The massive tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., on Monday bore down hardon Plaza Towers Elementary School, where children sheltered inside from the roaring gusts, even as the building began to come apart around them.The winds and flying debris from the mile-wide tornado claimed at least two dozen lives, the Oklahoma medical examiner said on Tuesday. Nine of those victims were children.The sev...

The Voice set aside its usual flashiness and kicked off with a call to action on Tuesday's results show.Coach Blake Shelton and wife Miranda Lambert opened the program with a touching version of Over You, dedicated to the people of Oklahoma, Blake's home state, which was devastated by a deadly tornado Monday. The performance stripped away all the shows usual extravagance and replaced it with ...

Updated at 12:24 a.m. ET: It's over! Kellie Pickler is the winner of the 16th season of "Dancing With the Stars." The confetti rained down on the "American Idol" alum and country-music star as she was awarded the coveted (though some might call it a little tacky) mirror-ball trophy on Tuesday night. It's an honor she shares with her pro partner, Derek Hough, who now has the distinction of being th...

There's Versace's former home, priced at $100 million, Steven Cohen's $115 million apartment and a Manhattan penthouse listed at $125 million. But none of them hold a candle to an estate that spans 50 acres of waterfront in Greenwich, Conn. that recently hit the market at $190 million, becoming the most expensive residential listing in the U.S.While the house is impressive public records measure...

North Korea says that a "special envoy" for leader Kim Jong Un has left for China.The North's official Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch Wednesday that the envoy was Choe Ryong Hae.There were no other details. Choe is the North Korea military's top political officer tasked with supervising the 1.2-million-strong force.China is North Korea's only major political and economic be...

A former manager at the IRS Cincinnati office at the center of the controversy over the targeting of conservative political organizations seeking tax-exempt status tells NBC News she doesnt think low-level employees acted on their own in flagging them for further scrutiny. But she also said that in her time at the IRS she has never known politics or partisan motivations to play any role in the o...

When Jes Baker heard that Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries wasn't interested in customers her size, she decided to respond by showing him what he was missing.In an open letter to Jeffries posted on her blog "The Militant Baker" this week, Baker took aim at the CEO's remarks about his brand's target audience, and reinterpreted Abercrombie & Fitch's signature "A&F" letters to stand ...

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.Before pulling a gun and shooting himself in the head, the elderly man placed a letter on the altar, The Associated Press reported. Its contents were not known.The man said nothing before he pulled the...

Heroic action was in no short supply Monday as a massive tornado blazed a trail of destruction through Moore, Okla.Did you witness ordinary people doing extraordinary things? Share your stories, photos and video with us by email, or on Twitter using hashtag #OKheroes -- but only if it is safe to do so.Selected responses may be used in an upcoming story.

The worst of it lasted for about an hour. But the human, physical and economic toll of the Oklahoma tornado will rank among the most devastating weather events of its kind. "This is going to be one of the top five costliest tornadoes in U.S. history," said Evan Gold, senior vice president of client services at Planalytics, a weather consulting firm.The full impact of the human loss was still u...

Search teams, including some with trained dogs, are scouring the rubble left behind by the monster tornado that flattened miles of homes, schools and businesses in Oklahoma City and its suburbs Monday. More than 100 people had been found alive by rescuers as of Tuesday afternoon.While it's uncertain exactly how many people are still missing, rescuers are up against the clock to find survivors, exp...

A fourth-grader at a school that took a direct hit from Mondays deadly tornado in Moore, Okla., described the heroic actions of a teacher who saved his life and others by covering several students with her body to shield them from the storm.Damian Britton, a student at Plaza Towers Elementary School, recounted a harrowing scene to Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Tuesday. He also had an emotional reunio...

Related:'Major damage' as huge tornado slams Oklahoma

Explore the Bing map, or Google map of Moore, Okla.More on the Oklahoma tornado:Slideshow: Tornadoes ravage PlainsPhotoBlog: Aerials show destructive path of Oklahoma tornadoThe school started coming apart: Trapped students had nowhere to hideCurse or coincidence? Scientists study Tornado Alley's past and future

Officials in the Oklahoma City suburb ravaged by deadly tornadoes Monday complained earlier this year about FEMAs foot-dragging over $2 million in federal grants for safe rooms in 800 homes that would protect people from severe weather.Our countywide Hazard Mitigation Plan still has not been approved by the State and FEMA,said a statement posted in February on the City of Moores website. It...

Two people have died and five others have been hospitalized in a mysterious cluster of respiratory illnesses in southeast Alabama, state health officials said.The victims, all adults, had symptoms including fever, cough and shortness of breath, but the cause of the illnesses is unknown, said Dr. Mary McIntyre, the acting state epidemiologist for the Alabama Department of Public Health. The hospit...

Apple CEO Tim Cook is disputing assertions by a Senate panel that the company avoids billions of dollars in U.S. taxes by shifting profits to foreign affiliates.Cook testified at a hearing Tuesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which released a damning report Monday on Apple's tax practices."We pay all the taxes we owe every single dollar," Cook said. "We don't depend on...

By Larry O'HanlonDiscovery NewsHumans today eat gorillas and chimpanzees, so why would our prehistoric ancestors flinch at sitting down to a nicely roasted Neanderthal?That's the shocking new hypothesis being raised by anthropologists in Spain who wonder if our closest extinct relative was exterminated in the same way as 178 other large mammals, so called megafauna, which are suspected of going at...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Thousands of healthcare workers walked off the job at the University of California's five medical centers on Tuesday, delaying surgeries, diagnostic procedures, treatments and emergency care throughout the state.The union representing nearly 13,000 vocational nurses, respiratory therapists and radiology technologists said they staged the strike -- scheduled to last two days ...

SAN FRANCISCO --A federal court in San Francisco Tuesday struck down Arizona's ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violates a string of U.S. Supreme Court rulings starting with Roe v. Wade that guarantees a woman's right to an abortion before a fetus is able to survive outside the womb. That's generally considered to be about...

By Suzanne Choney, Contributing Writer, NBC NewsThe loss of life and stunning devastation in Oklahoma City suburbs after a monster tornado ripped through the area are heart-wrenching. "The streets are just gone. The signs are just gone," said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, after she toured the area by helicopter Tuesday. And many, many relief organizations are getting the message out on how to help.Am...

Several power utilities say they face a barrage of cyberattacks on their critical systems, a report by two Democratic lawmakers found, echoing warnings from the Obama administration that foreign hackers were trying to bring down the U.S. power grid.Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., released the report, co-authored with Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., at the House Energy and Commerce Committee's cybersecurity ...

A top IRS official scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Oversight committee has notified Congress that she will invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer questions.Lois Lerner, head of the IRS unit which handled tax exempt organizations, won't answer questions about what she knows about the improper screening of conservative groups or about why she repeatedly failed to tell Congre...

Army Brigadier General Bryan T. Roberts, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Training Center and Fort Jackson, located in Fort Jackson, S.C., is being investigated for adultery and for being involved in a physical altercation, the Army announced Tuesday. Roberts has been suspended from his duties.The altercation allegedly involved Roberts and an unidentified woman he is now being investigated ...

Acknowledging that it would jeopardize the passage of a sweeping immigration reform bill, a top ally of LGBT rights advocates will not call for a committee vote on an amendment that would include the spouses of LGBT individuals with the same standing as heterosexual couples in immigration law.Senate Judiciary Committee ChairmanPatrick Leahy announced "with a heavy heart" that he would withhold h...