. >> the company has dismissed executive vice president hisashi mori for his involvement in concealing losses from securities investments. the firm was found to have used more than $1.2 billion tver up its losse inst tunt was r appropriate for corporate takeovers. olympus paid consultants an unusually large fee of almt $700 million to assist in the buyout of a british medical equipment maker. the company also purchased three domestic compaes at an inflated price. former ceo michael woodford pointed out the irregularities to the firm's chairman and board. heasudnldiisd st moh. yms entual appoiedhe thd-rtcoite investigate the extraordinary expenditures. olympus has been under pressure >>> olympus president, shuichi takayama, said the company started investing in securities in the 1990s, when people were dealing with the collapse of the country's economic bubble. >> translator: most japanese companies at the time were struggling with stagnant sales and declining profits. they decided to invest in securities to try to improve their bottom lines. it seems our company has been hiding its los

his statement contradicts those of the former vice president hisashi mori and also former auditor hideo yamada, who told the committee that they had informed kikukawa of their accounting manipulations for years. olympus told reporters earlier this month that three former executives, including kikukawa, had been involved in the cover-up. the committee will continue its investigation into the matter to try to unravel the contradicting explanations by the three former executives. >>> a plaj or challenge in areas devastated by the march 11 disaster is how to dispose of the mass of debris. the amount estimated at 22 million tons, the equivalent of ten years of garbage normally produced in those areas. heavy chunks of concrete most difficult to deal with. can't be easily eliminated or recycled. in our weekly segment, the road ahead, we look at construction materials, using a rather unorthodox method. >> this professor from the university specializes in concrete engineering. he is trying to think of ways to use the big concrete chunks in rebuilding efforts. >> it's better to use everything tha

. >> the company has dismissed executive vice president hisashi mori for his involvement in concealing losses from securities investments. olympus president, takayama, says the company started investing in securities in the 1990s. that's when people in japan were dealing with the collapse of the country's bubble economy. >> translator: most japanese companies at the time were struggling with stagnant sales and declining profits. they decided to invest in securities to try to improve their bottom line. it seems our company has been hiding its losses since that time. >> a large number of japanese firms ended up with huge investment losses in the 1990s. olympus is believed to have used shady accounting to cook its books. a former securities company official tells nhk it was no secret. >> the accounting practice involves the sale of money-losing securities to other companies at prices higher than market value. that makes a corporation's books look better than they actually are. it's just window dressing, though. the hidden losses are still there. olympus officials continued to conceal the