish lobby in the US for reportedly calling her a terrorist sympathizer.