Crazy World: Jobless man unearths treasure

Jobless man unearths ancient treasure

SOFIA: A jobless Bulgarian man scraping a living by hunting for scrap metal has uncovered a haul of Bronze Age treasure worth 1.5 million euros (ê2 million).

The 42-year-old discovered the trove of jewellery, coins and tools potentially dating back 4,000 years among the roots of a tree in the northern town of Svichtov.

He initially kept quite about the find but handed it over to authorities after being questioned by police.

Under Bulgaria law such relics are the property of the state.

"This discovery significantly enhances our knowledge of the Bronze Age," archaeologist Pavlina Vladkova told Bulgaria's 24 Hours newspaper.

"During this era gold, silver and copper were already known, but use of bronze allowed the crafting of tools," said the expert from the Veliko Tarnovo province's regional museum.

Two bronze axes, seven pieces of gold jewellery and six golden coins make up the haul discovered earlier this month.

Lost moon rock found in Clinton's files

ARKANSAS: For years, Arkansas historians have searched for a valuable lunar rock from the Apollo 17 mission, one of the moon rocks NASA presented to each state in the 1970s.

While other states also continue to dig for the rocks that came to be known as the Goodwill Moon Rocks, the mystery in Arkansas was solved Wednesday -- sort of -- when an archivist discovered it in former President Bill Clinton's gubernatorial papers.

Still up in the air is how the moon rock got there.

Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, told Reuters the archivist opened a box previously archived as "Arkansas flag plaque." The tiny flag was also sent to space, Roberts said. The rock was inside.

"The moon rock, which is in a plastic container, had fallen off the plaque," Roberts said. "The archivist immediately knew what he had discovered."

Other states such as New Jersey and Alaska have also misplaced their Goodwill rocks, which some experts estimate could be worth millions of dollars.

Some states have found theirs in recent years, including Colorado, where former Governor John Vanderhoof confessed in 2010 he had the rock in his personal collection and agreed to give it back to the state.

Roberts, who worked for Clinton when he was governor, said the moon rock was presented to Governor David Pryor in 1976. He could only speculate about how Clinton ended up with it.

Roberts' theory is that when Clinton became governor in 1978, Pryor left the plaque in the office. When Clinton lost re-election in 1980, everything in his office was packed up and stored.

"Ironically, I moved those papers out," Roberts said. "I'm a historian and I never saw that plaque."

The Butler Center for Arkansas History and Genealogy, which is part of the library system, acquired the Clinton papers in 2004. The papers, photographs and memorabilia are contained in 2,000 boxes.

"We will talk to the Clinton Foundation and the Governor's office and determine where it should be," Roberts said. "It should definitely be in a museum."

Roberts said that the moon rock, which is now in a safe, will be re-attached to the plaque.

Library lifts 1906 ban on Mark Twain book

US: A Mark Twain book with nude illustrations, added to a Massachusetts public library after a century-old ban was lifted, was plucked from the shelf within hours on Thursday.

Trustees of the Charlton Public Library lifted the 1906 ban earlier this week of "Eve's Diary," Twain's satirical version of the Adam and Eve story, said Cheryl Hansen, the library's director.

Two paperback copies were made available at the library in central Massachusetts on Thursday and, within hours, one of them was in a reader's hands, she said.

"I think there'll be a lot of interest in taking it out," Hansen added, saying the unanimous vote to lift the ban came just in time for Banned Books Week, which begins on Saturday.

A library trustee learned about the ban from a local newspaper article and last year tracked down a first edition of the book, which will be on display through next week, she said.

The book, published in 1906, was banned when the library's then-trustees took issue with illustrations by Lester Ralph that showed Eve naked. Adam appears covered up in the pictures, she said.

"They're not what we would consider inflammatory at all, and I'm even surprised they were considered (inflammatory) then," Hansen said.

But the spare illustrations were controversial enough for the library to ban the book, prompting Twain to write dismissively in a letter the following year that "nobody attaches weight to the freaks of the Charlton Library."

Hansen said she bought two paperback copies of the book, which were listed in the library's catalog on Wednesday and put into circulation on Thursday morning.

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