NATO airstrikes hit Gadhafi targets

NATO airstrikes hit Gadhafi targets

AJDABIYA, Libya

NATO launched new airstrikes Wednesday on targets held by Moammar Gadhafi as rebel leaders urged a stronger air campaign that will allow them to advance on Gadhafi’s territory.

Gadhafi’s government, meanwhile, denounced proposals by rebel leaders that they be given some of the regime’s assets that have been frozen as part of international sanctions. “That is financial piracy,” Finance Minister Abdulhafid Zlitni said of such a transfer. In all, about $120 billion in Libyan assets have been frozen, he told a news conference.

Detailing Wednesday’s bombings, a NATO official confirmed a strike on at least one ammunition bunker outside the Libyan capital, Tripoli. He asked that his name not be used because the military alliance was not yet releasing the information publicly.

Chinese national accused in scam

POMONA, Calif.

A Chinese national has appeared in a Los Angeles County court to face charges that he staged an elaborate scam that recruited immigrants into a phony U.S. Army reserve unit with the promise that it was a path to U.S. citizenship.

During his appearance Wednesday in Pomona, 51-year-old Yupeng Deng waived arraignment until May 2, but his lawyer requested a hearing Friday in attempt to lower bail from $500,000 to $160,000.

Prosecutors say Deng recruited other Chinese nationals to join what he called the “U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve unit,” then gave them fake Army uniforms and counterfeit military ID cards while charging hundreds of dollars in fees.

The recruits were instructed to report to Deng’s office in Temple City, which was decorated to look like a military recruiting center.