AIR FRANCE: OUT OF GAS? ASK PASSENGERS TO PITCH IN: PARIS (AP) — An emergency layover in Syria's capital was bad enough. Then passengers on Air France Flight 562 were asked to open their wallets to check if they had enough cash to pay for more fuel.
The plane, heading from Paris to Lebanon's capital, diverted amid tensions near the Beirut airport on Wednesday. Low on fuel, it instead landed in Damascus, the capital of neighboring Syria, where a civil war is raging.
An Air France spokesman explained Friday that the crew inquired about passenger cash only as a "precautionary measure" because of the "very unusual circumstances." Sanctions against Syria complicated payment for extra fuel.
He said Air France found a way to pay for the fill-up without tapping customer pockets, and apologized for the inconvenience. He wouldn't say how the airline paid, or how much.
One woman aboard said the passengers had rounded up 17,000 euros.
MASS. MAN GETS 'WRONG' LOTTERY TICKET, WINS $1M: BRAINTREE, Mass. (AP) — When a store clerk gave a Massachusetts man a different kind of scratch-off lottery ticket than he asked for, he didn't make a big deal about the mistake; he said he just "rolled with it."
It was a good decision: He won $1 million.
Richard Brown of Taunton said he went into Gulf Taunton recently and asked for a $5 "Blue Ice 7s" ticket, but the clerk was distracted and instead gave him a "Sizzlin 7s" ticket.
Brown selected the cash option on the prize and received a one-time lump sum payment of about $430,000 after taxes. He plans to use the money for a new roof on his home and to take a trip to San Francisco.
The store gets a $10,000 commission.
CONN. TOWN SETTLES DISPUTE OVER GIRL'S PET BUNNY: NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Officials in a Connecticut town have settled a zoning dispute over a local girl's 20-pound pet bunny after receiving calls and emails from across the country demanding that the rabbit be allowed to stay.
North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda said Friday that the town will allow 7-year-old Kayden Lidsky and her family to keep the Flemish giant named Sandy and change the zoning rule that led to a cease-and-desist order three weeks ago. The rule bars anyone from keeping rabbits and other livestock on properties smaller than 2 acres.
The town's zoning enforcement officer issued the cease-and-desist order while investigating a neighbor's blight complaint against the Lidsky family, whose property is less than 2 acres.
The ordinance was put in place about 50 years ago when North Haven was a large farming community, and it was designed to prevent people from raising and selling rabbits and other livestock on less than 2 acres in competition with farmers, Freda said.
