Briefly

CSU Air Force ROTC wins national honor

Air Force ROTC Detachment 772 at Charleston Southern University has been named the 2007 Right of Line Award winner for being the best small AFROTC detachment nationwide.

It beat 59 other small detachments to land the award.

Lt. Col. Mark Trudeau, detachment commander, presented the award during a leadership laboratory class Tuesday. Cadet Wing Commander Eve O'Conner-Ebert accepted the honor on behalf of the detachment. O'Conner-Ebert is a senior with prior military experience who is slated to graduate and receive her commission in December.

Masked man walks up, shoots man on porch

A young man was shot Thursday night on the porch of a home in the Chicora-Cherokee community in North Charleston.

The man was on the porch on Leland Street with several other people about 7:40 p.m. A masked gunman walked up to the house and shot the victim in the thigh, while the others on the porch ran away, said Spencer Pryor, police public information officer. Police made no arrests and had not identified a suspect, Pryor said. The condition of the victim, who was taken to Medical University Hospital, was unknown.

Hinson found guilty of gun charge

FLORENCE — A federal jury took just five minutes Thursday to find a man guilty of a gun charge filed after he was found not guilty earlier this year of raping two teen girls in an underground bunker he built.

Kenneth Hinson, 49, faces 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in the next few months on one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Hinson served nine years in prison after a 1991 felony conviction for the rape of a 12-year-old girl.

The gun charge trial lasted less than a day and included a number of lawmen saying that when he was arrested after a four-day manhunt in August 2006, Hinson told them he always carried a gun, the (Florence) Morning News reported.

Hunger-fighting projects get grants

LOS ANGELES — MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger will provide grants totaling $25,000 to two hunger relief organizations in South Carolina.

A $15,000 grant to the Lowcountry Food Bank in Charleston will help fund the distribution of million of pounds of food each year for a 10-county service area. A $10,000 grant to South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center in Columbia will support efforts to make the food stamp program more widely accessible.

MAZON, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1985 and raises funds from the Jewish community to prevent hunger for people of all faiths and backgrounds. For more information, visit www.mazon.org.

Fundraiser held for persecuted Christians

Organizers from Remember Inc., a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting Christians oppressed and martyred for their faith, hosted a banquet fundraiser Thursday at Trident Technical College.

The dinner featured two special guests: Brother Yagoub Hamouda, a Sudanese Christian who was caught in the crossfire of that country's civil war, and Mary Samaan, a schoolteacher from Iraq, according to Remember Inc. Executive Director Gabe Waddell.

Samaan, who lived in Baghdad when Saddam Hussein was in power, agreed to join the ruling Baath party only if she could freely speak of Jesus Christ. Samaan's Christian husband, an oil company worker, was abducted by government officials and dropped into a vat of acid, Waddell said.

Remember Inc. arranges regular missions, including one to Burma in support of an orphanage and two imminent trips to Turkey and Iraq.

The banquet was meant to draw attention to religious persecution, Waddell said. All operating costs are covered by the Bostic Law Firm. Curtis Bostic is Remember Inc.'s founder and chairman of the board. He also serves on Charleston County Council. All donations received by the nonprofit go to help persecuted Christians, Waddell said.

For more information, visit www.rememberthose.org.