Sony chairman credited with developing CDs dies

TOKYO (AP) -- As a young man, aspiring opera singer Norio Ohga wrote to Sony to complain about the quality of its tape recorders. That move changed the course of his life, as the company promptly recruited the man whose love of music would shape the development of the compact disc and transform the Japanese electronics maker into a global software and entertainment empire.

Sony's president and chairman from 1982 to 1995, Ohga died Saturday in Tokyo of multiple organ failure, the company said. He was 81.

Ohga's connection to music steered his work. The flamboyant music connoisseur insisted the CD be designed at 12 centimeters (4.8 inches) in diameter to hold 75 minutes worth of music - in order to store Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in its entirety.

Afghan banker: 5 percent of Kabul Bank loans paid

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan has stepped up efforts to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent loans made by the embattled Kabul Bank, but so far just 5 percent of the $909 million being sought has been recouped, the nation's top banker said Wednesday.

Afghan officials have been under heavy international pressure to resolve the problems at Kabul Bank, the nation's largest private financial institution, which nearly collapsed last year because of mismanagement and questionable lending practices. Its shareholders once included the brother of President Hamid Karzai.