Bid-rigging charges

Japan: Japanese Government prosecutors have served new arrest warrants on three Defence Facilities Administration Agency (DFAA) officials.

The officials are charged with rigging bids for construction projects at US military bases in Yamaguchi and Nagasaki, Japan, in 2003.

The three are Takayoshi Kawano, 57, who previously held the third-highest post at the DFAA as technical councillor, his predecessor, Mamoru Ikezawa, 57, and Takashige Matsuda, 53, currently an official in the DFAA's general affairs department.

The warrants came a day after the three were indicted for playing leading roles in rigging bids for tenders on DFAA air-conditioning projects. Other charges include collusion over bids for work at the US naval base in Sasebo, Nagasaki.

Also in Japan, Tokyo's metropolitan government has revoked the license of a contractor at the center of a construction scandal over apartments built using faked earthquake resistance data.

The penalty was imposed on Huser Management Ltd., which has sparked concerns about building standards. Huser's sales subsidiary was also stripped of its license.