Sprinting up 86 flights of stairs of the Empire State Building -- even if it's for a worthy cause -- is not everyone's idea of a good time. Especially when there's an elevator nearby. But tonight, more than 650 participants will take the long way up one of New York's most iconic landmarks at this year's Empire State Building Run-Up.

Move over, coffee and Red Bull. A Harvard professor thinks the next big thing will be people inhaling their caffeine from a lipstick-sized tube. Critics say the novel product is not without its risks.

The company that made its name peddling drugstore paternity tests to uncertain parents now says that more than 1 in 10 adults in the U.S. has had reason to ask the question: Who’s your Daddy? Gary Garner finally confirmed he's the real father of Skyler, 14.

Illinois is basking in its sixth warmest winter in 117 years -- good news for residents who have not had to shovel snow but a red flag for some of the state's most productive businesses: farms.

At least four Balkan nations suspended shipping on the Danube River because of severe frost and the vast amount of ice blocking the heavily traveled waterway.

Organizers in the Netherlands say it is still too early to decide if a 125-mile (200-kilometer) skating marathon across frozen waterways can be staged for the first time in 15 years.

Hard as it may be to believe if you live in the Northeast or upper Midwest, last January was not the warmest on record across the lower 48 states, federal recordkeepers announced Tuesday.

Much of Europe is still covered in snow and ice, but some areas are already seeing deadly flooding amid concerns that it will get worse before it gets better.

In a vineyard in Moravia, the Arctic chill striking Europe at least has some people jumping with joy.

A new unpublished history of the Afghanistan war details hows American forces, hamstrung by inadequate resources, missed opportunities to stabilize Afghanistan during the early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

Emergency calls placed in the minutes after Josh Powell killed his two young sons were released Tuesday, including one from the "traumatized" social worker outside the house.

A teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old neighbor because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Honda is bracing for a possible flood of lawsuits if it loses an appeal of a recent small claims court decision that ruled the Civic Hybrid's mileage didn't live up to promises.

Online dating sites advertise groundbreaking technology and sophisticated formulas and state-of-the-art programming to help you find your true soul mate.  But does it work?

Lovebirds spend an average of $100 on gifts for their Valentine. Here's a way to make sure your sweetie gets some tasty sweets without breaking the bank.

The hottest acts in the music business earn their pay by living in the recording studio or on the road. But even pop stars need a place to call home every once and awhile. Here are some of theirs.

Nello Ferrara, the man who led the company that invented those confectionery classics and others (Lemonheads, Boston Baked Beans, Atomic Fireballs), has died.

Those who work well at home are those who can do it all and then some, and not be distracted by the TV, the refrigerator or a warm summer's day.

Amazon Prime is the new disruptive force that will once again redefine consumers' shopping expectations much as the Sears catalog did more than 100 years ago.

Jimmy Fallon perhaps unwisely took on Michelle Obama at the White House in several exercise competitions, while Jimmy Kimmel pointed out Mitt Romney's loose approach to facts.

Bulgaria and Romania are suspending all shipping on the Danube River due to the vast amount of ice blocking the waterway amid Europe's widespread big freeze.

Greece's economic crisis is taking its toll on people - hospital admissions are up 25%, suicides are up 40% and violent crimes, including murder, are up almost 100%. NBC's Keith Miller reports from Athens.

Supporters of the Maldives' former president rioted Wednesday as the country's new leader appealed for an end to the political turmoil in this Indian Ocean nation.

After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have reached the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years — a lake that may hold life from the distant past and clues to the search for life on other planets.

A prominent Chinese official who might have been the country's highest-profile policeman has dropped from sight amid unconfirmed reports of a scandal and a bid for U.S. asylum.

California's Gold Rush was more than a century-and-a-half ago, but its Wild West spirit lives on in a dispute between government agencies and a landowner in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Hard as it may be to believe if you live in the Northeast or upper Midwest, last January was not the warmest on record across the lower 48 states, federal recordkeepers announced Tuesday.

Quiet oceans make for calmer right whales, new research suggests. When fewer ships sail the Bay of Fundy, the big baleen whales are less stressed — as evidenced by hormone levels in their poop.

Pakistanis reel in one of the biggest fish in the sea: a whale shark.

Nepal has opened vulture "restaurants" to save the birds from extinction — and at the same time help impoverished villages become self-sufficient.

Nearly 130 dolphins have beached themselves on Cape Cod in the last three weeks, with 92 dying in what's become "the single largest stranding" in at least two decades in the Northeast.

The stars of SeaWorld were the main attraction in federal court as a judge weighed PETA's claim that they are being treated like slaves.

Winderman: 2-time winner says he's got a better game, but will he utilize it to win his first NBA title?

PFT: According to the latest surveys conducted by Nielsen and partner E-Poll Market Research, published by Forbes, Vick is the most disliked athlete in all of sports, just edging out Tiger Woods.

Arc: Everything should run through Harrison Barnes tonight, and there is no solid matchup for him one-on-one. Tied atop the ACC with Florida State, the Tar Heels should look to Barnes early and often.