Obama was briefed immediately about death of British ex-pat Neil Heywood, whose 'killer may have had a plane blown out of the sky'
US President Barack Obama was told of the alleged murder of British businessman Neil Heywood before foreign secretary William Hague.
The president was briefed about the 41-year-old's suspected poisoning within hours of Chinese police chief Wang Lijun walking into a US consulate to tell officials he was murdered.
The decision to inform the President so soon after the killing of a British citizen overseas so soon after it happened was described as 'almost unprecedented'.
John Tkacik, who worked for the US state department in China for 20 years told The Sunday Telegraph: 'This was a very high official with extraordinary intelligence.
'In all of my experience I can't recall its equal.'
Mr Heywood's former business partner and powerful lawyer Gu Kailai - wife of rising Communist leader Bo Xilai - is suspected of ordering his murder and is under arrest.
Last night it was claimed that the couple ordered a plane to be blown out of the sky in a bid to kill a rival politician's wife.
China Northern Airlines flight 6136 crashed into the sea by the port city of Dalian, where Bo was mayor, in May 2002.
The disaster killed 112 - including Li Yanfeng, wife of Han Xiaoguang, a wealthy hotelier and ally of Bo's political opponents.
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