VIRGINIA BRIEFING

ALEXANDRIA

Folk Artist From Ethiopia Wins National Prize

An Alexandria man is among 11 folk artists set to receive one of the nation's most prestigious national heritage awards.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced yesterday that Moges Seyoum, an expert in Ethiopian Christian liturgical singing, chanting and sacred dance, would be a recipient of a 2008 National Heritage Fellowship, which includes a one-time award of $20,000.

Other honorees include a saddlemaker from Idaho and a maker of Peruvian altar boxes from Utah. Seyoum, who emigrated from Ethiopia in 1982, leads the performance of the musical liturgy on Sundays at Selam Kidist Mariam Church in the District.

-- Sandhya Somashekhar

FAIRFAX COUNTY CRIME

Pointing of Fake Pistol Produces Felony Charge

An 18-year-old Annandale man was arrested Tuesday after pointing a fake plastic gun at two high school students as they walked home, Fairfax County police said.

The students were walking near Allman Drive and McWhorter Place in Annandale about 2:30 p.m. when they saw some people arguing and asked whether they could help. One of the men in the argument went to his car, retrieved what appeared to be a black pistol and pointed it at the students as he followed them, police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said. The boys fled to a nearby elementary school and reported the incident.

Police investigated and later arrested Andrew Lin of the 7600 block of Roanoke Avenue and seized two plastic pistol replicas. He was charged with brandishing a weapon within 1,000 feet of a school, a felony. State law allows the charge even though the gun was not real if it is "similar in appearance" and is used "to reasonably induce fear in the mind of another," Caldwell said.