Chinese politician Bo Xilai, once a rising star, has been stripped of his elite Communist Party post while his wife is being investigated for the murder of a British national, state media said.Xinhua first issued a short dispatch late Tuesday announcing Bo had been suspended from the party's powerful 25-member Politburo and from the wider Central Committee, which consists of more than 300 top officials.
The report said "Comrade Bo Xilai" was suspected of being involved in "serious discipline violations", which in China usually refers to corruption, but gave no details.
Bo was one of China's most high-profile politicians and a rising star in the party until he was sacked last month as party chief of the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing.
The 62-year-old's troubles started in February when Wang Lijun, his former police chief, fled to a US consulate and reportedly asked for asylum.
The scandal remained shrouded in mystery until news emerged late last month that London had asked China to reinvestigate the death of a British national in Chongqing in November amid rumours it might be linked to Bo's family.
On Tuesday, in a second brief dispatch, Xinhua said police had reopened a probe into the death of Neil Heywood after finding evidence Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, may have been involved in his murder.
Gu has been "transferred to judicial authorities for the suspected crime of intentional homicide" of Heywood, the report said, adding Wang made allegations about the death of the British businessman when he visited the US consulate.