■ UNITED STATES
Taxi driver stiffed on fare
A taxi driver told police he was stiffed on a US$8,200 cross-country fare by a woman he shuttled roughly 4,200km from Beverly Hills, California, to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The meter in Levon Mikayelyan's taxi cab hit the staggering fare after a journey that ended at a Holiday Inn. Mikayelyan said the rider's family paid him only US$800, Chapel Hill police spokeswoman Jane Cousins said on Friday. "We do get reports of people who are not able to pay cab drivers, but certainly not with this amount," Cousins said. Authorities and the cab company did not release the woman's name and it was unclear why she chose to take a taxi instead of another means of transportation.
■ UNITED STATES
Astronaut to run marathon
An astronaut who was determined not to lose her place in the Boston marathon will run this month's race in space and circle the world twice before the winner crosses the finish line. Sunita Williams will be tethered to a treadmill aboard the international space station 338km above Earth when the starting gun fires on April 16. At an orbiting speed of 28,164kph, she will travel the race distance of 42km 5.4 seconds. Williams, 41, an American astronaut who joined the space station crew in December, qualified for the race by finishing last year's Houston marathon in 3 hours, 29 minutes and 57 seconds.
■ UNITED STATES
Gin and tonic bandit nabbed
A scofflaw who came to be known as the gin and tonic bandit went to the same restaurant every Wednesday for a month, ordered two drinks and a rib-eye steak, then skipped out on his US$25.96 bill. His dining, drinking and dashing days might be over. Police arrested Douglas Samulak, 56, of Nashville, Tennessee, on preliminary charges of theft and resisting law enforcement. He was jailed on a US$2,000 bond. Each Wednesday night for four weeks running, the same man had come into the same O'Charley's restaurant and ordered the two drinks and the steak, restaurant manager Teresa Tolbert told police.
■ UNITED STATES
Tornadoes wreak havoc
Another wave of storms swept through Texas and Oklahoma, spawning at least three tornadoes in central Texas, dumping rain into swollen creeks and rivers and forcing an evacuation at an assisted living center. The storms on Friday came just days after dozens of tornadoes swept from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the central Plains, killing at least four people in three states. As the slow-moving thunderstorms moved into Oklahoma, more than 80mm of rain fell. Authorities issued flash flood warnings in 10 counties in the southern and central parts of the state. In central Texas, tornadoes damaged an indoor rodeo arena and yanked down power lines.
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