NATIONAL BRIEFS

WASHINGTON STATE: Acid in face was self-inflicted

A woman who gained sympathy worldwide after she claimed a random assailant threw acid on her face came forward Thursday with a startling admission: She inflicted the attack on herself. Vancouver, Wash., police chief Clifford Cook said Bethany Storro admitted under questioning to fabricating a story about the attack, in which she suffered severe burns. He said he did not know her motive, but she is "very remorseful." He said that "during the course of the investigation, several discrepancies began to emerge regarding the alleged attack," leading police to search her home and interview her. "During the interview, Ms. Storro admitted the injuries were self-inflicted," Cook said.

NEW JERSEY: 53 charged in wide bank fraud ring

Federal authorities say they've broken up a large-scale identity theft and fraud ring that stretches from the insular Korean enclaves of northern New Jersey to U.S. territories in the Pacific. Fifty-three people, many of them Korean immigrants, are charged with helping people fraudulently obtain credit cards, bank accounts and loans using illegally obtained Social Security numbers. The alleged ringleaders are said to have operated a scheme to buy Social Security cards from brokers who obtained them fraudulently from Asian immigrants, mostly Chinese nationals, working in U.S. territories, including Guam, American Samoa and Saipan. The cards were resold to Korean immigrants who used them to apply for U.S. driver's licenses. Several defendants used their identifications to apply for credit cards. Some used all the credit they obtained, buying luxury vehicles and designer bags or liquor, some of it to resell. "The activity in this instance was a virtual crime superstore, with one-stop shopping for a variety of criminal needs," said FBI Special Agent Michael B. Ward in Newark. Forty-seven people were arrested yesterday. One, already in custody, Kang-Hyuk Choi, a Long Islander, faces charges in the May 2008 triple murder of a Korean family in their home in Tenafly. Choi, of Valley Stream, is charged with killing his friend Han-Il Kim, 27, then waiting in Kim's room to kill his mother and uncle. Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said detectives believe Choi and Kim had argued over money from an identity and credit card scheme. The alleged ringleader is Sang-Hyun Park of Palisades Park.

CONNECTICUT: Grim photos shown in triple murder

Jurors saw grim photos Thursday of rope used to tie victims, ripped clothing and ransacked rooms in a suburban home invasion that began with the suspects trailing a mother and her two girls at a supermarket and ended with their deaths. Dr. William Petit, the sole survivor, who was beaten and tied up but escaped before the house was set afire, hung his head as the photos showed burned staircases and hallways and his children's torn and burned clothing. Steven Hayes is one of two men charged with murder, sexual assault and other crimes in the deaths of Jennifer Hawke-Petit and daughters Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11, on July 23, 2007. The photos included melted containers of accelerants said to have been used by Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky to set the fire.