North Carolina: Divers find skeleton in Civil War’s Monitor

Navy divers preparing to raise the 160-ton gun turret of the ironclad USS Monitor from the bottom of the Atlantic have found what is believed to be the skeleton of one of the Civil War ship’s doomed sailors.

Expedition leaders hoped to raise the turret today despite roughening weather off of Hatteras.

Archaeologists said last month they had found apparent human remains in the sediment inside the turret, but they consisted only of two bone fragments. Additional digging revealed a skeleton.

Sixteen officers and crew members died Dec. 31, 1862, when the Monitor sank during a storm.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working with the Navy and the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va., on the $6.5 million project.

New York: Stockholder files suit against Martha Stewart

A stockholder in Martha Stewart’s fine living empire has sued the domesticity diva, saying she breached her duties to her investors by becoming involved in the ImClone Systems insider trading scandal.

Conrad K. Hahn, of North Port, Fla., said in court papers filed late Thursday that Stewart “knows or should know” that the success of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., is inextricably linked to Stewart’s personal reputation for quality and integrity.

Stewart, an ImClone investor, sold almost 4,000 shares in the biotech company a day before the Food and Drug Administration announced in December it would not approve the firm’s experimental cancer drug Erbitux. An insider trading investigation has ensued.

Friday, MSO stock traded at $8.55 a share, down from $20.93 on March 18.

North Carolina: 15-year-old charged with murder of soldier

Police arrested a 15-year-old in the shooting death of a Fort Bragg Army base soldier whose wife also has been charged in the slaying.

The name of the teenager, charged Friday in Fayetteville with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, has not been released.

Army Maj. David Shannon, 40, a Special Operations soldier, was shot in the head and chest July 23 as he slept in his house. His 35-year-old wife, Joan Shannon, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Police have said David Shannon was killed for insurance and military benefits.

New York: Thunderstorm proves fatal for New Yorker

Lightning killed a man standing on a roof in New York City as a severe thunderstorm rattled the region, knocking out electrical power to more than 300,000 homes and businesses.

Lightning struck the New York metropolitan area between 5,000 and 7,000 times during a three-hour period late Friday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jeffrey Tongue. More than an inch of rain fell, he said.

About 200,000 customers lost power in New Jersey, and some 155,000 still had no service Saturday morning, utility officials said. “We plan to have power restored by Monday, Sunday evening at the earliest,” said Roberta Sheridan of Jersey Central Power and Light Co.

As many as 40,000 homes and businesses were blacked out in Connecticut. More than 72,000 customers were blacked out in New York City and suburban Westchester and Putnam counties.

Alaska: Former state police commissioner killed

A woman fatally shot the former head of Alaska’s state police, wounded his wife and then turned the gun on herself Saturday, authorities said.

The armed woman ambushed retired Alaska Commissioner of Public Safety Glenn Godfrey and his wife, Patricia, as they arrived at their home in suburban Eagle River about 12:30 a.m., police said.

Patricia Godfrey suffered wounds in the arm, leg and stomach and was undergoing surgery at Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage.

Police said the assailant, who was not immediately identified, then turned the handgun on herself.

Police did not immediately have a motive for the shootings.

Godfrey was public safety commissioner from August 2000 to June of this year. Before that he was director of the Alaska State Troopers.

Los Angeles: Coal miners sell rights to story to Disney

The nine Pennsylvania coal miners who were trapped underground for 77 hours have sold the TV and book rights to their story to The Walt Disney Co. for $150,000 each, their lawyer said Saturday.

The deal includes a movie for Disney’s ABC network and a book to be published by the Burbank company’s Hyperion Publishing division, Pittsburgh attorney Thomas Crawford said in an interview.

Crawford said he received more than 120 offers for the miners’ stories.

The miners were working July 24 in the Quecreek Mine in western Pennsylvania when it flooded. They huddled together 240 feet underground, subsisting on little more than a corned beef sandwich split nine ways, as their rescue effort transfixed the nation.

Early Sunday, all nine were pulled up alive.

San Francisco: Missing 12-year-old found with relatives

A 12-year-old Chinese girl missing for two days after arriving in the Bay Area with a youth tour group headed to a space camp was found early Saturday with relatives on the East Coast, authorities said.

A tip to the FBI led investigators to Yukun Jia.

FBI spokesman Andrew Black declined to name the city where the girl was staying.

Jia flew from Beijing and cleared customs around 2:10 p.m. Thursday. She was reported missing around 5 p.m. by the adult leaders of her group.