House fire displaces 4

Four people were transported to Temple University Hospital yesterday morning after fire engulfed their North Philadelphia residence.

Fire Department officials said a one-alarm fire started about 9 a.m. on Waterloo Street near Cambria and was under control 30 minutes later. Authorities did not specify the conditions of the victims, but according to news accounts, a woman in her early 20s suffered second-degree burns to 30 percent of her body. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

8,000 jobs lost last month

Pennsylvania reported a loss of 8,000 jobs in February, a faster rate of decline than job losses nationally. The unemployment rate also rose slightly.

The monthly decline was less than one-fifth of 1 percent of the total, but still three times the rate of job losses nationally in February. The state's unemployment rate - a gauge of how many people are looking for work - rose slightly to 4.9 percent, above the national rate of 4.8 percent.

Charges in teens' deaths

Norman Edward Nickle, 53, was charged Friday with the shotgun killings of a teenage couple whose bodies were found Thursday in his Pottsville basement.

The bodies of Joshua Yevak, 19, and Cayla Turner, 17, were covered with a blanket. Nickle told authorities he covered the bodies so he didn't have to look at them when he did the laundry. Authorities said the two had been killed between March 3 and 7.

Nickle was charged with murder. The motive was unclear.

He thinks he'll strike gold

There's gold in them thar hills! Or so Dennis Prada believes. He has filed for permission to dig in an Elk County forest for a cache of gold he thinks was lost by a Union convoy transporting it to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia during the Civil War.

The legend has circulated for decades about the half-ton of lost gold - worth $15 million or more at today's prices. Prada, 55, who is seeking a permit from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, believes he has found the site. The department says it needs more information.

Selling stolen property?

Police in Cumberland County, N.J., say Edward Wentz, 47, tried to sell brass markers that had been stolen from the graves of war veterans to scrap dealers.

Police said Wentz tried on March 6 to sell 11 markers to Cumberland Recycling for $500. The company called police. The items came from military graves in Hillcrest Memorial Cemetery in Washington Township, police said.

-Staff and wire reports