Japanese bribes politician found dead

A former Japanese minister convicted of corruption has been found hanged at his home in Tokyo.

The police say they are regarding the death of the man, Yojiro Nakajima, as possible suicide.

Mr Nakajima, who was forty-one, was convicted of accepting nearly fifty-thousand dollars in bribes when he was a defence minister to help a company Fuji Heavy Industries to gain the contract to develop an amphibious search-and-rescue aircraft.

He was sentenced to two years in jail but was awaiting the outcome of an appeal to the Japanese Supreme Court for a suspended sentence.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service