In an Oct. 7 story about the disappearance of an Iranian nuclear scientist, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat identified an Iranian who disappeared in Georgia as a second nuclear scientist. Asharq Al-Awsat said the man was believed to be an arms dealer.

Thanks, Justin!

Reuters’ Good, Bad and Ugly blog made note of this.

This article about the community organizing group ACORN incorrectly said that a conservative journalist targeted the organization for hidden-camera videos partly because its voter-registration drives bring Latinos and African Americans to the polls. Although ACORN registers people mostly from those groups, the maker of the videos, James E. O’Keefe, did not specifically mention them.

And this from AP:

In a Sept. 19 story about the community organizing group ACORN, The Associated Press, based on an account in The Washington Post, erroneously quoted a conservative journalist saying he targeted the organization for hidden-camera videos because its voter-registration drives bring minority voters to the polls.

The Washington Post on Tuesday printed a correction about the quote. Although ACORN registers people mostly from those groups, the maker of the videos, James E. O’Keefe, did not specifically mention minorities, the newspaper said.

As was noted on Reuters’ Good, Bad, and Ugly blog, they meant “persistent dry cough.”

Original here.

Thanks, Morgan!

All of Germany was bamboozled Thursday by a bizarre scheme that tricked the country’s main wire service into reporting an attempted suicide bombing in a California town — an attack supposedly perpetrated by a non-existent rap group called the “Berlin Boys.”

The hoax has transfixed this country. It prompted a 1,000-word tome on the website of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s most respected newspaper, and even a press conference denouncing the incident by the DPA – the German wire service responsible for first disseminating the news about the “attack.”

The hoax’s effect was felt thousands of miles away, as a flood of concerned phone calls from Germany jammed the switchboards at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office, which has jurisdiction over the supposed bombing site in California.

“This is frustrating and a waste of our resources,” said office spokesman Arden Wiltshire, who was awakened at 5 a.m. Thursday to try and sort out the crisis. Wiltshire worries that dispatchers could have missed important calls to deal with the Germans.

“We’re sorry for what happened; we, too, were victimized,” said Justus Demmer, a DPA spokesman. “What we have learned today is if there’s someone committed to betray you, it’s very hard to stop it.” …

Thanks, Jon!

BERLIN (Reuters) – Visitors to a tourist attraction in Berlin have been making off with an unusual memento — the 30 cm long penis of a Lego giraffe.

The Lego phallus belongs to a six metre tall model that has stood outside the entrance to the Legoland Discovery Centre on Potsdamer Platz since 2007.

"It’s a popular souvenir," a spokeswoman for the centre said Tuesday. "It’s been stolen four times now …"

The penis is made out of 15,000 Lego bricks. It takes model workers about one week to restore the long-necked animal’s manhood at a cost of 3,000 euros (2,600 pounds), the spokeswoman said.

The centre is now erecting a metal construction to protect the giraffe’s genitalia. (Reporting by Caroline Copley, editing by Tim Pearce)

One problem: the Lego giraffe does not have a penis. People were stealing its tail. Oh dear. Reuters issued this corrected version:

09:23 25Aug09 RTRS-CORRECTED-German Lego giraffe tail repeatedly stolen
 (Correcting to ‘tail’ from ‘penis’)
  BERLIN, Aug 25 (Reuters) – Visitors to a tourist attraction in Berlin have been making off with an unusual memento — the 30 cm long tail of a Lego giraffe.
  The Lego tail belongs to a six metre tall model that has stood outside the entrance to the Legoland Discovery Centre on Potsdamer Platz since 2007.
  "It’s a popular souvenir," a spokeswoman for the centre said on Tuesday. "It’s been stolen four times now …"
  The tail is made out of 15,000 Lego bricks. It takes model workers about one week to restore it at a cost of 3,000 euros ($4,300), the spokeswoman said.

Reuters has published some remarkable typos over the years, including the famous Queen Elizabeth and beef panties incidents. But those were examples of a spellchecker going awry. The penis story uses synonyms for the Lego member, which suggests that this was an error of fact, rather than a slip up. I’ll try and get the details. For now, though, enjoy some screenshots: