An NBC reporter gains access to a region just a few nautical miles from the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategic waterways. NBC’s Ali Arouzi reports. (Nightly News)

South Korean activists sent warm socks and messages of love attached to balloons toward North Korea Saturday, according to the AFP news agency.

Anger over Twitter's new policy to censor messages on a country-by-country basis is resulting in protests by some Twitter users who say they will refuse to tweet on Saturday.

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: The sunspot responsible for setting off a colorful round of northern lights got off a doozy of a parting shot, just as it was about to pass around the edge of the sun's disk.

Chandler: What's that noise? Either Bigfoot is close by, or it's the women's singles final featuring Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova at the Australian Open.

France and Afghanistan agree NATO should speed up by a year its timetable for handing all combat operations to Afghan forces in 2013, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, raising new questions about the unity of the Western military alliance.

Two tragic spine injuries in Minnesota high school hockey games in the last month have sparked debate among parents, officials, and fans over how the rough sport can be made safer.

On the heavily redacted recording, one of Moore's friends argues with the dispatcher amid confusion over which agency should be sending paramedics.

LeBron James scored 31 points, Dwyane Wade scored 28 in his return from a sprained right ankle, and the Miami Heat beat the 3-point-obsessed New York Knicks 99-89 on Friday night.

The U.S. women's soccer team booked their way to London on Friday night with a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament.

A Tennessee dad rescued Juno from a shelter just days before she was due to be euthanized. Chester Hembree said he had a gut-feeling that the Belgian shepherd was the dog capable of helping his 4-year-old son, who has an irreversible degenerative condition.

A federal judge in Seattle has sentenced the "Barefoot Bandit" to 6 1/2 years in prison for his two-year, international crime spree of break-ins, and boat and plane thefts.

Any university student who has ever purchased a used textbook knows that there are sometimes strange surprises hiding between those pages. Usually they come in the form of messy scribbles, but in one student's case the unexpected gift-with-a-textbook-purchase was a bag of cocaine.

The economy perked up late last year as factories ramped up production. Unfortunately, a lot of what those factories made is still in warehouses and on store shelves. 

Newt Gingrich unleashes a fiery ad attacking his rival while Romney appealed to Florida’s Hispanic voters. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports. (Nightly News)

Influential Republicans are mobilizing to stop presidential candidate Newt Gingrich from ascending in the race. NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell reports. (Nightly News)

A small asteroid the size of a city bus zoomed between Earth and the moon's orbit Friday, just days after its discovery, but it never posed a threat to our planet, NASA says.

If the stars continue to align properly over the desert, McIlroy might finally give Woods what he’s lacked his entire career — a rival with staying power.

If there's going to be a David Tyree in Super Bowl XLVI, it'll be a guy like Julian Edelman.