A West Virginia woman has been charged with falsely claiming to have been sexually assaulted in July this summer.

Alicia Webb, 27, of Lewisburg told police on July 8 that she was abducted at gunpoint from a Covington street, driven to McKinney Hollow Road in Alleghany County and sexually assaulted.

On Thursday, the Alleghany County Sheriff's Office released a statement saying "the entire event was fabricated." The statement said Webb had confessed to making the story up.

Webb has been charged with giving a false report to police, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

-- Rex Bowman

House fire in Roanoke County causes $50,000 in damage

A fire that was reported just after 10 a.m. Thursday caused about $50,000 in damage to a two-story house in North Roanoke County, authorities said. No one was injured.

The fire apparently started in a bedroom on the top floor of a house in the 6800 block of Wood Haven Road, which is about a third of a mile from Peters Creek Road, said Jennifer Conley Sexton, Roanoke County Fire and Rescue spokeswoman. It took firefighters from two stations about 15 minutes to put out the flames.

The couple who live in the house will be temporarily displaced because of smoke and water damage, Sexton said. The county's fire marshal was investigating the cause of the fire.

-- Jorge Valencia

Groups file lawsuit to stop institution

RICHMOND -- Two advocacy groups are asking a federal court to stop Virginia's plan to build a 75-bed institution for people with intellectual disabilities in Chesapeake.

The Arc of Virginia and the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy allege in a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court that the plan to build a new $23 million center at the Southeastern Virginia Training Center grounds violates the Americans With Disabilities Act and other federal laws.

The groups say a state review last year of the residents of the center showed that they can be served in the community and that institutionalizing them is a form of discrimination.

The lawsuit names Gov. Tim Kaine, Secretary of Administration Viola Baskerville, Secretary of Health and Human Services Marilyn Tavenner and other state officials. Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said the state can't comment on an ongoing lawsuit.

-- Associated Press

Company gets funds for solar energy plant

DANVILLE -- The federal government has awarded a $29 million bond to American Municipal Power to help pay for construction of a solar-powered energy plant in the Danville area.

The U.S. Treasury Department said the project is one of 805 across the nation to receive a zero-interest Clean Renewable Energy Bond.

American Municipal Power spokesman Kent Carson said a site for the 6-megawatt plant hasn't been finalized.

Carson said American Municipal Power is working with Danville Utilities on the project.

-- Associated Press