Peruvian soldiers arrested over killing of tourists

Police in Peru have arrested at least eleven more soldiers suspected of robbing and hacking to death two Japanese students who disappeared during an expedition on the Amazon river two months ago.

The authorities say the detentions bring to fourteen the number of servicemen held in connection with the murder of the students Chiaki Ito and Takahiro Miyashita from Waseda University in Japan.

They are reported to have been attacked four hundred kilometres south of Iquitos after leaving the town on a simple wooden raft.

The Japanese Prime Minister, Ryutaro Hasimoto, is reported as saying it was outrageous if the allegations against the soldiers were true.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service