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.

You know "that guy," the one who still goes to work and sees friends even when he's sick? Anna Post of the Emily Post Institute has some tips for him. Find out the "do's" and "don't" of being sick.

Did you ever wish, during those bleary nighttime feedings, for an extra set of boobs to shoulder the burden? Dorea Vierling-Claassen got that wish, when her wife, Angela Vierling-Claassen, agreed to co-nurse.

With a few more days to go and a few more pounds to lose in the challenge, readers share their motivation and what's working for them.

More teens have developed the puzzling symptoms of tics and verbal outbursts, which one doctor has diagnosed as a rare type of mass hysteria. Now environmental activist Erin Brockovich is investigating a possible link with a 40-year-old chemical spill.

Condiments are a source of “hidden” calories because people often forget to account for them when tracking their food intake. Click for more and to join Joy Bauer's 25,000 pound Weight-loss Challenge.

A 26-year-old woman is treated for hypothermia after rescue crews pulled her from her car that landed in an icy Spokane river. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports. (msnbc.com)

Parts of Europe were hit hard by heavy snow and frigid temperatures for a second day, leaving hundreds trapped in cars, dozens of communities without power and at least one person dead.

Buckets of rain and powerful winds that apparently spawned several tornadoes swept across Texas on Wednesday, forcing drivers to abandon cars on flooded roads but not dropping enough water to make up for a historic dry spell.

Severe flooding and landslides in Fiji have killed six people and left hundreds more homeless.

A storm from the broiling sun turned the chilly northernmost skies of Earth into an ever-changing and awe-provoking art show of northern lights on Tuesday night.

The northern half of the U.S. can expect a much colder second half of winter, while drought-hit Texas and some other parts of the South are likely to see above normal temperatures, a weather forecasting service predicted Tuesday.

A new unpublished history of the Afghanistan war details hows American forces, hamstrung by inadequate resources, missed opportunities to stabilize Afghanistan during the early years of the conflict.

Thirty-seven years later, three people face trial on murder charges for what prosecutors say was an ambush triggered by a love triangle around a woman and three Marine buddies.

A U.S. base on Okinawa is the focus of a deepening dispute that is testing Japan's security alliance with the United States and dividing its new government in Tokyo.

A survivor of the suicide bombing on the USS Cole in Yemen 10 years ago has died at his Florida home.

The family of a U.S. soldier captured in eastern Afghanistan pleads for his release after the Taliban releases a video showing the airborne infantryman, who has been held more than five months.

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.

Four alleged members of the Bonanno organized crime family have been charged with include racketeering, gambling and drug sales.

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. 

Home prices have fallen by a third since the 2006, creating tremendous bargains for home buyers. Mortgage rates are at rock-bottom lows, making houses more affordable than they have been in decades.

There's no doubt that the U.S. unemployment rate of 8.5 percent (as of December) is painful for Americans. But pain can be relative.

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.

Pakistan's closure of major supply routes for U.S. and NATO supplies going to Afghanistan is costing the U.S. over $100 million per day. But relations between the two nations remain stuck at a standstill. NBC's Amna Nawaz reports from Peshawar.

Israel is proposing to essentially turn its West Bank separation barrier into the border with a future state of Palestine, two Palestinian officials said Friday, based on their interpretation of principles Israel presented in talks this week.

As China expands its influence on the Mekong River, it is encroaching on a region dominated for decades by a much more profitable trade: narcotics.

Julia Gillard is on firm footing again. A blue suede shoe that she lost during a protest by aboriginal-rights activists has been returned.

A new taste for eating elephant meat — everything from trunks to sex organs — has emerged in Thailand and could pose a new threat to the survival of the species.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claims that the Navy's sonar use might be strong enough to kill the marine mammals.

A federal "plant hardiness" map used by millions of gardeners was updated Wednesday for the first time in two decades, revealing many areas where the coldest day of the year isn't as cold anymore.

Officials at an airport in Indonesia seized 1,495 live pig-nosed turtles crammed into two suitcases.

Some 33 long-finned pilot whales that were refloated off a New Zealand beach with the help of volunteers became stranded again and will have to be euthanized, officials say.

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Scientists catalog the biodiversity of one of the world's last pristine tropical forests — and come upon some strange-looking new species.

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.

Maybe those swing changes are paying off for Tiger Woods.

Wesseling: Remember David Tyree? The Giants do. And you know the Patriots do. The former New York receiver was a special teams star who caught a touchdown and an incredible pass late in the fourth quarter that set up the Giants' game-winning score in Super Bowl XLII. Could there be another Tyree in this year's game? We've identified the most likely candidates.

Bobby Cremins' assistant says the veteran basketball coach hasn't looked well the past few weeks and Friday evening the College of Charleston announced Cremins will miss the rest of the season because of a medical problem.

Novak Djokovic overcame his breathing problems and a "physical crisis" to beat Andy Murray in an almost five-hour Australian Open semifinal Friday night and move into his third straight Grand Slam final.