US Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) , Ecstatic baseball fans crammed the streets of San Francisco on Wednesday for a confetti-drenched parade and rally honoring the World Series champion Giants , a Halloween treat made even sweeter as a repeat performance from 2010.

MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. (AP) , Bill Dees emerged from his days as an out-of-cash young songwriter to pen tunes for Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn and other country music greats, but the centerpiece of his career was his work with Roy Orbison, including co-writing "Oh, Pretty Woman."

MANTOLOKING, N.J. (AP) , New Jersey's delicate barrier islands, long and slender strips of land cherished by generations of sunbathing vacationers and full-time residents alike, are a hazardous wasteland of badly eroded shore, ruined beachfront homes, flooded streets and damaged utilities.

Death blew in on the superstorm's wild winds and sea water torrents, claiming 90-year-olds and children with capriciously toppling trees, taking tall-ship adventurers in mountainous Atlantic waves and average folks just trying to deal with a freakish snowstorm. It felled both heroes rushing into harm's way and, ironically, people simply following advice to play it safe at home.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) , Flames from a derailed train car sent people rushing out of neighborhoods and an entire town near Louisville on Wednesday while firefighters tried to douse the chemical blaze that left three workers badly burned.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) , Donnie Lee Roberts, convicted in his girlfriend's 2003 slaying in Texas, was executed Wednesday for fatally shooting the woman and taking items from her home to sell or trade to support his drug habit.

NEW YORK (AP) , The United Nations Security Council held a makeshift meeting after superstorm Sandy forced the world body to remain mostly closed for a third day. The council needed to meet Wednesday because the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia was expiring.

Even as its past policies on sex-abuse prevention fuel controversy, the Boy Scouts of America is hosting an unprecedented closed-door symposium Thursday with other national youth organizations, hoping to share strategies to combat future abuse.

NEW YORK (AP) , Blame a very high tide driven by a full moon, the worst storm surge in nearly 200 years, and the placement of underground electrical equipment in flood-prone areas for the most extensive storm-related power outage in New York City's history.

NEW YORK (AP) , For the second night in a row, superstorm Sandy and its aftermath forced David Letterman to live out that performer's nightmare: Telling jokes to a vacant theater, or as he called it, "a big ol' empty barn."

NEW YORK (AP) , Taylor Swift's new album is called "Red," but its true color is a brilliant platinum. The 22-year-old sold 1.2 million copies of her latest album in its first week , the largest sales week for any album in a decade.

HOBOKEN, N.J. (AP) , The New Jersey National Guard arrived Tuesday evening in Hoboken to help residents of the heavily flooded city on the Hudson River across from New York City. Officials announced the Guard's arrival in messages on the city's Twitter and Facebook accounts.

PITTSBURGH (AP) , The most devastating storm in decades to hit the country's most densely populated region upended man and nature as it rolled back the clock on 21st-century lives, cutting off modern communication and leaving millions without power Tuesday as thousands who fled their water-menaced homes wondered when , if , life would return to normal.

NEW YORK (AP) , Evoking harrowing memories of Hurricane Katrina, 300 patients were evacuated floor by floor from a premier hospital that lost generator power at the height of superstorm Sandy. ...

NEW YORK (AP) , The floodwaters that poured into New York's deepest subway tunnels may pose the biggest obstacle to the city's recovery from the worst natural disaster in the transit system's 108-year history. Critical electrical equipment could be ruined. Track beds could be covered with debris.