Janice Johnsen, 52, of Greensboro, North Carolina, said she never felt comfortable keeping the terracotta fragment, but her eldest son's death prompted her to set things right.
"Whenever I looked at it, I'd feel bad about it," she said. "Then, a l
ittle over a year ago, our oldest son was killed suddenly.Since then, we've been struggling with some hard things."
Johnsen returned the artefact by post anonymously, but put her return address on the package.
Janice and her husband Mike were visiting Italy about 25 years ago when Mike picked up the fist-sized fragment of a slab of terracotta near the Colosseum. It then sat on a shelf with the couple's other travel souvenirs.
The archaeological office, which examined the chunk, said that even though it didn't come from the Colosseum "the gesture of returning the piece by the US couple is still important".
UNITED STATESA diner at a restaurant in upstate New York says he was presented with a little unwanted extra with his broccoli – a severed snake head.
Jack Pendleton said he was at the T.G.I. Friday's restaurant in Clifton Park when he spotted something grey mixed in with his vegetables. He realised it was a snake head the size of his thumb, with part of the spine still attached.
Pendleton said he snapped a photo with his mobile phone camera and called the waiter over. He said he has no plans to sue. Pendleton and his girlfriend weren't charged for their meals. A spokeswoman for the Carrollton, Texas, chain said it is investigating.
RUSSIAProsecutors have initiated a criminal investigation into the use of helicopters to hunt endangered goats by senior officials, a case that has revealed the pleasures of Russia's elite. Seven people died in a helicopter crash in January, including Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's personal envoy to parliament and a top regional wildlife protection official.
KENYAKenya's finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta has admitted a typing error could have added an extra £80 million to a supplementary budget.
Independent anti-corruption watchdog Mars Group and some legislators have alleged Kenyatta inflated figures when he sought extra funds last week for the 2008/09 fiscal year.
"Yes, there may be a typing error," Kenyatta said. "I am completely confident and sure that there was no intention on the part of treasury to defraud any Kenyan."
Parliament speaker Kenneth Marende has asked the house committee on finance to investigate the matter.
FRANCETrue to their reputation as leisure-loving gourmets, the French spend more time sleeping and eating than anyone else among the world's wealthy nations, according to a study published last week.
OH, REALLY Here's a warning for second home owners.
Robbers stole an elderly man's entire holiday home, lifting the prefabricated structure off its foundations along with his furniture and other belongings. The man discovered the theft in the Greek coastal area of Rafina when he visited the property for the first time in several weeks. Police believe thieves used a crane to load the structure on to a lorry.
MOVERS & SHAKERSMOLLY THE COW
A cow that escaped from a New York abattoir may have won a new chance to live.
The black heifer bolted and wandered around the Queens district for nearly a mile before police captured her an hour later and took her to an animal centre, where she was nicknamed Molly.
Whether Molly can be placed at a farm sanctuary or must be returned for slaughter depends on whether anyone claims her.
GERONIMO
Descendants of the Apache leader Geronimo are suing to stop another relative from moving the Indian chief's bones from Oklahoma to New Mexico.
A lawyer for the Fort Sill Apache Tribe of Oklahoma says his group and 18 members of the family of a man claiming to be a great-grandson of Geronimo want an order for the remains be undisturbed after Harlyn Geronimo, another alleged great-grandson, sought to move the remains from Fort Sill – where Geronimo died in 1909 – to New Mexico.
HERBERT WEBER
An Austrian carpenter is claiming a world record for building 707,335 coffins over his 30-year career. Herbert Weber said he started making coffins in May 1978 at Moser Holzindustrie, a woodworking company in Bischofshofen.
YURI LUTSENKO
The Ukrainian interior minister was detained by police at Frankfurt airport and prevented from boarding his flight because of drunken and disorderly conduct, police said. Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko ordered an investigation into the incident involving Lutsenko, one of the leading figures in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that swept pro-Western leaders to power.
The average French person sleeps almost nine hours every night, more than an hour longer than the average Japanese and Korean, who sleep the least, according to a survey of 18 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The full article contains 841 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
