IN BRIEF

SUSPECTS SOUGHT

Officials: Two boats in Henderson set on fire

Two boats parked on separate parts of a Henderson street were set on fire Tuesday morning, fire officials said.

Henderson firefighters received a call around 12:30 a.m. of two boats ablaze on Paprika Way. When crews arrived, the flames of one fire had spread to a nearby house.

One of the boats was parked on the street and the other was parked in a driveway of a home across the street, near Green Valley Parkway.

Jack Mabry, one of the boat owners, was asleep when a neighbor alerted him about the fire. He tried to douse his burning 22-foot open bow boat while he waited for firefighters.

Mabry then saw another boat ablaze across the street. The owners were not home at the time of the fire.

There are no suspects. Mabry said no neighbors saw who set the fires.

"There is no excuse for this," he said. "These are weak-brained, sick people (to do this)."

The Henderson Fire Department is investigating. The fires caused more than $35,000 in damage to the boats and the home.

CHILD SEX ASSAULT CHARGES

U.S. marshals: Virginia fugitive arrested in LV

U.S. marshals in Las Vegas said they have arrested a 46-year-old fugitive from Virginia who was sought on child sex assault charges.

Clark County jail records show Kent Arthur Powell was being held Tuesday without bail pending an extradition hearing.

U.S. marshals say Powell was arrested late Monday without incident at a home in North Las Vegas.

Marshals said Powell was sought since June 20 in Newport News, Va., on charges of sexual battery, indecent liberties on a child, forcible sodomy and indecent exposure.

EVENT REVIEWED

Seismograph records Arctic temblor waves

Scientists say what was believed to be an earthquake in northeastern Nevada was actually a seismograph picking up waves from an quake in the Arctic Ocean.

A preliminary report from the U.S. Geological Survey showed a magnitude 4.2 temblor centered about 18 miles west of North Fork shook Elko County at 3:07 a.m. Tuesday morning.

USGS geophysicist Jessica Sigala said a seismologist reviewed the event and determined that phases from a magnitude-5.8 quake in the Arctic Ocean seven minutes earlier had been wrongly interpreted by a seismograph as a local quake.

Sigala said shaking could not be felt in Nevada, but that waves from a quake such as the one in the Arctic can be detected around the world.

CALIFORNIA INCIDENT

Driver in fatal bus crash investigated

California authorities have begun investigating whether a bus driver who had a string of motor vehicle offenses and a history of substance abuse was under the influence of drugs or alcohol when his casino-bound bus crashed, killing eight people.

The driver was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence Monday, a day after his charter bus ran into a ditch.

Authorities said they were investigating the possibility that the driver may have been on prescription or nonprescription drugs. Blood test results are not expected for two to six weeks.