China: Official fired for drunkenly grabbing girl

A Communist Party official in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen has been fired for accosting a young girl while drunk, state media said Tuesday. Lin Jiaxiang, the Communist Party secretary of the city's marine affairs bureau, is accused of grabbing an 11-year-old girl by the throat and trying to force her into the men's toilet of a restaurant, the China Daily newspaper said. He had asked the girl for directions to the toilet, it said. When the parents complained, Lin shouted that he had been sent from the Ministry of Transport, the paper said. He also offered to pay them.