JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — A U.S. Army sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians in a middle-of-the-night rampage returned halfway through the killing spree and told a friend: “Hey Mac, I just shot some people in Alkozai,” an Army prosecutor said Monday at the opening of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales’ preliminary hearing on murder charges.

When that fellow sergeant appeared not to believe him, telling him to “quit messing around” because he needed to go back to sleep, Bales said: “Cool, I’m going to Najiban, I’ll be back at 5." At that point, the 39-year-old sergeant left the base again and allegedly shot 11 people in that second village, south of the Army outpost near Kandahar.

A general alarm was raised after an Afghan guard spotted Bales leaving the base the second time. By the time Bales returned — covered in blood and wearing an Afghan shawl around his shoulders — he seemed surprised to be greeted with leveled...

SEA GATE, N.Y. -- Michael Szajngarten stopped picking up pieces of his shattered home to look through the hole Hurricane Sandy ripped in his living room wall, giving him an unobstructed ocean view.

“I hear we’ll get snow soon,” he said.  “I just feel like it’s insult to injury.”

Just outside were remnants of a concrete sea wall, a barrier built to protect homes here from high surf and storm surge. But super storm Sandy crushed parts of the wall, and a new storm -- a nor’easter -- is brewing in the Atlantic, threatening to hit the coast again.

FULL COVERAGE: East Coast hit by deadly storm

The National Weather Service predicted on Monday that the storm will move up the New Jersey coast into New York on Wednesday, with winds up to 50 mph, heavy rains and “minor to moderate” flooding. The collapse of man-made and natural barriers during Sandy is already raising fears the storm could cause new damage and hamper cleanup and repairs already...

Pittsburgh Zoo officials and police were trying to determine what happened after a 2-year-old boy fell into an African painted dog exhibit on Sunday and died before police could save him.

A news conference was scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Monday.

Police said the boy's unidentified 34-year-old mother, from Pleasant Hills, Pa., was holding her son over a four-foot railing in an elevated viewing area when he fell. The boy hit and then flipped over a mesh barrier before hitting the ground.

Several of the dogs immediately attacked, and one had to be shot by a police officer. Witnesses estimated the whole event lasted about five minutes, police said.

It's not known if the boy died on impact or if the animals killed him.

Steve Feldman, a spokesman for the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums, told the Associated Press that it might be the first reported death of a child at an accredited zoo in 40 years.

It was the zoo's first visitor death.

Both police and the zoo have launched...

NEW YORK -- As some schools reopened Monday in the metropolitan New York area and an overtaxed transportation system continued to creak toward recovery, a brewing nor’easter is expected to churn more misery and complicate cleanup efforts from last week’s super storm Sandy.

Just a week ago, Sandy rushed ashore in New Jersey, combined with two other storm systems and cut a band of destruction from Maine to the Midwest. At least 110 deaths have been reported, most in New York and New Jersey.

Even after a week of cleanup efforts, major problems remained on Monday.

FULL COVERAGE: East Coast hit by deadly storm

At least 20,000 people just in New York City alone need some form of temporary housing, officials said, and that number is expected to grow when Long Island and New Jersey figures are computed.

More than 1.3 million customers are still without power in seven states, according to Monday’s estimateby the U.S. Department of Energy. Of that number, about 780,000 customers...

The justices in an unsigned opinion said that because the South Carolina antiabortion activist had a free-speech right to "carry pictures of aborted fetuses" that had shocked bystanders, he also had the right under the Civil Rights Act to claim legal fees for vindicating this right in the courts.

In the Civil Rights Attorneys Fees Act of 1976, Congress said civil rights lawyers who sued and won cases involving constitutional rights were entitled to claim "reasonable attorney’s fees." The law was intended to bolster civil rights advocates who filed suits in that era over issues such as school desegregation. 

The high court's decision makes clear that the law applies just the same to antiabortion protesters who clash with police or...

Kermit the Frog and Hello Kitty are apparently not among Hurricane Sandy's victims, even though Macy's keeps the giant balloons, floats and costumes for its annual New York City  Thanksgiving Day Parade across the Hudson River in hard-hit New Jersey

Macy's parade design studio last year moved from Hoboken to Moonachie, a northern New Jersey town overcome by flooding when a levee broke last week, forcing mass evacuations.

Flood water did not creep into the design studio, located near the Hackensack River, although streets and nearby businesses were inundated, said John Piper, vice president of the parade studio.

Nor did the water apparently damage a nearby warehouse where Macy's stores more than 80% of its parade equipment, Piper said, adding that staff still needed to get inside the building to confirm that assessment.

The televised parade would come weeks after Sandy wrought devastation across the Eastern Seaboard and Mayor Michael Bloomberg canceled the New York City Marathon after...

HOBOKEN, N.J. -- The Hoboken Elks club has served 800 to 1,000 hot meals since the storm, and it saw steady traffic Sunday as more people sought a warm meal and place to eat it.

"It's getting better because the lights are coming on, but there's still not a lot of heat and hot water for people because there was flooding and the hot water heaters were trashed," said Eddie Madigan, 49, a cook at the Elks. "We anticipate more people coming out."

Madigan had no heat or hot water at his house, but that didn't seem to matter -- he had been volunteering at the Elks all week.

Late Sunday, Republican Gov. Chris Christie stopped by with Democratic Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Mendenez. Madigan said they were concerned about how residents were coping with the loss of heat and housing.

"Those were concerns they were talking about -- temporary housing. People on public assistance and in million-dollar brownstones are in the same boat," he said. "

Mike Korman, 50, was out looking or food Sunday...

It was a popular, nameless and faceless political account named @ComfortablySmug that  stirred up the trouble -- with its anonymous owner tweeting blatantly incorrect information that confused many New Yorkers during the height of the storm on the night of Oct. 29.

“BREAKING: Con Edison has begun shutting down ALL power in Manhattan,” @ComfortablySmug tweeted emphatically, and falsely.

“BREAKING: Governor Cuomo is trapped in Manhattan. Has been taken a secure shelter,” @ComfortablySmug insisted.

“BREAKING: MTA announces NYC subways will be closed for remainder of the week. All major lines are flooded and will require repair,” @ComfortablySmug said — a lie that came close enough to the truth to get retweeted more than 500 times.

Yet a lie it was, and by the time daylight came to Manhattan, viral news...

CONEY ISLAND, N.Y. – Father Armando Palmieri normally tends to his parishioners at the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Solace, but after super storm Sandy devastated the neighborhood, inundating homes and washing away cars, even some of his priests have come to him suffering from anxiety.

“They don’t know what the future will hold,” Palmieri said after celebrating Mass on Sunday in a chapel that also had flooded. Volunteers managed to pump out seawater and mud, rip up the carpet, power-wash the floors and clean the stained glass windows, finishing just in time for 200 worshipers to arrive. Power was still out, so the church relied on lamps and ran long extension cords to a power source outside.

The mega-storm that left millions in New York, New Jersey and elsewhere without the basics of modern life -- electricity, heat, gas or paychecks -- also left many with psychological scars that are less visible but, doctors say, likely to take a growing toll.

Signs of frayed...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie continued to express gratitude for the federal government's help  at a televised news conference Sunday in Hoboken, N.J.

With Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at his side, Christie sent love to New Jersey residents for their recovery efforts and promised guff – “my type of gentle persuasion” – to utility companies to help the nearly 1 million customers in the state who still lack power, most in central and northern New Jersey.

Every county in New Jersey has been declared eligible for federal disaster assistance, and Christie, a Republican, has remained a larger-than-life presence in a region where super storm Sandy's effects remained overwhelming.

“I’ve been all over the state, and everywhere I’ve traveled -- whether it’s a local shelter or a Red Cross shelter, an impromptu roadside table that neighbors have put together to provide food and drinks for people who are working -- this is the symbol of...

ELMONT, N.Y. -- Michaelle Solages, 27, is on the ballot here Tuesday for a New York State Assembly seat.

 A Democrat and a lawyer, she has campaigned door to door, but she has found that one of the best places to talk to voters is at gas stations.

 Wrapped in a long black wool coat, she walks the lines of people that snake through the gas station parking lots, handing out fliers she has printed with information about shelters and FEMA reimbursement programs.

 INTERACTIVE: Before and after  Hurricane Sandy

She carries a notepad that  is filling up with the addresses of those she meets whose homes still lack  power. In between campaigning, Solages has been calling the Long Island Power Authority  to relay where the lines need to be restored.

 "People are getting angry," she said, adding that power company operators don't have much information for people in the area. Residents know it will take days to get the lines fixed, but "they want answers. They want a realistic timeline," she said.

 bria...