Hurricane Sandy, which is already rearing her head in the form of flood waters in New York and Virginia, is expected to turn inland on Monday and really hit during the evening, and on Tuesday morning. As of 8 p.m. Sunday night, the storm was about 485 miles southeast of New York City, moving at 15 mph with 75 mph winds. Thousands of flights have already been canceled in preparation for the storm, as major airlines and airports halt all travel. Forecasters say the worst-case scenario has the metropolitan area of New York getting up to 11 feet of flooding.

And don't you fuggetaboutit. In a New Jersey weather service bulletin issued Sunday ahead of Hurricane Sandy, officials used some unusual language to try to convince those at risk to evacuate: "If you are reluctant ... think about the rescue/recovery teams who will rescue you if you are injured or recover your remains if you do not survive," the bulletin read. Meanwhile Sunday, President Obama declared New York and Washington D.C. in a state of emergency, as he and Romney both canceled campaign trail events due to the storm. As New York City begins to shut down all buses and trains, Washington D.C.—which has a flood warning—also announced it would shut all Metro service for Monday.

Hurricane Sandy means business—or a lack thereof. Despite initial reports that only the New York Stock Exchange building would be closing on Monday, sources say the U.S. stock market will in fact close trading on Monday and possibly Tuesday as well. In a statement released Monday night, the NYSE said the decision is due to "the dangerous conditions developing as a result of Hurricane Sandy will make it extremely difficult to ensure the safety of our people and communities, and safety must be our first priority" and "concerns about market integrity." Much of lower Manhattan, where the Exchange is located, is supposed to be evacuated in preparation for Hurricane Sandy.

Everybody's getting ready for Hurricane Sandy. The airlines have preemptively canceled more than 7,000 domestic and international flights set to depart Sunday and Monday, leaving passengers stranded all across the country. Roughly a quarter of the canceled flights were from Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, which is expected to get hit especially hard. East coast airports are expected to decide by Sunday night whether they will close during the storm. The combination of winds gusts above 70 knots and mass transit shutdowns will likely make it difficult for the New York area airports to remain open.

Now that Hurricane Sandy is almost upon the East Coast, Mitt Romney is canceling a slew of campaign stops in toss-up states expected to be hardest hit by the storm, according to one of his advisers. The Republican nominee was forced to call off scheduled events in Virginia, as President Barack Obama cancelled plans to fly to Ohio and Virginia for campaigning. Romney is also suspending his fundraising efforts in North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, D.C., New Jersey, and Pennsylvania until the storm passes.

While the United States prepares for Hurricane Sandy, the Caribbean is assessing the storm’s toll. 65 people have been reported dead so far across the region according to officials on Sunday. 51 of those deaths have been reported in Haiti. People in the impoverished nation are among the region’s most vulnerable, with many living in unstable structures left over from an earthquake in 2010.

While the East Coast hunkers down for Hurricane Sandy, the City by the Bay is celebrating: Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants took their second World Series in three years late Sunday night. Completing a four-game sweep over the Detroit Tigers, the Giants won 4–3 on a Marco Scutaro single in the 10th inning that broke a 3–3 tie.

How could she? That’s what the sister of alleged killer and Upper West Side nanny Yoselyn Ortega said in a new interview from her home in the Dominican Republic. Mylades Ortega said she didn’t understand how her sister could have done what cops allege: that she stabbed two children in her care to death before attempting to end her own life. “This isn’t the Yoselyn we know,” the nanny’s sister said. “She loved these children like her own.” Leo and Lucia Krim were found dead in their family’s West 75th Street apartment Thursday.

How did a middle-class British entrepreneur find himself within the close circle of China’s first family? Daniel Foa, now 36, came to China to work and met and married Hiu Ng, the niece of China’s next leader, Xi Jinping. “There was a little gang of them who liked going to champagne brunches and playing tennis,” a friend said of their social networks. Now, the unassuming Brit is poised to be an insider in China’s notoriously closed inner circle.

While most of us mere mortals are cowering at the very idea of Hurricane Sandy, Jimmy Kimmel and his producers are throwing caution to the wind. Jimmy Kimmel Live said it won't alter its plans to film this week at the Brooklyn Academy of Music starting on Monday—even though the city is shutting down its mass transit system. The cast and crew are flying to New York early, and the show is bringing in backup generators in case of a power failure. A rep for the show says they haven't had any audience members back out yet. Chris Rock, Kelly Ripa, and Stephen Colbert are scheduled as guests.

Indonesia’s antiterror squad on Friday and Saturday arrested 11 people suspected of planning bomb attacks on the U.S. embassy in Jakarta and several other places. National police spokesman Maj. Gen. Suhardi Aliyus said the suspected terrorists belonged to a new group called the Sunni Movement for Indonesian Society, or HASMI. They were allegedly planning to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, a plaza near the Australian Embassy, the local office of the U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan, the U.S. Consulate in Surabaya, and the headquarters of a special police force in Java.

The men not only raped the 16-year-old girl for three hours, they took videos of it. The horrifying story of the sexual abuse of a low-caste girl in an Indian village has brought new attention to the problem of rape in the country, where assaults on women in the rigidified society tend to be swept under the rug. Rapes have increased 25 percent over the past six years, fueled by a surplus of young men, unemployment, drugs, and alcohol. Gang rapes, once uncommon, now regularly grab headlines. But some Indians are saying they’ve had enough.

Residents of the barrier islands along the North Carolina coast witnessed the first signs of Hurricane Sandy’s wrath in the U.S. on Sunday. The super-storm forced millions along the Eastern Seaboard to prepare and thousands more to evacuate coastal areas as the Category 1 hurricane appeared poised to make landfall late Sunday. The storm is expected to stretch across a more than 700-mile area reaching from North Carolina to Connecticut and may combine with a cold front moving in from the west.

It’s as English as tea and crumpets. In a widening scandal that’s seemingly resurrected every British pop personality whose name never made it across the Atlantic, Gary Glitter was arrested by London police Sunday in an investigation that began with allegations of child sex abuse by deceased disc jockey Jimmy Savile. Police are investigating whether Savile might have been part of a sex ring that may have included members who are still alive. As many as 300 alleged victims are involved in the investigation.

Get out the black pens. Censors in China have challenged a New York Times report on the wealth accrued by family members of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, which totals as much as $2.7 billion, according to the article. A letter released by attorneys in Beijing called the story “untrue” and said that they may attempt to hold the Times “legally responsible.” The story has not appeared in Chinese state media and has been censored on closely monitored websites like the microblog site Sina Weibo. The prime minister’s name and those of his family members are regularly blocked on the social-media platform.

She’s living in a political world. Madonna may have misjudged her audience Saturday night in New Orleans. The pop godmother triggered boos and a small walkout when she said, “I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.” Never one for avoiding controversy, Madonna recently drew criticism for showing a swastika on a politician’s head in a video during a Paris show. She also leapt to the fore to support a Pakistani teenage girl shot by the Taliban. What can you do? She is a political girl.

Hurricane Sandy could cause record flooding and constitute a “life-threatening storm surge,” the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. In New York City, officials are taking extra precautions. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered a mandatory evacaution of low-lying areas along the coast; the city's mass transit system will begin shutting down by 7 p.m. on Sunday; and schools will be closed on Monday. The storm is expected to make landfall Monday somewhere between the Delmarva Peninsula and Long Island. The director of the National Hurricane Center said millions of people could see river flooding or flash flooding as a result of the storm.

Here comes the cavalry. A bit belated, perhaps, but deep-pocketed Democrats have decided it’s time to get serious in the dirty world of post–Citizens United campaign finance and have begun giving to liberal super PACs. Newsweb president Fred Eychaner has given $11 million to Democratic causes including $2 million to Priorities USA Action, which also received a $1 million check from George Soros. Democrats have long lagged behind Republicans in giving to the dark-money groups, and Priorities is expected to still fall short of its $100 million fundraising goal, but the late surge suggests a potential Romney win may have scared liberal donors into opening their wallets.

Whew. Hawaii and Canada both reportedly avoided damage after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake rattled western Canada and sent tsunami waves heading toward the island state. Officials issued a tsunami warning, but residents seem to have escaped the worst Sunday morning—three- to seven-foot waves that could have caused substantial damage. As of 6 a.m. ET, the Honolulu mayor advised people to remain in safe areas until they receive an all clear to return to their homes.

They certainly had the brainpower to make a better call. Next of kin are calling foul after learning that the New York City medical examiner’s office may have kept their deceased loved ones’ grey matter on file without cause. The office has kept 9,200 brains from city residents over the last eight years, according to records obtained by the New York Post. In one instance, the family of a deceased Queens 11-year-old boy has filed suit after learning that his brain and spinal cord were removed during an autopsy.

Just imagine—Yoko didn’t do it. Paul McCartney absolves John Lennon’s widow of any blame in the break up of the Beatles in a new interview with David Frost. “She certainly didn’t break the group up. The group was breaking up,” the famed singer and songwriter says in the hourlong special to debut next month. Yoko did lead Lennon to become more interested in avant-garde art, however. “When Yoko came along, part of her attraction was her avant-garde side, her view of things, so she showed him another way to be, which was very attractive to him.”

"It is dangerous to stay where you are," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned at a second press conference Saturday. The mayor is referring to New Yorkers living in Zone A, an area that's been ordered for mandatory evacuation in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy. Bloomberg outlined evacuation procedure for flooding, and said there is probably not going to be torrential rain. Despite the increasingly urgent evacuation warnings, Bloomberg said the city is prepared. "We don't anticipate anything new happening," he said. Maryland canceled early voting on Monday, and closure of the New York Stock Exchange building Monday was announced—though trading will still be open.

Will a relative handful of Ohio door knocks decide the election? Likely voters in one of the most crucial swing states are split 49–49 for President Barack Obama and opponent Mitt Romney, according to a new poll conducted by The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Ohio Newspaper Organization. At The New York Times, however, polling analysis whiz Nate Silver says that the averages tilt toward Obama, and that the state is not a "toss-up." Pollsters said that ground game—the field operations in which the Obama campaign excels—may decide who takes the Buckeye State.