All that glistens isn't gold, smugglers discover

[The Times, 10 September] Three Chinese scrap merchants bought a 274 kg lump of shiny metal for $2000 in Kyrgyzstan and smuggled their "interesting" purchase into China. One of the gang hid it in his father-in-law's home in China's north-western Xinjiang region. "They were surprised at night when the lights went out and the treasure sparkled and glittered, and Wang chipped a piece from it and kept it beside his bed, sometimes playing with it," according to a local media report. One of the men travelled to Beijing with a piece of the metal to have it valued by scientists at Tsinghua University. "To prevent the sample being lost or stolen on the way, Wang used tape to stick the unidentified treasure to his body, and it never left him day or night," said the report. The metal was identified as depleted uranium, the police were called and the men were arrested. However, the men will not face charges as the prosecutor said they were ignorant as to what they had smuggled. The report added that, to date, the men had shown no "physical abnormalities".