Another explosion has rocked Liucheng County in southern China, damaging a six-story building on Thursday - less than a day after a series of more than a dozen blasts killed seven people and injured more than 50.

The Thursday blast targeted a civilian building near the highway administration bureau in Liucheng, according to Xinhua. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties.

Local police are expected to hold a press conference later on Thursday regarding the latest explosion and the series of 17 blasts which hit the city on Wednesday afternoon.

The rich are richer than ever: Forbes list of 400 wealthiest Americans reveals Jeff Bezos made $16BILLION in a single year - and Mark Zuckerberg broke into the top ten for the first time

• America's top 400 billionaires have combined wealth of $2.34trillion, up $50billion from a year ago
• Bill Gates has retained his No 1 spot for 22nd straight year with a net worth of $76billion
• Amazon's Jeff Bezos, 51, has emerged as biggest overall gainer, coming in at No 4 with $47billion
• Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, 31, this year landed in seventh spot with $40billion after cracking the top ten list last year
• Cost of admission to the 2015 list was the highest ever at $1.7billion, up from $1.55billion a year ago

Researchers at Stanford's Graduate School of Business have found that white people respond to evidence that they are privileged by their race by insisting that they face greater hardships in life.

In a study published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, L. Taylor Phillips and Brian S. Lowery point out that progress on racial equality is limited by the fact that many whites deny the existence of inequities.

"Despite this reality, policy makers and power brokers continue to debate whether racial privilege even exists and whether to address such inequity," the researchers noted. "One reason for this inaction might be an unwillingness among Whites to acknowledge racial privilege — acknowledgment that may be difficult given that Whites are motivated to believe that meritocratic systems and personal virtues determine life outcomes."

"However, claiming personal life hardships may help Whites manage the threatening possibility that they benefit from privilege."

The researchers argued that understanding the reaction to evidence of racial inequality was important because whites who did not feel that they personally benefited from their ethnicity would be less willing to support policies that were designed to reduce racial inequality.

Subjects in the study were separated into two groups. The group that was shown evidence of white privilege "claimed more hardships than those not exposed to evidence of privilege," the study found.

A second experiment suggested "that people claim more life hardships in response to evidence of in-group privilege because such information is threatening to their sense of self." Researchers observed that whites who read self-affirming statements before completing the survey claimed less hardships, and they found that self-affirmations could actually reverse the denial of white privilege.

For 38 years, a few black-and-white photographs of a nurse cradling a baby provided comfort to a woman who suffered terrible burns and endured years of playground taunts and painful surgeries thereafter. For all that time, until Tuesday, she dreamed of meeting her again.

The photos show Amanda Scarpinati at just 3 months old, her head thickly wrapped in gauze, resting calmly in the nurse's arms. Shot for the Albany Medical Center's 1977 annual report, the images have a beatific, "Madonna and Child" quality.

As a baby, she had rolled off a couch onto a boiling steam vaporizer. Melted mentholated ointment scalded her skin. The burns would require many reconstructive surgeries over the years. The photos helped.

"Growing up as a child, disfigured by the burns, I was bullied and picked on, tormented," she said. "I'd look at those pictures and talk to her, even though I didn't know who she was. I took comfort looking at this woman who seemed so sincere, caring for me."

Scarpinati now lives Athens, 25 miles south of Albany, and works as a human resources manager. All her life, she wanted to thank the nurse who showed her such loving care, but she didn't even know her name. She tried to find out 20 years ago, without success. The pictures were taken by photographer Carl Howard, but his subjects weren't identified. At a friend's urging, she tried again this month, posting the photos on Facebook and pleading for help.

As EU-US trade talks flounder, France doesn't rule out 'an outright termination of negotiations'

While public opposition to the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)—the massive proposed "trade" deal between the European Union and the United States—has grown steadily since negotiations started two years ago, new signs suggest that official government backing is also faltering across Europe.

In an interview with French regional newspaper Sud Ouest published Monday, Junior Trade Minister Matthias Fekl said TTIP negotiations were favoring American interests and "either weren't advancing or were progressing in the wrong direction."

"If nothing changes, it will show that there isn't the will to achieve mutually beneficial negotiations," he said, before adding: "France is considering all options including an outright termination of negotiations."

Meanwhile, a group of more than 55 UK members of parliament (MPs) has signed onto a motion expressing major concerns about the mammoth trade pact, which civil society groups have dubbed a corporate giveaway. Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP, put forward the Commons motion, and it has now been signed by every member of the Scottish National Party group at Westminster, as well as the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

Politico's Paul Ames wrote of the "cooling ardor on both sides of the Atlantic" earlier this month, saying that since talks began in July 2013, the trade deal "has lost some of its shine."

"Concern over the impact of TTIP has united disparate groups," he wrote, "from French farmers to German constitutional lawyers and politicians on the left and right."

The principal of a South Dakota high school was wounded by a gunshot Wednesday morning. Authorities say that a student is suspected to be the perpetrator, and is in custody. All other students have been reported as safe.

The shooting took place at Harrisburg High School in the town of Harrisburg, about 10 miles south of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Principal Kevin Lein only suffered a flesh wound, according to Superintendent James Holbeck.

The FBI will begin tracking information on officer-involved shootings for its annual crime report. However, relevant data will continue to be submitted by law enforcement agencies on a voluntary basis, leading critics to call the upcoming data unreliable.

"[T]o address the ongoing debate about the appropriate use of force by law enforcement, we plan to collect more data about shootings (fatal and nonfatal) between law enforcement and civilians, and to increase reporting overall," FBI Director James Comey said in a message introducing the 2014 Crime in the United States report.

The report comprises statistics and information provided by law enforcement agencies to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. It measures the nation's crime problem. Currently the program only collects data on the number of justifiable homicides reported by police as well as information about the felonious killing and assault of law enforcement officers.

This chart of median household income illustrates why so many of us feel poorer-- we are poorer in terms of the purchasing power of our income.

A rising tide raises all boats, from rowboats to yachts--this is the narrative of "prosperity."

A rising tide is also the political cover for rising inequality: if the guy in the rowboat makes $100 more a month, he feels like he's participating in the prosperity.

Meanwhile, the guy in the speedboat is making $1,000 more a month and the guy in the yacht is making $1 million more a month.

But this doesn't bother the guy in the rowboat, for two reasons:

1. He thinks of himself as a guy who is currently in a rowboat on his way to buying a speedboat

2. Studies have found that our sense of wealth and "falling behind" is not defined by our actual increases in income or wealth, but by how we're doing relative to our peer group. If everyone else in rowboats is making $200 more a month in the rising tide of prosperity, the guy making only $100 more feels like he's falling behind--even if his absolute income and wealth is rising.

A recent poll conducted by YouGov revealed that a sizable portion of the American public is open to the idea of a military coup in the United States. The poll was conducted amid the continual polling that takes place during the U.S. Presidential election yet it did not focus on the elections per se, but the potential lack of elections in the future.

The YouGov poll surveyed 1,000 people online and determined that 29% of Americans, over a quarter of the population, could imagine supporting a military coup against the civilian government. Only 41% could not imagine supporting a coup.

The numbers supporting a potential coup were highest among Republicans with 43% of them saying they could envision supporting a coup, 29% of independents followed, with Democrats trailing at 20%.

Two US agricultural workers have simultaneously sued Monsanto, claiming that the company's weed-killer herbicide caused their cancers. They have also accused the bio-tech giant of pressuring regulators to downplay the risks from its Roundup herbicide.

In his lawsuit against Monsanto, 58-year-old former farm worker Enrique Rubio said he believes that the bone cancer he was diagnosed with back in 1995 was a result of his work with Monsanto's weed-killer.