DAMASCUS, Ark. -- Smoke rose from burning heaps of wreckage Saturday as residents of rural Arkansas cleaned up what was left of their homes after deadly tornadoes scoured a state that has been plagued by severe weather this year.

"God's hand was down and held us there while the rest of the house just blew away," said Massey, 54. "That's all there was to it. The Lord held us there."

The storms killed seven people, damaged or destroyed about 400 homes, and knocked out electrical and telephone service for thousands of customers in 18 counties.

Altogether, meteorologists said more than 25 tornadoes may have touched down across middle America late Thursday and early Friday, but Arkansas was the hardest hit.

REDWOOD, Miss. -- A county sheriff says an explosion at a paper mill has killed two people and left nearly a dozen missing.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace confirmed the deaths Saturday at the International Paper mill in Redwood.

He told WJTV in Jackson that nearly a dozen people are missing and nearly 20 others are injured. The mill employs about 300 people in and around Warren County.

NEW YORK -- Police say a patrol horse found his own way back through Manhattan streets to his stable after throwing his rider.

The officer was treated for minor injuries after traffic noise spooked Aldo on Friday. The 8-year-old took off about eight blocks to the stable.

New York police spokesman Paul Browne says the horse "knows his turf."

Aldo suffered a few small cuts. The 21-year police veteran riding him had some injuries to his neck and shoulder.

Aldo has been a police horse for about a year.

ZION, Ill. -- Steve Kreuscher wants a judge to allow him to legally change his name. He wants to be known as "In God We Trust."

Kreuscher says the name would symbolize the help God gave him through tough times.

The 57-year-old man also told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald he's worried that atheists may succeed in removing the phrase "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency.

He recalls that the phrase "God Reigns" was removed from the Zion city seal in 1992 after courts deemed it unconstitutional. Zion was founded as a theocracy -- by a sect that believed the Earth was flat.

The school bus driver and amateur artist in the northern Chicago suburb says he has filed a petition to change his name in Lake County Circuit Court.

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Federal authorities arrested a man accused of running an investment scheme that netted more than $25 million by targeting Christian investors nationwide.

Jon G. Ervin, 61, of Mission Viejo, was arrested Friday on a charge of wire fraud. He later appeared in federal court, where he was ordered held on $1 million bail.

Ervin's public defender, Leon Peterson, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Ervin was named Thursday in a criminal complaint filed in federal court. The same day, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed lawsuits against Ervin and his company, Safevest LLC, and obtained federal orders freezing their assets.

According to the criminal complaint, Ervin used Safevest to persuade victims to invest in a fake commodity futures trading program. Investors were told Safevest would use no more than 13 percent of their deposit in hundreds of commodity trades a day on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with a guarantee of up to 1 percent in returns each day.

Investors could check their returns on a password-protected Web site that was run exclusively by Ervin. The program attracted about 550 investors, officials said.

Authorities allege that Ervin didn't invest any of the money in commodities trading and instead spent $1 million to invest in a Georgia golf course. He also bought a sport utility vehicle and spent lavishly on air travel, gourmet meals and shopping, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Up to 80 percent of investors were churchgoing Christians, and many joined the program after being approached by fellow worshippers through a referral system, according to court papers.