Bo Xilai's wife charged in British businessman's death

In China, a new development in an international murder case that shook the highest levels of the Communist party. Today, the wife of Chinese politician Bo Xilai was charged with the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood.

Bo had been a prominent Communist party official expected to rise to national leadership until his dismissal in March derailed his political career.

Eunice Yoon is in Beijing and told OutFront about the charges brought against Bo's wife.

Wife of controversial Chinese politician charged with murder

Chinese authorities announced murder charges Thursday against the wife of disgraced Communist Party figure Bo Xilai, a new step in a scandal China's ruling hierarchy is scrambling to put behind them.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, is accused of killing British businessman Neil Heywood in November, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Gu and a family aide have been accused of poisoning Heywood, who died in November.

Heywood died in the southwestern Chinese metropolis of Chongqing, where Bo was the Communist Party chief and a rising star in the party - the son of one of the "eight immortals" of the revolution that created modern China. The case has forced the Communist leadership to confront allegations of wrongdoing by a high-ranking member in an unusually public way, said Douglas Paal, a top China analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

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