AROUND THE STATE

Jacksonville family terrorized by ski-masked invaders

Three gunmen tied up a mother and her five children at gunpoint March 6 in their Jacksonville home before kidnapping the father and stuffing him in the trunk of the family’s car. The incident took place when the 17-year-old son returned home after dropping his mother off.

As he walked to the front door, the gunmen wearing ski masks followed him, pointed a gun at his head and forced him to open the door.

The family was tied up and forced on the bedroom floor as the gunmen demanded money. When the father returned home, the gunmen hit him in the head with a pistol and drug him to his car.

The father escaped from the trunk while the car was moving using a safety latch to open the door.

AROUND THE NATION

16 patients test positive for hepatitis in needle scare

More than 2,000 diabetic patients at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, might have been exposed to blood-contracted illnesses after the same insulin needle was used on more than one patient.

Of those 2,000 exposed, 16 have tested positive for hepatitis B or C, Army officials say.

They are looking into injections that were performed from August 2007 to January 2009.

AROUND THE WORLD

Syrian woman to be lashed 40 times, imprisoned

A 75-year-old Syrian woman was sentenced to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the Saudi Arabian kingdom for having two unrelated males in her home.

The problems began this past year when a member of the religious police searched her house and found two males that were unrelated to Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi.

The prevelant doctrine of Islam practiced in the kingdom is known as Wahhabism, which calls for the punishment of unrelated men and women caught mingling.

The feared Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is comprised of several thousand religious policemen charged with duties such as enforcing dress codes, prayer times and segregation of the sexes.

Under Sharia law, women face many restrictions, including a strict dress code, a ban on driving and the need for women to seek the permission of men to travel.

Compiled by James Cannon II and Holli Welch.