Chinese court upholds life sentence of Bo Xilai

A Chinese court Friday turned down Bo Xilai's appeal, upholding the disgraced senior Communist Party official's life sentence for bribery and embezzlement. The China Daily, in a brief report, said a high court in the same eastern Shangdong province where Bo's trial was held in September, rejected his appeal and "upheld his life sentence for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power." Bo, a former Chongqing Communist Party leader, a former member of the powerful Politburo and a rising star in the party hierarchy, was convicted of the three charges in September by a people's court in Shandong's Jinan city. The 64-year-old party leader also was deprived of political rights for life and all his private assets were ordered confiscated. He had been accused of taking bribes of about $3.34 million either personally and through his wife Gu Kailai. The wife was separately convicted of murdering a British businessman in November 2011 and sentenced to long prison terms. Bo had vigorously denied the charges against him during his trial. Bo's case had become one more for China's new leadership led by President Xi Jinping, which has vowed to severely crack down on widespread official corruption.