Tourist in heated exchange with police

BANGKOK (AFP): An American arrested for refusing to pay his bill at a bar on the resort island of Koh Samui later started a fire at a local police station, authorities said this morning. Robert Alexander Sharkey, 36, was arrested at the bar last night when he refused to pay his food and beverage tab of about 1,000 baht (22 dollars). Sharkey, from New York, was detained and spent the night at a local police station, where he set fire to police documents and damaged a computer this morning. The fire was extinguished by police and there were no injuries. Sharkey was sent to a local hospital for psychiatric examination, the police said.