BEIJING—A Chinese court sentenced Bo Xilai to life in prison on
Sunday, after finding the once-powerful Communist Party insider
guilty of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.  The outcome
of China's most politically charged trial in more than three
decades was announced by the Intermediate People's Court in the
eastern city of Jinan on its official microblog account after a
brief hearing on Sunday.  Party insiders said the harsh sentence
is certain to have been decided by China's leadership in an
attempt to bring an end to the scandal surrounding Mr. Bo, whose
wife was convicted last year in the 2011 murder of a British
businessman.  The murder triggered China's worst political
crisis since the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989, and
repairing rifts between Mr. Bo's allies and opponents has been
one of the main challenges for China's new leader, Xi Jinping,
in his first year in office.  Until his downfall, Mr. Bo ran the
inland city of Chongqing and was a member of the party's
Politburo—its top 25 offici