Prosecutors in China have charged disgraced politician Bo Xilai with bribery, corruption, and abuse of power, according to the state-run news agency Xinhua.

Bo Xilai is the former Communist Party chief of the western city of Chongqing, and a member of the Pilotburo.  Some observers believed he was in a position to possibly become president.  But that was before he was expelled from the party after a scandal surrounding the murder of Neil Heywood, a British businessman close to the Bo family.

His wife Gu Kailai convicted in August of Mr. Heywood's murder and given a suspended death sentence, which in China is usually commuted to life in prison.

The scandal was one of the biggest to rock China in years.