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On a recent morning, Heli Wiener had a minor crisis on her hands. Her 3-year-old daughter was playing with an old cell phone and her 5-year-old son wanted it all for himself.“He was getting in her face about it, so she was hitting him because she wanted him to leave her alone,” Wiener, of Deerfield, Ill., told TODAY Moms.“My daughter is extremely sweet and kind (but) she developed some of those ba...    

Sparkling in her evening gown, Erin Brady, 25, took the 62nd Miss USA title on Sunday night.Brady beat out 50 other beauty queens in swimsuit, evening gown and interview competitions to win. In the pageant's final moments, Miss USA 2012, Nana Meriwether, relinquished her crown to the Connecticut native, who will go on to compete in the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow on Nov. 9. “Oh my god,” Brady ...    

A five-year-old girl set up a lemonade stand "for peace" right across the street from a notorious church in Kansas which has been accused of spreading hate and homophobia wherever it goes.The purpose behind young Jayden Sink's beverages is to raise money for a nonprofit organization called Planting Peace, which supports orphanages, works to conserve rainforests and provides medication to poverty-s...    

Thousands of joyous Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran on Saturday night after centrist cleric Hassan Rowhani scored a stunning victory in a closely watched presidential election, winning 50.7 percent of some 36 million votes cast in a six-way race, according to the country’s interior ministry.But many analysts say it remains to be seen if Rowhani, 64, will usher in a new era of sweeping democ...    

Britain's Prince Philip left a London hospital Monday, 10 days after exploratory stomach surgery.The Queen’s husband, who turned 92 last week, waved to onlookers and shook hands with medical staff as he left the private clinic where had been treated.The Duke of Edinburgh, as he is formally known, was admitted on June 6 and is now expected to spend two months convalescing.Tim Ewart, Royal reporter ...    

Syria’s raging civil war was set to top the agenda at the Group of Eight summit in Northern Ireland starting on Monday, with President Barack Obama trying to get Russia's Vladimir Putin, Syria's most powerful ally, to help bring Bashar Assad to the negotiating table. The leaders' first private face-to-face meeting in about a year comes after Obama angered Moscow by authorizing American military su...    

News analysisDancing in the streets of Tehran greeted the news that Hassan Rohani had won Iran’s race for president over the weekend, as voters hailed the reformist cleric’s victory. The mostly young Iranians lit Chinese lanterns and chanted slogans like “bye-bye Ahmadi,” in reference to outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has become unpopular with reformist voters after the last elections...    

During the more than a decade that Ariel Castro allegedly held kidnapped teenagers and young women captive in his home at 2207 Seymour Ave., police officers were within shouting distance of the house more than a thousand times, according to Cleveland Police Department records analyzed by NBC News.From the time the first kidnap victim vanished in August 2002 until the three women and a 6-year-old g...    

A pair of Turkey’s labor unions said Sunday that they will hold a general strike Monday after riot police raided an Istanbul park and public square, firing plumes of powerful tear gas and water cannons at anti-government demonstrators.Turkish police detained 441 people in connection with clashes in Istanbul on Sunday, an official at the city's bar association told Reuters on Monday. And an officia...    

A Utah man was critically injured Sunday after he was shot in the back of the head while attending Mass.Police in Ogden, Utah, about 40 miles north of Salt Lake City, say Charles Richard Jennings, 35, entered  St. James Catholic Church and confronted the victim before shooting him. Authorities believe Jennings then pulled out a gun in the church and fired at the man, whose name has not yet been re...    

The young sisters played outside together every day that summer in a Vallejo, Calif., suburb, and during one long, boring summer day, the older girl thought of a new way to pass the time. She led her little sister to the backyard, tethered the 9-year-old to one of the poles on the back porch, then taped her eyelashes to her eyebrows and left her there to stare into the bright California sun.That's...    

JAMISON CITY, Pa. — Four central Pennsylvania residents said they used only a rope and a flashlight during a wild chase to rescue a young bear whose head had been stuck in a plastic jar for at least 11 days.The frightened but powerful bruin fell into a swimming pool at least twice during the ordeal, according to a report Saturday in the Press Enterprise of Bloomsburg (http://bit.ly/166z97k )....    

Moms do this and Moms think that. Yes, that is much of what we spend our time discussing here on TODAY Moms. But Dads, this one's for you! Because it's Father's Day and because we appreciate you and we think there's nothing more adorable than you striking a pose with your little look-alikes.We asked readers to share their best Dad and mini-me photos and received hundreds of submissions. Here's a...    

The Northern Ireland border village of Belcoo has never looked so good. And critics say that's just the problem.Organizers of the Group of Eight summit of world leaders in Northern Ireland June 17-18 have spent weeks sprucing up the facades of businesses all around the County Fermanagh venue. Their use of window-sized posters on two derelict Belcoo shops, to make them appear like thriving busin...    

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has chosen a high-powered Washington lawyer with extensive experience in all three branches of the government to be the State Department's special envoy for closing down the military-run prison at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.Clifford Sloan is the pick to reopen the State Department's Office of Guantanamo Closure, shuttered since January and folded into...    

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — The world’s leaders will descend on a secluded golf resort in Northern Ireland on Monday for the G8 summit. Minutes away sits Enniskillen, a small town with a painful past.Less than 10 miles from the border with Ireland, this town was one of the key flashpoints during the so-called Troubles, the sectarian violence that consumed Northern Ireland for more than three d...    

Five days after a massive wildfire began to cut a lethal path through Colorado Springs, killing two people and destroying 473 homes, some residents were returning home over the weekend to face the devastation.Fire crews fighting the monstrous Black Forest Fire made strides over the weekend, bringing the blaze to 65 percent containment, following surprise showers and mild winds Friday. By Sunday af...    

AMMAN/LONDON — Russian President Vladimir Putin, arriving in Britain ahead of an international summit set to be dominated by disagreement over the U.S. decision to send weapons to Syria's rebels, said the West must not arm fighters who eat human flesh.In Syria, rebels fought back on Sunday against forces of President Bashar al-Assad and his Lebanese Hezbollah allies near Aleppo, where Assad has an...    

This Father's Day, a son and his dad have a very special reason to celebrate.Frank Furia, 56, a volunteer firefighter and father, has suffered from a rare blood vessel disease for the past 15 years. Last year, doctors gave him some devastating news.“When the doctors told me that my kidneys were failing I lost it,” Furia told TODAY. “I was shocked.”His wife, Kate, remembers the moment. “Our life in...    

An Indiana woman put on death row at age 16 for killing an elderly Bible school teacher is scheduled to be released Monday after serving a prison term that was shortened after the state Supreme Court intervened. Paula Cooper's death sentence at such a young age sparked international protests and a plea for clemency from Pope John Paul II. Now 43 years old, Cooper is being given a second chance at ...