. >> woodford's brief successor as ceo, tsuyoshi kikukawa and two other figures did not go to friday's meeting. they resigned from the board of directors on thursday.y. is sus a hand in the losses. they inflated the purchase prices on acquisitions among other thing. current ceo takayama is dismissing the suggestion that the board resign and be replaced by a new management team. he doubts that would help olympus overcome the crisis. woodford, though, is standing firm. >> there is also an understanding that these people cannot continue as directors and that there will come a point, hopefully in the near future, that they will stand down, allowing olympus to move forward. >> woodford suggested the company's strong endoscope and camera businesses will help it survive. right now, it's facing the possibility of being delisted from the tokyo stock exchange. >> olympus is a fantastic business. it's a fantastic business. it's got strong cash flows. and if we stop doing all the mickey mouse and nonsense, get that out of the way, focused on our life science business, if the banks are supportive,

is happened in 20 whe former president tsuyoshi kikukawa took office. they expect cue ckikukawa and t others were illegally involved in the practice. a third panel party including an attorney plans to interview those who were involved in the illegal practice and file a report by the end of the month. the olympus president in the mid1990s spoke to nhk on wednesday. olympus is now suspected of having started covering up losses around 2000. he was the company's chairman through 2001, but said he does not recall such a practice. >> translator: i never imagined anything like this would happen. so i'm very surprised and disappointed. i feel sorry for the employees. he has this to say about the former president kikukawa who is said to be involved in the wrongdoing. >> president kikukawa was eloquent. he was active and he was good at business. i think he was a good president. but he may have gone too far in some areas. >> and the tokyo stock exchange on wednesday, there was a rush of sell orders for olympus, pushing the share price down to the 20% daily limit.

. >> woodford's brief successor as ceo, tsuyoshi kikukawa and two other figures did not go to friday's meeting. they resigned from the board of directors on thursday. the trio is suspected of having a hand in the cover-up they inflated the purchase prices on acquisitions among other thing. current ceo takayama is dismissing the suggestion that the board resign and be replaced by a new management team. he doubts that would help olympus overcome the crisis. woodford, though, is standing firm. >> there is also an understanding that these people cannot continue as directors and that there will come a point, hopefully in the near future, that they will stand down, allowing olympus to move forward. >> woodford suggested the company's strong endoscope and camera businesses will help it survive. right now, it's facing the possibility of being delisted from the tokyo stock exchange. >> olympus is a fantastic business. it's a fantastic business. it's got strong cash flows. and if we stop doing all the mickey mouse and nonsense, get that out of the way, focused on our life science business, if th

former president tsuyoshi kikukawa told the company's third-party investigation committee that he learned about the cover-up just before the company announced it in a news conference on november 8th. 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 metho

olympus announced thursday the resignation of former president tsuyoshi kikukawa together with two other executives. they were allegedly involved in the cover-up of investment losses. >>> now the latest of business news. developments in europe making headlines this morning. >> that's right. this morning, we are hearing from europe's two biggest economies. the leaders of france and germany reaffirmed support for italy's fiscal rehabilitation efforts. french president nicolas sarkozy and the german chancellor met with the italian prime minister monti thursday. the gathering held in france. after the meeting he promised sarkozy and myrrh can he italy will balance the budget by 2013 and carry out structural reforms. they unveiled a plan to modify eu treat east within a few days. changes will further integrate fiscal policies in euro's own countries and tighten budgetary discipline. >> and bond yields stayed high. investors began to sell government bonds of those countries after portugal's sovereign debt rating was downgraded below investment grade. italy's ten year yield rose to 10.7%. it wi

this happened in 2001 when former president tsuyoshi kikukawa took office. securities and exchange surveillance commission suspects kikukawa and two other former executives of olympus were deeply involved in the illegal practice. a third-party panel including an attorney plans to interview those involved in the illegal practice and file a report by the end of the month. toshiro shimoyama, who was olympus president until the mid-1990s, spoke to nhk on wednesday. shimoyama was also the company's chairman through 2001 but said he doesn't recall such a practice. >> translator: i never imagined anything like this would happen. so i'm very surprised and disappointed. i feel sorry for the employees. >> meanwhile, he has this to say about former president kikukawa, who's said to be involved in the wrongdoing. >> translator: president kikukawa was eloquent. he was active. and he was good at business. i think he was a good president. but he may have gone too far in some areas. >> on the tokyo stock exchange on wednesday there was a rush of sell orders for olympus push