When the Rev. Claude Charles Vaché became diocesan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia in 1978, he was seen as “high church” or very traditional in his views, according to clergy colleagues. However, “he prayed a lot over issues, always asking for guidance,“ said his “foster son,“ Valdeir France of Portsmouth. Unequivocally opposed to the ordination of women, he surprised his diocese by changing his mind. “He began to think and talk about it and thought it was the right thing to do,“ France said.

The company that has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic wants to make another expedition to the world’s most famous shipwreck next year. RMS Titanic Inc.‘s expedition would be the first by the company since 2004.The company went before a judge yesterday to seek a salvage award for its past expeditions, and to inform the court of its plans.

The company that has exclusive rights to salvage the Titanic wants to make another expedition to the world’s most famous shipwreck in 2010. RMS Titanic Inc.‘s expedition would be the first by the company since 2004, though two other expeditions have been to the site since then. The company went before a judge yesterday to seek a salvage award for its past expeditions, and to inform the court of its plans.

Police say 21-year-old Daniel Rodriguez was taken into custody in Norfolk, Va. Tuesday night. Charges are pending and NYPD detectives are in the process of returning him to New York.

The captain of a commercial ship hijacked by Somali pirates will serve as the marshal of Norfolk’s Grand Illumination Parade.

Bones discovered in June by a relic hunter in Hanover County are the remains of a 77-year-old Norfolk man missing since he drove to the area nine years ago to play in a seniors golf tournament, according to a published report today.

Norfolk officials say the city will soon give visitors access to the interior of the battleship Wisconsin.

A federal judge has overturned the rape and murder convictions of Derek Elliott Tice, one of the “Norfolk Four,“ ruling that his lawyers should have challenged the use of his confession at his trial. Last month, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine granted conditional pardons to Tice and two other former sailors convicted of the rape and murder of Michelle Moore-Bosko, 18, in 1997. The fourth was freed from prison in 2005.

The families of the 17 sailors killed in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole are asking to reopen their lawsuit against Sudan in an effort to seek more money from the nation. Some of the families already received $13 million from frozen Sudanese assets in the United States, but a federal judge in Norfolk denied them millions more for pain and suffering, citing a limitation in the law.

Frank Batten Sr., who turned a small newspaper company into one of the nation’s largest privately held media empires, started as an errand boy and became one of the nation’s 400 richest people. Yet friends and colleagues remembered him yesterday as a man who cared most about using his influence and fortune to change the world for the better.

In a historic change of command, a French general took charge yesterday of NATO’s only strategic command in North America as the alliance’s secretary-general said he was concerned about growing public skepticism about the war effort in Afghanistan. In remarks prepared for the change of command, NATO’s Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “The public discourse on the effort in Afghanistan has started to go in the wrong direction.“

NORFOLK—Six people have been rescued from a sinking boat off the Virginia coast. The U.S. Coast Guard said the 28-foot Carolina Classic boat Fishbones started taking on water yesterday morning about 30 miles east of Elizabeth City, N.C. The fishing boat Going Deep escorted the boat to Lynnhaven Inlet, where it sank. Crews for Going Deep and the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Horse each rescued three people from the water.

A federal jury is recommending the death penalty for a West Virginia man convicted of killing a sailor in a murder-for-hire plot.

4 lion cubs debut at Norfolk zoo Four lion cubs made their public debut yesterday at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. The cubs joined their mother, Zola, in the first public exhibit of the newborns since their birth three months ago. The four new cubs were on display until they joined their mother for lunch. The four cubs are named Ajani, Razi, Dakari (at right) and Zarina, the lone female.

A Norfolk plant that has produced contact lenses since the 1950s will close next year, eliminating 570 jobs. CooperVision Inc. announced the closure yesterday, citing excess manufacturing capacity as the reason for moving production from Norfolk to its plants in Puerto Rico and England over the next 15 months. The Norfolk plant’s work force includes about 65 temporary and 505 full-time employees, said Chuck Rogers, its vice president of operations. Employees will receive severance, and Rogers said the company decided to phase down the operation in part to give employees time to prepare.