BRIEFS

New USC Web site welcomes students

The University of South Carolina has launched a new Web site to offer students information about moving in, getting settled and making a successful transition to campus and college life.

Students and parents will find detailed information on orientation, parking, guidelines for moving into residence halls, directions, campus dining, computer services, health and recreation services and buying textbooks.

The site also includes information about Columbia's hotels, restaurants, shopping and other resources and services. About 7,600 students are expected to move into the university's residence halls Aug. 18-19. Classes begin Aug. 23.

To learn more, see USC Welcome at www.sc.edu/ uscwelcome.

Police investigating robbery, abduction

Police are investigating the armed robbery and brief abduction of a Mount Pleasant man who was robbed at gunpoint in the driveway of his Point Pleasant subdivision home late Thursday.

George Hurst Provosty, 36, had locked his car and was walking toward his front door when a man ran up behind him holding a gun and demanded money.

Provosty had no cash with him so the assailant, who wore a black hooded sweatshirt, gloves and a mask, forced him back into his car.

He made him drive to a local bank and make a cash withdrawal.

They then returned back to Provosty's home, and the assailant fled on foot.

DHEC probing possible rabies

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control is investigating possible rabies exposure from stray kittens found at the South Atlantic Summer Showdown softball tournament held July 13-15 in Spartanburg County.

Anyone who attended the tournament is urged to contact public health officials to help the DHEC determine who might have been exposed to the kittens.

Authorities want to speak to anyone who is at risk, including the person who left a gray kitten in a barrel-type trash can near a playing field dugout at the Boiling Springs complex, said Lena Bretous of DHEC's Bureau of Disease Control.

Anyone who was exposed to a kitten's saliva or who had direct contact with a gray kitten that was passed around in a box, or any other stray kittens in that area, should call their local health department for evaluation. Just petting the kitten is not a risk for rabies.

Restaurant worker reports robbery

An employee at a Market Street restaurant reported being robbed while taking out the trash late Wednesday, Charleston police said.

The 19-year-old employee and a co-worker were near a dumpster at the Noisy Oyster about 11:35 p.m. when two men walked into the trash area and pointed handguns at the 19-year-old, a police report stated. They took the cash he had in his pocket but did not rob the co-worker, the report said.

The robbers ran down North Market Street toward Concord Street, police said.

Inmate gets life for prison stabbing

ST. GEORGE — A prison inmate was sentenced to life Thursday for an attack that seriously wounded another inmate.

Louis Sheppard, 25, who is housed at Lieber Correctional Institute in Ridgeville, was convicted of assault and battery with intent to kill. He was sentenced to life without the possibility for parole by Circuit Judge Diane Goodstein.

Sheppard stabbed the other inmate on Oct. 10, 2005. He already was serving time for assault and battery with intent to kill and armed robbery. He was sentenced under the state's "two strikes" law.