Almost half of Russians believe homosexuality is a human behavior acquired under the influence of the media, according to a poll taken by state-run pollster VTsIOM earlier this month.

"Forty-seven percent of the respondents said media and propaganda were the key factors contributing to development of a person's non-traditional sexual orientation," the pollster said in a press release issued Thursday.

Among other vital factors that impact the development of homosexuality, respondents named the influence of friends and parents (35 and 33 percent, respectively). Only 16 percent said that negative experience of past relationships with people of the opposite sex brings about homosexuality.

Israeli police have detained 10 members of an international crime ring suspected of organ trafficking and illegal transplant surgeries, an Israeli law enforcement source told RIA Novosti.

"The data that we have received indicates that an organ trafficking network that involved Israeli citizens has been operating here [in Israel], the source said on Friday.

"The suspects sought out donors who experienced financial difficulties and convinced them to sell their organs without warning of possible consequences and side effects, and without proper post-surgery treatment," he added.

More than 400,000 filled the streets of Montreal this week as a protest over a 75 percent increase in tuition has grown into a full-blown political crisis. After three months of sustained protests and class boycotts that have come to be known around the world as the "Maple Spring," the dispute exploded when the Quebec government passed an emergency law known as Bill 78, which suspends the current academic term, requires demonstrators to inform police of any protest route involving 50 or more people, and threatens student associations with fines of up to $125,000 if they disobey. The strike has received growing international attention as the standoff grows, striking a chord with young people across the globe amid growing discontent over austerity measures, bleak economies and crushing student debt. We're joined by Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, spokesperson for CLASSE, the main coalition of student unions involved in the student strikes in Quebec; and Anna Kruzynski, assistant professor at the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University in Montreal. She has been involved in the student strike as a member of the group, "Professors Against the Hike."

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Ten years ago, Brian Banks was the fiercest middle linebacker on the Long Beach Polytechnic High roster. Renowned schools like the University of Southern California (USC), Ohio State University (OSU) and the University of Michigan (UM), institutions that only scout out the best of the best, all recruited him for their squads.

A Cali kid through and through, though, Banks insists that he was ready to sign with the USC Trojans. It should have been a fairly tale story from there. Play for the best football program on the West Coast. Shine like he did in high school. Turn pro. Garner the sort of money, power and prestige that comes standard with being a big time star. Live happily ever after.

Too bad it didn't play out like that. Instead, the 16-year-old Banks was arrested for raping his childhood friend, Wanetta Gibson, at their high school.

Gibson accused Banks -- who was apparently close to Banks since middle school -- of taking her into the elevator and sexually assaulting her. Her alleging that he took her into the elevator to assault her was a key component, because it added a "kidnapping enhancement" to the serious charges Banks was already facing.

Waco, Texas - Walking around a gun store one day last summer, the young man never took off his sunglasses as he asked questions about items he piled on the counter - behavior that struck the manager as odd.

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo had already traveled hundreds of miles since going AWOL from Fort Campbell, Ky., three weeks earlier. He bought a gun from an online seller in Nashville and paid cash for thousands of dollars of bomb-making components at a major Dallas-area retail store. Trying to avoid being caught, he wore a baseball cap and sunglasses most of the time, never used credit cards while staying in motels and traveling by bus or cab, and he had his roommate's driver's license.

But his luck ran out in Killeen, a city about 150 miles southwest of Dallas and near one of the nation's largest Army posts - Fort Hood. Guns Galore manager Cathy Cheadle "just had this feeling" about him. She and an employee talked about it and then called police - who had Abdo in custody less than 24 hours later at a motel, where authorities say he had started to build a bomb. Police hadn't even known his name or background until they detained him.

A federal jury Thursday convicted Abdo, a Muslim soldier, on six charges in connection with his failed plot to blow up a Texas restaurant full of Fort Hood troops, his religious mission to get "justice" for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"A disaster was averted because somebody picked up the phone and made a call," prosecutor Mark Frazier told The Associated Press after the trial. "The people who work in businesses like this are vigilant ... and risked being embarrassed if their suspicions turned out to be nothing, but that's what we want people to do."

For the first time in history, there are now more unemployed Americans who attended at least some college than people who only graduated high school or dropped out of high school, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.

Seasonally unadjusted BLS data from April show that about 4.7 million of the nation's 9 million unemployed either graduated from a four-year or a two-year college program or attended college for some time before dropping out. A smaller 4.3 million share of America's unemployed graduated only from high school or didn't finish high school. Jed Graham from Investor's Business Daily graphed the change.

This isn't necessarily bad news for college-bound kids, however. First of all, less educated people are more likely to not be counted as officially unemployed because they've dropped out of the labor force and stopped looking for work altogether. (Millions of these people are referred to as "discouraged workers," and they don't show up in monthly unemployment reports.) Secondly, less than 4 percent of college graduates over the age of 25 were unemployed in April, a far smaller share than the 7.9 percent unemployment rate for high school grads. High school drop outs, meanwhile, faced 12.5 percent unemployment.

A one-off National Lottery draw will create 100 millionaires as a 'thank you' to players for helping fund the London Olympics.

The EuroMillions Millionaire Raffle draw will take place on the night of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on July 27, a National Lottery spokesman said.

The event guarantees a million-pound cheque for 100 UK players, breaking the world record for the most millionaires created in a single draw.

Canada - You have to ask whether the RCMP has learned anything from the years of adverse publicity that has damaged the iconic force's reputation with Canadians.

Fatal misuse of Tasers, questionable in-custody deaths, botched major investigations such as Air India, a looming sexual-harassment lawsuit by a former member.

And now, with all that on the table, the RCMP admits a senior Alberta Mountie disciplined for sexual misconduct and drinking on the job is not being dismissed. Instead, he's being transferred from Edmonton to British Columbia, where trust in the RCMP could hardly be lower.

Donald Ray was a staff sergeant in Edmonton's K-Division behavioural sciences unit, in charge of its polygraph unit, when he was accused of disgraceful conduct.

The Ottawa Citizen obtained documents from Ray's internal disciplinary hearing.

Judges narrowly acquitted Socrates, the philosopher whose teachings earned him a death sentence in ancient Athens, in a retrial Friday billed as a lesson for modern times of revolution and crisis.

Socrates spoke himself at his trial in the fourth century BC, but this time in his absence, a panel of 10 US and European judges heard pleas by top Greek and foreign lawyers at the event at the Onassis Foundation in Athens.

Judges then voted on whether he was guilty on the ancient charges of evil-doing, impiety and corrupting the young.

In 399 BC, Socrates was made to die by drinking hemlock poison after being convicted by a jury of hundreds of Athenians. Unrepentant, he had insulted the judges at his trial and cheekily asked to be rewarded for his actions.

The modern judges spared him that dishonour this time, with an even vote -- five guilty and five not guilty, meaning that under ancient Athenian law he was not convicted.

Socrates' method of sceptical inquiry, preserved by his disciple Plato and other ancient authors, questioned conventional wisdom on sensitive notions of politics, religion and morality and earned him powerful enemies.

He was branded an enemy of democracy, accused of treason in favour of the Spartan enemy, and of influencing a violent uprising against the Athenian republic by a group of oligarchs that included some of his pupils.

The FBI has arrested and will file charges against a passenger on a Miami-bound flight from Jamaica who became unruly when the plane landed, according to NBC News' Pete Williams.

Officials say Ryan Snider, 24, of Canada, was arrested in connection with an incident on American Airlines Flight 320 in which, they say, Snider rushed toward the front of the plane after it had landed.

"There were no injuries or damage to the plane. There appears to be no nexus to terrorism and Snider was not on the no-fly list," the FBI told Williams. Snider may face federal charges of interference with a flight crew.

Airport officials said they received an urgent call at 10:19 a.m., as the plane, which had arrived from Montego Bay at 10:12 a.m., was taxiing.

Officials said the plane's crew had become concerned about Snider's behavior.