National

It's still unclear whether Sandy will be a devastating storm or just a bad one.

It is clear, however, that Sandy will be remembered as the storm that broke all the rules and baffled the nation's top weather forecasters.

Early Saturday morning, the National Weather Service downgraded the storm from a hurricane to a tropical storm — only to return it to hurricane status a few hours later. Either way, forecasters warn, "widespread impacts" are expected along the coast.

The suspension of Jae Su Chun, the former head coach of the U.S. Short Track Speedskating Team, hasn't stopped some skating clubs from wanting to hire the embattled coach, even as an investigation expands into the most serious allegation against him.

"World's Most Powerful Laser Beams To Zap Nuclear Waste."

That Bloomberg Businessweek headline got our attention. We were imagining the explosion that might result.

But as it turns out, the zapping "could destroy nuclear waste and provide new cancer treatments," according to the story.

A court in Milan has convicted former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on a charge of tax evasion and he's been given a 4-year prison sentence, The Associated Press and Reuters report.

But whether he will ever actually go to jail on the charge isn't yet known.

An explosion outside a mosque in northwest Afghanistan today killed more than 30 people and wounded dozens more.

From Kabul, NPR's Sean Carberry reports that witnesses have said a man approached on foot and then detonated a suicide bomb. It happened in Maymana, the capital of Faryab Province. Worshipers were gathering to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.