Ousted politician Bo Xilai recanted a confession of bribery when prosecutors alleged he used his wife and son to help collect more than €2.9m in illicit funds as he stood trial in China’s biggest political scandal in decades.

The lawyer for the family of a British businessman murdered by the wife of a Chinese politician said some progress has been made in efforts to seek compensation.

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has been expelled from the ruling Communist Party and will face corruption and other criminal charges.

A top Chinese government forensic scientist has questioned the official cause of death of murdered British businessman Neil Heywood.

The ex-police chief at the centre of a seamy political scandal will be sentenced on Monday as Chinese leaders move to dispatch with a messy affair that has upset a tricky transition of power.

The ex-police chief at the centre of China's worst political scandal in decades has gone on trial in a closed hearing involving state secrets.

A former police chief linked to a disgraced leader at the centre of China’s biggest political scandal in decades will stand trial on Tuesday on charges that include defection and bribery.

China sentenced the wife of fallen Politburo member Bo Xilai to death yesterday but suspended her execution — setting the stage for a possible final purge of Bo himself in a scandal that has shaken Beijing ahead of a leadership transition.

The wife of a fallen Chinese politician was given a suspended death sentence today after confessing to killing British businessman Neil Heywood in a case that rocked the country’s political leadership.

Chinese leaders may spare a politician’s wife the death penalty for killing British businessman Neil Heywood, fearing it might incite public sympathy, analysts said today.

A Chinese court will deliver a verdict on Monday in the trial of ousted politician Bo Xilai’s wife, accused of killing a British businessman.

The wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai lured a British businessman to a hotel in Chongqing, where she got him drunk and fed him poison, one of China’s highest-profile murder trials in years heard.

The wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai lured a British businessman to a hotel in the south-western mega-city of Chongqing, where she got him drunk and fed him poison, according to testimony today in one of China’s highest-profile murder trials in years.

The murder trial of the wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai will start next Thursday, lawyers have said.

Chinese prosecutors are charging the wife of former Chinese politician Bo Xilai and a family aide with the murder of a British businessman.

The wife of a senior Communist Party official in China is being held over the murder of a British businessman, state media has reported.