Disgraced party secretary Bo Xilai has been charged with numerous crimes related to the death of British businessman Neil Heywood, and has been dismissed from the Chinese Communist Party for his actions. State media service Xinhua says Bo has been accused of taking "massive bribes", engaging in sexual relations with numerous women and is "culpable for error" in the death of Heywood, a UK citizen who was doing businesses with Bo's family in Chongqing, the city where Bo was the head of the local communist party.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, has already been convicted of murder in the poisoning death of Heywood, and the former police chief of Chongqing, Wang Lijun, was also given 15 years in jail for his role in the crime. 

In addition, the Party finally announced that its next Congress will be held on November 8. That is when current President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao will step down from their posts, and new leaders will be chosen. Despite a mysterious disappearance from the public eye earlier this month, current Vice President Xi Jinping is expected to take over as China's next president. Bo was a rising power in the Party had might been expected to receive a new, more powerful position at the next Congress, until Wang fled to the U.S. embassy in February and exposed the crimes of Bo and his wife.

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Dashiell Bennett