Wife of China’s Bo Xilai goes on trial for murder

CHINA: The wife of disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai went on trial Thursday accused of murdering a British businessman in a case that has rocked the Communist party as it gears up for a leadership change.

Gu Kailai is all but certain to be found guilty in the trial, which analysts say is an attempt to draw a line under a scandal that has brought down her husband and exposed deep divisions among China's leaders.

State news agency Xinhua has said there is “irrefutable and substantial” evidence that she along with family aide and codefendant Zhang Xiaojun poisoned Neil Heywood, a Briton who was found dead in the southwestern city of Chongqing.

In a sign of the huge sensitivity of the case, no foreign media have been allowed into the Hefei Intermediate Court in eastern China where Gu is being tried.

AFP