Talk about whisky on ice: Three bottles of rare, 19th century Scotch found beneath the floor boards of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackelton’s abandoned expedition base were returned to the polar continent Saturday after a distiller flew them to Scotland to recreate the long-lost recipe.

But not even New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, who personally returned the stash, got a taste of the contents of the bottles of Mackinlay’s whisky, which were rediscovered 102 years after the explorer was forced to leave them behind.

“I think we’re all tempted to crack it open and have a little drink ourselves now,” Key joked at a ceremony handing over the bottles to Antarctic Heritage Trust officials at New Zealand’s Antarctic base on Ross Island.

The whisky will be transferred by March from Ross Island to Shackelton’s desolate hut at Cape Royds and replaced beneath the restored hut as part of a program to protect the legacy of the so-called heroic era of Antarctic exploration from 1898 to 1915.

Bottled in 1898 after the blend was aged 15 years, the Mackinlay bottles were among three crates of Scotch and two of brandy buried beneath a basic hut Shackleton had used during his dramatic 1907 Nimrod excursion to the Antarctic. The expedition failed to reach the South Pole but set a record at the time for reaching the farthest southern latitude. Shackelton was knighted after his return to Great Britain.

Shackelton’s stash was discovered frozen in ice by conservationists in 2010. The crates were frozen solid after more than a century beneath the Antarctic surface.

But the bottles were found intact — and researchers could hear the whisky sloshing around inside. Antarctica’s minus 22 Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius) temperature was not enough to freeze the liquor.

The bottles remained unopened as they were returned Saturday — if Shackelton couldn’t have a dram, no one could — but their contents nevertheless formed the basis for a revival of the blend.

Distiller Whyte & Mackay, which now owns the Mackinlay brand, chartered a private jet to take the bottles from the Antarctic operations headquarters in the New Zealand city of Christchurch to Scotland for analysis in 2011.

The recipe for the whisky had been lost. But Whyte & Mackay recreated a limited edition of 50,000 bottles from a sample drawn with a syringe through a cork of one of the bottles. The conservation work of the Antarctic Heritage Trust has received 5 British pounds for every bottle sold.

The original bottles had flown in two combination-locked containers with Key to Antarctica in a U.S. Air Force transport plane from Christchurch on Friday.

Antarctic Heritage Trust manager Lizzie Meek, who was part of the team that found the whisky, recalled its pleasant aroma.

“When you’re used to working around things in that hut that perhaps are quite decayed and some of them don’t have very nice smells, it’s very nice to work with artifacts that have such a lovely aroma,” Meek told the ceremony by radio from explorer Robert Scott’s Antarctic hut which she is restoring.

“And definitely the aroma of whisky was around very strongly.”

President Barack Obama wants Americans to take time out and volunteer for community service projects to give back to others.

Obama is highlighting a National Day of Service and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Saturday, the beginning of a whirlwind weekend of inaugural events marking the end of his first term and start of his second.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama stained a bookshelf at Burrville Elementary School in D.C. They were joined by about 500 volunteers for the school makeover project.

Obama praised the volunteers, from adults to children, for understanding the importance of giving back.

Omaha police say they have arrested two men charged with felony murder in connection with the Dec. 2 death of two men found inside an auto body business.

In custody are 39-year-old Terrell Newman and 36-year-old Derrick Stricklin.

A police statement says they were arrested Friday by the Metro Fugitive Task Force after warrants were issued for their arrest.

Police provide no additional details saying their investigation is continuing.

Online court records show both men have Omaha addresses. They are charged with murder and use of a firearm to commit a felony in warrants issued Friday.

Records do not list attorneys for them.

Earlier police had identified 40-year-old Bernardo Noriega and 47-year-old Carlos Morales as the victims of a homicide. They were found inside Morales’ Genuine Auto Body business.

 

A Lincoln man has asked a judge to bar prosecutors from trying him for a third time on a sexual assault charge after the case twice ended in a mistrial.

The Lincoln Journal-Star reports Lamar Neal’s first trial ended after the prosecutor asked questions of his 16-year-old accuser that revealed information previously undisclosed and criminal conduct for which Neal was not charged.

Two days later, Judge Steven Burns again declared a mistrial, finding prosecutors had not disclosed evidence to the defense.

Neal’s attorney alleges prosecutors deliberately disregarded court orders and seeks to halt prosecution. A hearing is set for next week.

A third trial has been set for February.

A year ago, a girl told Lincoln police Neal forced her to have sex. Police arrested him in April.

Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman has unveiled two proposed tax reform measures that would eliminate or reduce state income taxes.

The larger plan unveiled Friday would eliminate the state’s income tax on corporations and individuals, while getting rid of $2.4 billion in sales tax breaks that Nebraska currently allows.

The second bill would eliminate corporate income taxes and provide an exemption for retirement income. Married couples would receive an exemption for the first $12,000 they earn, while single filers would see a $6,000 exemption. That proposal would end $395 million in exemptions.

Many exemptions targeted in one bill are preserved in the other. Heineman says he wants a public conversation about which specific exemptions to cut.

The bills are sponsored by state Sens. Beau McCoy and Brad Ashford, both of Omaha.

The Nebraska Department of Labor says the state’s unemployment rate remained unchanged in December, matching the 3.7 percent in November.

The department report issued Friday says the rate was 4.2 percent in December 2011.

Labor Commissioner Catherine Lang attributes the consistently low rate to the state’s stable and diverse economy.

The state’s December rate was less than half the national rate of 7.8 percent in December.