Two freight trains collided and derailed early Saturday in southeast Missouri, then triggered the collapse of a highway overpass when several rail cars struck a support pillar.Seven people were injured, including two personnel on the trains and five individuals in cars on the overpass on Highway M near Scott City, about 120 miles south of St. Louis, NBC affiliateKSDK reported. All the injured wer...

Imagine playing through a level of the popular zombie shooter "Left 4 Dead" on a system that tracks your heart rate, eye movements, even how clammy your skin is getting, all to measure just how scared you are.For 250 lucky or extremely unlucky test subjects, fear-based gaming was a reality, at least in an experimental program led by the game studio Valve. If the game could sense that a player ...

An Army battalion commander at the Space and Missile Defense Command at Fort Greely, Alaska, is under investigation for allegedly "condoning" adultery and creating an "open season" climate when it comes tosexual activity among the troops, military and defense officials tell NBC News. According to one military official, "It's as if that was the only thing to do" at the remote Alaska base. ...

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey is constructing 1.5-mile twin walls at a border crossing with Syria to increase security at the frontier following three deadly bombings this year.The concrete walls will be built on either side of the road leading from the Turkish side of the crossing at Cilvegozu to the Syrian border gate and will be topped with barbed wire, the Turkish Customs Ministry said in a stateme...

When the field lines up on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track this weekend, theyll begin with a pace lap behind a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray driven by San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.Although Harbaugh might be more used to a gridiron than starting grid, he should feel at home behind the wheel of the newly updated Vette that owes much of its advancements to the General Motors raci...

After famously telling hurricane-weary tourists in 2011 to get the hell back on the beach," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is on another, softer, mission to lure visitors back to his states sandy shores.With the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy last fall still on the minds of many vacationers, Christie is spending Memorial Day weekend the unofficial start of the summer season traveling ...

ISLAMABAD -- At least 17 children were burned to death in eastern Pakistan on Saturday when a faulty gas cylinder exploded on the bus taking them to school, police said.Police officer Mohammed Rasheed said seven children were also injured in the explosion on the outskirts of the city of Gujrat."This is a very sad incident. According to our information, at least 17 children were burned to death," h...

If you've been bemoaning your lack of romantic options, don't give up hope. Peter Backus, a researcher in the U.K. who once calculated he had only a 1 in 285,000 chance of finding love, has beaten the odds: He's getting married this weekend.In 2010, Backus, then a tutor at the University of Warwick, published "Why I Don't Have A Girlfriend," a research paper that used something called the Drake eq...

EPHRATAH, N.Y. --A small airplane operating as a volunteer Angel Flight crashed into a pond in upstate New York on Friday evening, killing at least two people, authorities said.Fulton County Sheriff Thomas Lorey said the flight's two passengers were found dead and investigators are searching for the pilot, who is missing. Officials did not immediately identify the passengers or pilot.The Pipe...

The Army has launched an investigation into possible sexual misconduct or sexual assault at the Space and Missile Defense Command at Fort Greely, Alaska, military and defense officials tell NBC News.The sources report there are allegations that an Army commander or commanders had sexual relations with female soldiers under their command.It's not clear whether the alleged contact was forced or cons...

When I was young, the majority opinion at least among the kids at my school was that the devil played the fiddle better than Johnny did in the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Obviously, that would have messed up the general narrative of that song, but it was a good lesson in subjectivity. Its all a matter of opinion. There isnt a best ever. Not really. Not even in a song.But it leads ...

By Becky Bratu, Kate Snow, Tim Uehlinger and Jay Kernis, NBC NewsAs she tours the husk of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla. -- the little that was left behind after a powerful tornado shredded everything in its 17-mile path -- Principal Amy Simpson thinks back to Monday morning, when her biggest task was helping the sixth-graders get ready for their graduation ceremony.Pre-K teacher L...

A British zoo worker who was injured in a tiger attack at an animal park near Dalton-in-Furness has died, police said Friday.Sarah McClay, 24, from the Barrow area, was attacked by a tiger within its enclosure Friday afternoon, Cumbria police said. The woman was taken by air ambulance to Royal Preston Hospital following the attack at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park, but she did not survive.McClay...

PHOENIX -- A federal judge ruled Friday that the office of America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff systematically singled out Latinos in its trademark immigration patrols, marking the first finding by a court that the agency racially profiles people.The 142-page decision by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow in Phoenix backs up allegations that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's critics have mad...

A 15-year-old boy is in custody after authorities investigating the stabbing deaths of his younger adopted brothers found him miles away with traces of blood on him, officials said.He was arrested Thursday in the deaths of the boys, ages 4 and 10, at the family home in a Utah subdivision of new houses and tidy lawns, police said."He spoke bluntly with our investigators," said Davis County Sheriff ...

By Joe Rao, SPACE.com A trio of bright planets is shining together in the sunset sky, a must-see night sky sight for stargazers this Memorial Day weekend.Three planets Jupiter, Venus and Mercury can be now be seen in the western sky at dusk, weather permitting, in a rare and beautiful gathering that changes from night to night. Astronomers call a meeting of objects in the night sky a conjun...

Infamnia! McDonalds Italy rolled out a new menu item featuring the countrys most beloved culinary staple: pasta.The fast-food giant is partnering with Italian pasta brand Barilla to serve a pasta salad with tuna, tomatoes, peppers, capers and olives with a price of 4.90 euros. Roberto Masi, CEO of McDonald's Italy, said in a statement the new offering was responding to the tastes of the Italian...

Scientists-- and parents-- have long wondered why we dont remember anything that happened before age 3. As all parents know, no matter how momentous an event is in a toddlers life, the memory soon drifts away and within months there isnt even a wisp of it left.Now a new study shows that infantile amnesia may be due to the rapid growth of nerve cells in the hippocampus, the brain region resp...

Five climbers including two Hungarians and a South Korean are missing on the world's third-highest mountain and feared dead, a mountaineering official said Friday.The five disappeared Monday on Mount Kanchenjunga, and bad weather was preventing a rescue helicopter from reaching their base camp.Mountaineering Department official Dipendra Poudel said Friday that the climbers were descending from t...

Actress Amanda Bynes appeared in court briefly Friday morning after a wild Thursday night confrontation with police at her New York apartment. Bynes was released from police custody until a July 9 court date.According to NBC New York, Bynes' lawyer told the judge she had never been in any trouble before, and the actress was warned that another arrest or failure to appear would lead to "significan...

On Thursday evening, a bridge along Interstate 5 in Washington State collapsed. Early on Friday, Google Maps already reflected the incident. Google's secret for such a speedy update? An army of volunteers."As soon as the local news picked up on the bridge collapse, someone used the Map Maker tool to go into Google Maps to edit it to reflect the bridge collapse," Google spokesperson Sierra Lovelace...

Health officials fear they have another outbreak of infections linked to pain injections -- this one because at least seven people in two states developed abscesses after getting injections of steroid drugs. They're all linked to a single pharmacy: Main Street Family Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy in Newbern, Tenn.Tennessee state officials say the facility distributed the products to 13 states:...

Kaitlyn Hunt, the 18-year-old Florida cheerleader facing felony charges for a sexual relationship she had with a younger girl, has refused to take a plea deal in the case, her lawyers said Friday.Hunt now must go to court to face two charges of lewd and lascivious battery on a minor. If convicted, shefaces up to 15 years in prison and would haveto register as a sex offender.Under the deal offered ...

California has unveiled prices that consumers will pay for a selection of health plans offered through the state under the Affordable Care Act, providing a glimpse into how health care reform may look as it is rolled out across the nation. Under the federal health care reform law, people who do not get or cannot afford health insurance through their jobs can buy coverage through an exchange, at a...

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, under pressure to respond to allegations he was filmed using drugs, said on Friday that he does not smoke crack cocaine and could not comment on a video he had not seen or does not exist. "There has been a serious accusation from the Toronto Star that I use crack cocaine. I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine," he told a news conference. The T...