World News Stories from NBC

The Obama administration publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that U.S. drone strikes have killed four American citizens since 2009, including the previously undisclosed death of a North Carolina resident who left the United States for Pakis…

 

ROME, Italy - An American tourist underwent emergency surgery after being stabbed in the Italian city of Florence on Tuesday, a hospital doctor and media reports said. The 68-year-old was in front of the city’s famed Duomo cathedral listening to a s…

DUBAI -- Iranian authorities have barred two potentially powerful and disruptive candidates from running in next month's presidential election, ensuring a contest largely among hardliners loyal to the clerical supreme leader. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a v…

ROME -- He was judged guilty by public opinion after his cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, capsized off the tiny Italian island of Giglio last year, killing 32 people and leaving thousands traumatized. Now Captain Francesco Schettino will face justice in …

BEIJING – China’s Ai Weiwei on Wednesday released a profanity-laced heavy-metal single based on the 81 days the firebrand artist and activist spent in detention. Written and sung by Ai with music by prominent Chinese rocker Zuoxiao Zuzhou, &ld…

STOCKHOLM - Hundreds of youths set fire to cars and attacked police and rescue services in suburbs of Stockholm Tuesday night in Sweden's worst disorder in years. A police station in the Jakobsberg area in the northwest of the city was attacked, two schoo…

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 …

Guatemala's highest court on Monday overturned a genocide conviction against former dictator Efrain Rios Montt and reset his trial back to when a dispute broke out a month ago over who should hear the case. Rios Montt, 86, was found guilty on May 10 of…

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, …

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's prime minister designate Nawaz Sharif told a packed hall of his party stalwarts that talks with the Taliban -- who have been fighting the state for almost a decade -- are not off the table. "All options should be tried, and guns an…

CAIRO -- Syria's opposition and government are preparing to take part in an internationally-sponsored peace conference, the United Nations-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Tuesday. "The Syrian people are building great hopes on the conference,…

The brother of Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius was acquitted on Tuesday of the unlawful killing of a motorcyclist in a traffic accident. Oscar Pistorius is currently facing a murder charge after shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp at his home ne…

DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria said Tuesday it destroyed an Israeli vehicle that crossed the cease-fire line in the Golan Heights overnight, while the Israeli military said gunfire from Syria had hit an Israeli patrol, damaging a vehicle and prompting its troop…

Pope Francis and Britain’s queen sent messages of condolence to those affected by the deadly Oklahoma tornado Tuesday, as news of the devastation spread around the world. "I am close to the families of all who died in the Oklahoma tornado, especiall…