Wednesday, May 14, 2008

5 company officials held in Japan over arms scandal

TOKYO -- Five Japanese company officials were arrested on Tuesday for alleged fraud in a widening scandal over a government project to remove chemical weapons abandoned in China at the end of World War II. The five from consulting firm Pacific Consultants International and its affiliate, Abandoned Chemical Weapons Disposal Corp., are accused of swindling about 140 million yen (US$1.1 million, euro710,000) from the Japanese government, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor Office said in a statement.

Relations between Beijing and Tokyo are sensitive because of Japan's invasion and brutal occupation of much of China in the 1930s and '40s. Japan is required to clean up its abandoned weapons under a 1997 international chemical weapons convention.