Beijing Olympic Official Sacked Over Corruption

Beijing's preparations for the 2008 Olympics have been hit by a high-level corruption scandal that has led to the dismissal of a vice-mayor accused of accepting bribes and sexual favours.

Liu Zhihua, who oversaw the construction of the sporting venues that will be used for the games, is under investigation for allegedly taking more than 10m yuan (£670,000) from developers, according to Hong Kong's Oriental Daily.

Few details about the case have been released on the mainland, but the state-run Xinhua news agency reported at the weekend that the standing committee of the Beijing municipal people's congress removed Mr Liu, who has been a vice-mayor since 1998, for "corruption and dissoluteness".

The case raises questions about the possible misuse of the $40bn (about £22bn) budget that Beijing has allocated for stadiums, roads, bridges and other public works. Swaths of traditional hutong alleyways have been demolished in the rush to modernise the city. The construction boom is expected to peak this year, when the municipal government will undertake 44 big infrastructure projects, including the "bird's nest" Olympic stadium in the north of the city.

Auditors discovered irregularities in the spending, which was supposed to have been supervised by Mr Liu's commission, the Oriental Daily noted. If found guilty of graft, he could face the death penalty.

A Beijing government spokesman played down the connection between Mr Liu and the Olympics, saying the vice-mayor lost his job mainly because of his "decadent" lifestyle