National News Headlines

Country music star and "The Voice" judge Blake Shelton is spearheading "Healing in the Heartland" to aid those affected by the tornadoes that devastated his home state.

Actress Amanda Bynes appeared in court briefly Friday morning after a wild Thursday night confrontation with police at her New York apartment.

Howard's letter, Penny's declaration of love, as well as Sheldon and Amy's big step forward, highlight a season filled with watershed moments.

Morgan Freeman has clarified that he did not actually doze off during an early-morning interview to promote his new movie. Nope, he was just updating Facebook.

Viewers were left with many questions after watching the last episode on "Arrested Development" seven years ago, but there are a few in particular we're dying to get answers to from the show's new episodes.

It's been a while since critics have been as unanimously negative about a big movie as they are about "The Hangover Part III." Some of the reviews are so angry, it's as if the film gave the critics themselves a pounding, painful hangover.

Billy Joel talks to the New York Times about his supposed feud with the singer, and also about the "beauty and the beast" syndrome in his romantic relationships.

Two "American Idol" fans in York, Penn., took a heated debate over season 12's top two to extremes when their argument ended in multiple stab wounds.

The Bluths are back! This Sunday, Orange County’s most dysfunctional TV family returns via Netflix for 15 new episodes. Here’s a quick guide to where each character’s story line left off.

Last fall, Superstorm Sandy brought devastation the boardwalk, but now the famous strip is back. To mark the occasion, the cast of "Jersey Shore" joined TODAY on the all-new boardwalk.

There's still a devoted cult following for the former children's TV icon developed by Paul Reubens, but they won't be gathering in Louisville to celebrate him any time soon.

This might be one trip that didn't need to be upsold, but it was worth it for one deep-pocketed guest at Cannes' amFAR gala to pay big bucks to see the stars with a star.

Eddie Van Halen is regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and now a young girl is racking up YouTube views with her spot-on cover of his classic, "Eruption."

Most people get to keep their marital mistakes private, but not country singer LeAnn Rimes. National magazines wrote about the tangled end of the singer's first marriage, and now Rimes tells "Entertainment Tonight" she asks for forgiveness "on a daily basis" for breaking her marriage vows.

One of your 1990s "Friends" just got a heckuva lot more friendly. In the new trailer for her upcoming movie "We're the Millers," Jennifer Aniston plays a stripper who agrees to pretend to be a suburban mom to help Jason Sudeikis smuggle marijuana into the U.S.

Maya Rudolph and Danny McBride have taken a few awkward turns on the big and small screens, but they turned it up a notch for GQ magazine's June comedy issue.

George Jones was a Country Music Hall of Famer, Grand Ole Opry member and Kennedy Center Honoree, and the singer of such hits as "The Grand Tour," "She Thinks I Still Care" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

Opinion: Country legends all agreed he was the best, but here's an argument for why George Jones was the best American pop singer ever recorded.

Cordell "Boogie" Mosson died of liver failure on April 18 after a long and funky career with the George Clinton-fronted band.

Bob Weir was helped offstage Thursday night after he was unable to finish his performance with Furthur at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York.

Justin Bieber's European tour has hit another snag, as a search of his tour bus revealed illegal substances.

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell may have been friends for decades, but "Love Has Come for You" is their first musical collaboration, and they sang the title track on TODAY Tuesday.

His 1969 song "Sweet Caroline" has become an anthem of sorts following the recent attacks.

Richie Havens, who opened the 1969 Woodstock music festival, died Monday at age 72, his talent agency reports.

A large collection of items from the "Good Vibrations" band was located in a storage locker, and is now expected to draw millions at auction.

Singer/songwriter Neil Diamond is pleased that his song "Sweet Caroline" has been adopted around the country to lend support in the wake of the Marathon bombings.

Active duty military personnel and their families now have one more tradition to add to the Memorial Day holiday weekend: free admission at more than 2,000 arts, science and history museums around the country. The patriotic perk comes courtesy of the "Blue Star Museums" program and includes complimentary entrance to sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa for all active duty, National Guard and Reserve military personnel and their families from Memorial Day right through Labor Day.

This weekend, millions will cross 66,000 bridges that the federal government has deemed "structurally deficient," meaning key elements are in poor condition.

Baited mousetraps are landing in mailboxes around the country. They're postcards and letters promisingtwo round-trip airline tickets plus hotel room or a free cruise if youcall a toll-free number right away.

On Thursday, Stephen Leatherman, aka, "Dr. Beach," released his annual "Top 10 Beach List," giving Main Beach in East Hampton, N.Y., top honors, in large part because of how fast it rebounded from Superstorm Sandy’s devastation last fall.

A company that promised sightseer tours to the Bronx that included a New York City "ghetto" has stopped the bus rides under protest from an outraged neighborhood. Real Bronx Tours, which took mostly European tourists from Manhattan to see life in the South Bronx "from a safe distance," issued a statement this week saying it would immediately cease all tours there.

The cruise industry said Wednesday that it's adopting a passenger bill of rights that guarantees the "safety, comfort and care" of guests. The bill of rights promises, among other things, full refunds for trips that are canceled due to mechanical failure, and a backup power source on every ship to keep emergency systems running in the event of a main generator failure.

Cate Hatton, 31, wanted a fairytale wedding. So when she was considering wedding venues, the choice was clear: she needed to book a castle.

On Thursday, Stephen Leatherman, aka, "Dr. Beach," released his annual "Top 10 Beach List," giving Main Beach in East Hampton, N.Y., top honors, in large part because of how fast it rebounded from Superstorm Sandy’s devastation last fall.

Regular train service returned to Connecticut on Wednesday, five days after a derailment injured scores of commuters and damaged tracks. Commuter rail service from Connecticut to New York City, along with Amtrak service between Boston and New York, was back on schedule on one of the nation's oldest and most heavily traveled railways.

The Burma Shave signs are long gone and Route 66 exists in name only but this summer travelers can hit the road in a rig that truly recalls the glory days of the Great American Road Trip. Launched earlier this month, Airstream2Go.com offers the first-ever rentals of the distinctive “silver bullets” that have been icons of the highway for more than 80 years.

In an era where air travel has come to feel like riding a city bus in the sky, Virgin America soared above the competition in Consumer Reports airline rankings released Wednesday. “Virgin America is a cut above the rest,” Consumer Reportssenior editor Amanda Walker told NBC News.

He was judged guilty by public opinion after his cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, capsized off the tiny Italian island of Giglio last year, killing 32 people and leaving thousands traumatized. Now Captain Francesco Schettino will face justice in a court of law.

Travelers heading out for the Memorial Day weekend may be facing pain at the pump but that won’t stop them from getting in their cars. They just won’t be heading to the airport.

Not only do people edit their vacation photos they post on Facebook, a little cropping here, a little faux vintage filter there, they're actually starting to edit how they live their vacations in order to get a more impressive status update. After all, living your your travels in real time for an online audience is like producing your own reality show.

Summer vacationers can find a range of activities in the Aloha state, from volcano tours to culinary gems to whale watching. But where does one go in the archipelago?

Traffic in southwest Connecticut could be a mess for as much as a week until service is restored to the commuter rail line affected by a derailment that injured scores of passengers, Gov. Dannel P.

Clinton Shepherd’s world has finally stopped spinning. The 32-year-old operations manger at Chicago’s Navy Pier lakefront entertainment attraction spent the entire weekend riding a gondola on the Pier’s 15-story tall Ferris wheel in an effort to break the Guinness World Record for riding a fairground or theme park attraction the longest.

After 123 days being grounded and then repaired to ensure its battery systems do not catch fire, Boeing 787 Dreamliners are about to once again make commercial flight in the United States. A United Airlines 787 will fly from Houston to Chicago Monday morning carrying more than 250 passengers including the CEO's of United and Boeing.

ISTANBUL- A hot-air balloon flying over a tourist destination in central Turkey crashed after colliding with another balloon on Monday, the Anatolian news agency reported.

LONDON – The horrific public slaying of a soldier in London, five weeks after the Boston Marathon bombings, illustrates the possible emergence of a new terror trend towards unsophisticated attacks that are practically impossible to prevent, intelligence experts warned.

More than a thousand people died because of one man - as an official inquiry into last month's garment factory collapse in Bangladesh blamed the owner for violating building codes. Many of the victims are now seeking compensation. But some workers might not receive a penny. It's been reported that their ID cards were confiscated when they got their final pay packets.  ITV’s Jonathan Rugman reports. (Nightly News)

Rebecca Rigby, the widow of the British soldier who was murdered in London, fights back tears to talk about the “devoted father” she never expected to die while on UK soil. “You think they’re safe,” she says alongside their family spokesman. (NBC News)

In a counterterrorism speech on Thursday, President Obama focused on narrowrt guidelines for deadly drone strikes, arguing they are legal and effective, and announced an end to the ban on transferring detainees from Guantanamo back to Yemen. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports. (TODAY)

A mom who confronted a blood-soaked, knife-carrying man moments after the apparently ideologically motivated murder of a British soldier said she did so in order to protect onlookers.

The British soldier brutally killed in London in a suspected terror attack was a drummer in a military band who had served in Afghanistan, officials said on Thursday.

The Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron said, the best way to defeat terrorism is to go about our normal lives. In Woolwich, the locals have been doing their best to do just that.   TV’s Penny Marshall reports.    (Nightly News)

A car bomb explodes in Pakistan, missing the intended target but killing the Islamic religious school leader's guard instead. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports. (NBCNews.com)

Suicide bombers struck a mine run by French nuclear group Areva and a military barracks in Niger on Thursday, killing and wounding several people in separate attacks.

A retired couple in Colombia has turned their plant eaters into a thriving business that exports four tons of snail meat a month to Europe. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports. (NBCNews.com)

The alert level was raised to green after the Turrialba Volcano in Costa Rica spewed ash for e third day. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports. (NBCNews.com)

The Obama administration publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that U.S.drone strikes have killed four American citizens since 2009, including the previously undisclosed death of a North Carolina resident who left the United States for Pakistan and was later indicted on federal terrorism charges.

An American tourist underwent emergency surgery after being stabbed in the Italian city of Florence on Tuesday, a hospital doctor and media reports said.

An 80-year-old Japanese mountaineer on Thursday became the oldest man to reach the top of Mount Everest, a Nepali official and Miura's Tokyo-based support team said.

Iranian authorities have barred two potentially powerful and disruptive candidates from running in next month's presidential election, ensuring a contest largely among hardliners loyal to the clerical supreme leader.

China’s Ai Weiwei on Wednesday released a profanity-laced heavy-metal single based on the 81 days the firebrand artist and activist spent in detention.

He was judged guilty by public opinion after his cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, capsized off the tiny Italian island of Giglio last year, killing 32 people and leaving thousands traumatized. Now Captain Francesco Schettino will face justice in a court of law.

A month after the deadly factory collapse in Bangladesh, that killed more than a thousand people, ITV News visited one of the factories in Dhaka that makes clothing for the west. ITV’s Laura Kuenssberg reports.  (Nightly News)

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's prime minister designate Nawaz Sharif told a packed hall of his party stalwarts that talks with the Taliban -- who have been fighting the state for almost a decade -- are not off the table.

A man committed suicide inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Tuesday, prompting the clearing out of hundreds of tourists, who had been waiting in a snaking line to visit the 850-year-old landmark.

Activists say they have collected over 2 million signatures on a petition expressing “no confidence” in President Mohamed Morsi, a move they hope will trigger early presidential elections.

TEL AVIV, Israel — It is an extraordinary image that became a global symbol of Palestinian victimhood at the hands of the Israelis: A 12-year-old old boy cowering behind his father moments before he was killed during a gunbattle in Gaza.

Riot police spent a second night outside Stockholm trying to control protesters angry about a recent police shooting, NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports. (NBCNews.com)

A set of three-month-old conjoined twins were separated by doctors in Peru who successfully split their shared liver. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports. (NBCNews.com)

The Vatican is responding to claims by an Italian television station that footage shows the Pope performing an exorcism. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports. (NBCNews.com)

A man climbed onto a ledge on the dome of St Peter's Basilica on Monday and unfurled a banner protesting against a "political horror show."

After eight years in office, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will meet his successor next month after Iranians go to the polls. Meet some of the men hoping to occupy the top elected post.

Besides being beautiful, Costa Rica's beaches are the nesting sites of four endangered sea turtle species, which return yearly to lay their eggs. But there is trouble for these reptiles — egg thieves.

Syrian activists report that dozens of people were killed in fighting on Sunday in Qusair, a town in the central province of Homs that has been under rebel control since early last year. NBCNews.com's Richard Lui reports. (NBCNews.com)

North Korea fired two short-range missiles on Monday, making six launches in three days, and condemned South Korea for criticizing what Pyongyang said were legitimate military drills.

ISTANBUL- A hot-air balloon flying over a tourist destination in central Turkey crashed after colliding with another balloon on Monday, the Anatolian news agency reported.