Ohio

Office tower evacuated because of bomb fears

A 41-story state office tower that houses the Ohio Supreme Court was evacuated for about two hours Wednesday after dogs detected a scent of explosives and a man told a state worker, “I’m here to install a bomb,” the State Highway Patrol said.

No explosives were found at the James A. Rhodes State Office Tower in Columbus.

Patrol Lt. Col. Paul McClellan said the scent of material that can be used to make a bomb was detected in a van parked at a loading dock in the rear of the building, which is across the street from the Statehouse. Authorities had not identified the material.

The van driver was taken into custody and charged with inducing panic.

McClellan said a state employee saw a man who looked out of place on the 28th floor, which houses personnel offices, and asked him what he was doing.

The man said he was there to “install a bomb,” McClellan said.

Miami

Gustav becomes first hurricane of season

Tropical storm Gustav was upgraded Wednesday to a hurricane, the season’s first, as it headed on a track that would take it past Cape Cod, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm, which poured up to 6 inches of rain on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, had strengthened during the night with maximum sustained wind up to 75 mph, the hurricane center said. The minimum for a hurricane is 74 mph.

Gustav was headed toward the Canadian Maritimes, and the Canadian government issued heavy rain and wind warnings for all of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and parts of Newfoundland and New Brunswick.

Gustav is the seventh named storm of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.

Illinois

Two more deaths from West Nile reported

The West Nile virus has killed two more Illinois residents, pushing the state’s death total to 13, the most in the nation, health officials said Wednesday.

Laboratory tests have confirmed that more than 1,200 people have been infected with the virus from coast to coast, including one case in California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If the two latest Illinois fatalities are confirmed by the CDC, the national death toll would be at least 48.

The state’s public health department in Springfield said the new deaths were an 81-year-old woman from southern Cook County, in the Chicago area, who died Sept. 1, and a 76-year-old man from Madison County, near St. Louis, Mo., who died Sept. 5.

Utah

Fire ruled arson, not hate crime

A fire that damaged a Muslim-owned motel this summer was not a hate crime, Heber City police said Wednesday as a co-owner was accused of setting the blaze.

Mazhar Tabesh, 39, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated arson, Police Sgt. Jason Bradley said.

Tabesh claimed the July 21 fire was a hate crime, and the FBI sent an agent who specializes in civil-rights cases to investigate. The fire caused an estimated $100,000 in damage to the Alpine Lodge motel, owned by Tabesh and his father-in-law.

“We are really scared because we are Muslim probably the only Muslims in area and we are the target,” Tabesh said at the time.

He said the blaze started in a room rented by a man who paid cash, showed no identification and was seen leaving with another man just after the fire started. He also claimed to have been receiving threatening calls that increased after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.