As the Obama administration continues its struggle with Congress to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, a new poll released shows more than half of Americans would rather keep it open.

While 40 percent responded saying they wanted the center closed and three percent had no opinion, 56 percent of Americans believe the prison should continue to operate, according to a CNN/ORC poll, opposing a long-standing goal of the Obama administration.

The poll of 1,0001 Americans came out just two weeks after President Obama sent his plans to close the prison to Congress in an attempt to fulfill his 2008 campaign promise. Congress quickly rejected the proposals.

Under Obama's plan, 35 of the 91 current prisoners would be transferred to other countries in the coming months, leaving dozens of detainees either facing trial by military commission or being designated too dangerous to release despite not facing charges. The detainees would be transferred to a US facility under the White House proposal.

Republican lawmakers rejected the plan, arguing it skimped on details and raised the possibilities of having dangerous terrorists on US soil.

House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (Wisconsin) said that the GOP is "preparing our legal challenge" should Obama try and move detainees to federal prisons, according to Associated Press.

"These detainees cannot come to American soil," Ryan said, reported AP.

When do we decide it's OK to tell a lie? Perhaps when we see people in positions of power doing the same. A new study finds that individuals are more likely to lie if they live in a country with high levels of institutional corruption and fraud—suggesting that poorly run institutions hurt society in more ways than previously suspected.

Past research has shown that people are more likely to break the rules if those around them are also doing so. For instance, people surrounded by graffiti and litter are more likely to drop trash themselves. "But what we really don't know is to what extent societal norms like political fraud, corruption, and tax evasion trickle down—and to what extent such societal norms corrupt individuals," says Shaul Shalvi, a behavioral scientist at the University of Amsterdam who was not involved in the work.

To find out, researchers pulled data on government corruption, tax evasion, and election fraud from the World Bank and Freedom House, a nongovernmental organization that researches democracy and political freedom, for 159 countries. They combined these rates into an index that measured institutionalized rule-breaking.

Under a Freedom of Information Act request, a Pentagon inspector general made public a report last week, admitting to the use of drones to spy on U.S. citizens.

The missions were non-military in nature, meaning they were used for domestic spying purposes. Naturally, the Pentagon is claiming it broke no laws in the deployment of said drones and contends that the flights were rare.

A senior policy analyst for the ACLU, Jay Stanley, said it is good news no legal violations were found, yet the technology is so advanced that it's possible laws may require revision, according to USA Today.

"Sometimes, new technology changes so rapidly that existing law no longer fit what people think are appropriate," Stanley said. "It's important to remember that the American people do find this to be a very, very sensitive topic."

"The appetite to use them (spy drones) in the domestic environment to collect airborne imagery continues to grow, as does Congressional and media interest in their deployment," stated the report, quoting a military law review article.

Reported child abuse cases in the UK have risen by over 30 percent in the last year, with an average 124 cases reported per day, new research has shown.

The figures, obtained by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) by surveying 45 police forces across the UK, include offenses such as rape, sexual assault and grooming.

"The continuing rise in reported sex offences against children is deeply worrying and shows what a rampant problem it is," NSPCC Northern Ireland chief Neil Anderson said.

"Sexual abuse can shatter a child's mental health. It can leave them anxious, depressed and even suicidal."

A photo of cream cheese served to students at Central High School is turning stomachs online, the latest in what's now a daily trend of students posting truly disgusting school food offerings.

Isaiah York and a friend are reconsidering their school food options after they popped open an individual cream cheese at breakfast Monday and found it covered in thick green mold, The Star Press reports.

"I was a bit grossed out about it, it made me a bit uneasy," York said. "When we opened it, I was a bit in shock to be honest ... That's my first time encountering that."

The senior reported the fouled cheese to the school principal, who contacted the school's food services. The teens also posted the image to Facebook and Twitter, and it's since gone viral.

Muncie Community Schools food services director Dianna Choate said the cream cheese came from the manufacturer in individually sealed portions that were within the expiration date, and officials checked other containers and found no mold.

Regardless, cafeteria staff dumped all of the cream cheese packets and contacted the Delaware County Health Department, The Star Press reports.

"I feel it's a shame that MCS is being made out negatively for something that could occur anywhere, at any time, whether a school, business, or personal home," health department administrator Jammie Bane said.

"An incident occurring does not point to a trend, and does not point towards the schools not caring or not taking actions in an effort to ensure it doesn't occur again," Bane said. "As a matter of fact, our local schools excel at food safety."

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden said that the FBI's claim to need Apple to unlock the iPhone a San Bernardino shooter is a sham.

The FBI says that only Apple has the ability to crack the work phone left behind by the San Bernardino terrorists, and last month convinced a federal judge to compel the tech giant to write a custom operating system with intentionally weakened security mechanisms. Apple is refusing to do so, and said that it is willing to take the fight to the Supreme Court.

Relatives of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 victims were briefed by the Dutch authorities on Monday on the course of the criminal investigation into the crash. Despite calls to disclose data, prosecutors declined to reveal any details on the ongoing probe.

"It is difficult and complicated that we cannot yet share as much information as we deal with," Fred Westerbeke, the chief Dutch prosecutor investigating the downing of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine told a press conference on Monday, adding that giving away too much information "could jeopardize the investigation."

Commenting on the much-awaited results of the probe, Westerbeke declined to announce an exact completion date, but promised to finish "as quickly as possible, if only because of the frustration among the families."

A team of 80 policemen operating in Netherlands and Ukraine are currently working on the investigation full time, said Wilbert Paulissen, the head of the Dutch National Crime Squad. In trying to explain why it has taken so much time to come to any definitive conclusions, he said that the investigation involved questioning more than one hundred witnesses and in-depth research into the capabilities of missile systems.

Nine firefighters were hurt after a natural gas explosion leveled two buildings in a Seattle neighborhood. The explosion could be heard for miles from the site of the blast.

The explosion occurred around 1:45am Pacific time on Wednesday morning in the northern Greenwood neighborhood after fire crews responded to calls of a natural gas leak made 40 minutes earlier. The Seattle Fire Department said that eight firefighters and a battalion chief were taken to the hospital after sustaining minor injuries from a "massive explosion."

The department said that 67 firefighters, commanders and medics were at the scene. Puget Sound Energy spokesperson Andy Wappler said that it shut down control valves that feed gas to the area where the explosion happened. He said there was no reason to believe there were other leaks to worry about, KING reported.

A couple of years ago, the Denver Police Department (DPD) was under fire for a spate of excessive force complaints. They wanted to change their image, so they began a massive public relations campaign, ramping up spending from $599 in 2011 to $136,783 in 2013.

The "media affairs unit" is made up of very well-paid employees who push their message in social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Last year the DPD spent $450,000 on six employees in the media team, which is far more than six cops on the beat would make.

However, an investigation by Denver7 ABC found that the DPD has been using funds derived from civil asset forfeiture to pay for much of this propaganda campaign. This may constitute a violation of policy, as those funds are only supposed to be used for equipment and training.

"According to the report more than $120,000 from that fund was used to buy equipment for DPD's media relations unit, including an Apple desktop editing system, a MacBook Pro computer and even spent $22,000 developing an app for iPhone and Android."

That's not all. They spent $2,460 to pay for entries into a local Emmy competition. The funds for this bizarre act were requested under "police training," even though there were no seminars or instructional time.

New federal guidelines have just been introduced across the country, and what they mandate is quite disturbing to civil libertarians. The FBI has now instructed high schools across the nation to report students who in any way criticize government policies and what the report phrases as "western corruption."

The FBI is interested in determining - as part of some warped "pre-crime" program - who might become potential future terrorists.

The FBI warns in the report that that "anarchist extremists" are no different that ISIS terrorists.

They further caution teachers against young people who are poor, as well as immigrants and others who travel to "suspicious" countries. These, they explain, are teens who are more likely to commit terrorism.