Taiwanese police are recommending charges against eight officials in an alleged bribery scandal involving $220m of contracts granted to L M Ericsson Telefon AB, Reuter reports from Taipei: four middle-ranking officials of the Directorate General of Telecommunications were detained late on Wednesday on suspicion of forgery and illegally granting favours and four others were questioned and then released on bail; police are investigating allegations by an opposition politician that ruling Nationalist Party deputies and other people took big kickbacks from contracts awarded to Ericsson by the government; he declined to comment on whether Ericsson itself was suspected of paying the kickbacks, but the Swedish company has denied wrongdoing.
